Chapter 6
Vivian recovered quickly.
She shook her head as tears filled her eyes.
“I do not know. My assistant took the key card. That had nothing to do with me.”
“Claire might have paid her.”
Julian looked at the hotel manager.
“Bring her here.”
A few minutes later, Vivian’s assistant was escorted into the ballroom.
Her face was pale, and she would not look up.
Vivian walked straight toward her.
“Why did you take that key card?”
“Did Claire tell you to do it?”
The assistant opened her mouth but could not answer.
Julian placed the key card records in front of her.
“You signed out the master key card before the party.”
“Thirty minutes later, you entered the concierge storage area and handled Claire’s camera bag.”
“The hotel recorded both actions.”
The assistant began to shake.
One of the police officers took her phone.
They quickly found several payments.
The recipients were the two men who had been inside the guest room.
The police also recovered several messages that had not been fully deleted.
“Make her dress look damaged.”
“Leave as soon as you hear someone coming.”
“Do not actually touch her.”
The ballroom fell completely silent.
Adrian slowly removed his hand from Vivian’s arm.
She stumbled.
Her assistant finally broke down.
“Vivian told me to do it.”
“She told me to take the key card and put the pills in Claire’s bag.”
Vivian’s expression changed.
“What are you talking about?”
The assistant shook her head and cried.
“She also told me to hire those two men.”
“They were only supposed to help stage the scene. They did not touch her.”
“She told me to send the threatening messages from Claire’s old work number.”
The police continued searching the phone.
They soon found a picture of the gift box Adrian had thrown in front of me.
It contained the same red lingerie.
The assistant lowered her voice.
“Before the engagement party, Vivian told me to leave the box in the private lounge.”
“She said Adrian needed to believe Claire was still trying to seduce him.”
“Then, when something happened to Vivian, everyone would believe Claire had acted out of jealousy.”
Every piece of evidence now connected.
The attempt to seduce Adrian.
The drugs.
The staged assault.
Vivian had planned all of it.
My mother stared at her in disbelief.
“Vivian, why would you do this?”
Vivian glared at me.
The weak and gentle expression she always wore was gone.
“Because she has not moved on!”
She pointed at me.
“She says she does not love Adrian anymore, but then she quits her job, goes on a date, and starts seeing Julian.”
“Every single thing she has done is meant to get Adrian’s attention.”
“And when Adrian had trouble at work, she was still the first person he contacted.”
“As long as Claire is here, he will never completely forget her.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“What does any of that have to do with Claire?”
Vivian suddenly laughed, but tears continued to fall down her face.
“You really think it has nothing to do with her?”
“After my parents died and the Bennetts took me in, you always protected me.”
“Then you fell in love with me, and everyone knew it.”
“But I went abroad for five years.”
“Claire stayed beside you and became the person who understood you better than anyone.”
She stared directly at Adrian.
“Why were you angry when she agreed to go on that date?”
“Why did you refuse to believe she had a boyfriend?”
“Why did you keep staring when Julian held her?”
Adrian’s face turned cold.
“That is enough.”
Vivian did not stop.
“You did not believe Claire was guilty.”
“You simply refused to admit that she had truly stopped loving you.”
“I told you to stop.”
Adrian shoved her away.
Vivian stumbled several steps backward.
She looked at him in shock.
“Adrian, we got engaged today.”
“The engagement is over,” he said coldly.
“From this moment on, there is nothing between us.”
Vivian panicked.
“You said you would take responsibility for me.”
“You cannot do this.”
Adrian did not look at her again.
The police separated Vivian and her assistant from the guests and continued questioning them.
As Vivian passed me, she kept glaring at me.
She still acted as though everything was my fault.
My mother walked toward me.
“Claire, I am sorry. All the evidence pointed to you, so we thought…”
“This did not begin tonight,” I interrupted.
My mother froze.
“It has been this way since the day Vivian came to live with us.”
She had just lost her parents.
She was painfully thin and woke from nightmares almost every night.
She would run to my mother and cry in her arms.
After that, whenever Vivian and I had a disagreement, my parents always looked at her first.
When she broke something that belonged to me, my mother would say, “She did not mean to do it.”
When she took a gift I loved, my father would tell me, “Claire, she does not have parents anymore.”
They always asked me to give in.
It could be a toy, a dress, or even my birthday.
Because I still had parents, everyone acted as though I had no right to feel hurt.
“I know you felt sorry for her,” I said quietly.
“That was why I gave in every time you asked me to when I was young.”
“But after all these years, did you forget that I was your daughter too?”
My mother’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
“Claire…”
She reached for me.
I stepped back without thinking.
I knew my parents loved me.
That made it harder to blame them.
But their intentions did not erase all the times they had ignored my pain.
My father remained silent for a long time.
“We failed you.”
I did not answer.
I turned toward Adrian.
He stood several feet away, his face stiff.
When we were children, he had protected Vivian because she had lost her parents.
Over time, that concern became favoritism.
Then everyone began to say that he loved her.
From that point on, whenever Vivian and I stood on opposite sides, Adrian never chose me.
“She told you that I hired the reporters on the cruise ship, and you believed her.”
“She accused me of planning everything tonight, and you believed her again.”
“I explained myself many times, but you never listened.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Claire, I…”
“Do not say anything.”
I looked away.
“Today was not the first time all of you refused to believe me.”
“It was only the first time someone cared enough to find out the truth.”
Julian tightened his hand around mine.
I did not look at the guilt on my parents’ faces.
I did not wait for Adrian’s late explanation.
I knew some of the pain they caused had not been intentional.
Understanding that did not mean I had to forgive them.
Julian and I were about to leave when an officer spoke behind us.
“Wait.”
The officer examining the phone had stopped at another payment record.
“There is another suspicious payment here. It was made three weeks ago.”
Adrian frowned.
“Three weeks ago?”
The officer opened the transaction details.
The note contained only a room number.
1908.
The account belonged to someone none of us recognized.
“We will need to identify the recipient and determine what this payment was for.”
I looked at Vivian.
Her face turned white.