He Framed Me for a Ring That Was Never Real Chapter 03
“Mom, I didn’t take it.”
“What good does saying that do now?!” She was close to tears. “I’m begging you. Just do this for me, okay?”
I looked around at the disgust and contempt on every relative’s face. I felt like a criminal waiting to be judged in public.
Not a single person there believed me.
My husband and my mother were both forcing me to confess to something I had not done.
I pulled my arm free from my mother and walked back to the table.
I did not look at Spencer. I looked straight at Blaire.
“Blaire, you said your ring was Cartier, right?”
Blaire froze for a second, then straightened her back. “Of course.”
“If it’s luxury jewelry, you should have the original receipt or proof of authenticity.” I kept my voice calm. “Do you dare show everyone?”
A murmur swept through the room.
No one had expected me to fight back.
Blaire’s expression changed instantly, and she glanced at Spencer without thinking.
This was my last chance. If she could not produce proof, the entire lie would collapse in front of everyone.
Spencer suddenly smiled.
He pulled out his phone, opened a photo, and held it up for everyone to see.
“Take a look. This is the browsing history my wife left on my computer a few days ago.”
The photo showed an online shopping page featuring a counterfeit Cartier ring identical to the one found in my jewelry box.
Spencer sighed, looking wounded and resigned.
“I wasn’t going to say anything because I wanted to spare her some dignity. She wasn’t trying to steal the ring. She planned to swap the real one for this fake. Luckily, I caught her in time and found the counterfeit in her jewelry box.”
His words hit the room like a bomb.
That explanation made me look more calculating and vicious than a simple thief.
Everything I had done, including asking Blaire for proof, now looked like an attempt to cover my tracks.
I stared at Spencer’s loving, heartbroken expression, and for a second, everything went black.
This had not been an impulsive decision. He had prepared an entire set of evidence to frame me.
The drive home from the hotel was silent.
Spencer had stopped pretending. He drove without saying a word, his jaw clenched tight.
I knew he was furious that I had fought back.
When we got home, he tossed his keys onto the entryway table. The sharp clatter sounded like a warning.
“Audrey, I never knew you could be so difficult.” He finally spoke, anger simmering beneath every word. “I gave you a graceful way out. I gave you a chance to end this quietly, but you had to make everything uglier. Now everyone knows you’re not only vain and greedy, but calculating enough to lie in front of the entire family.”
He stood on the moral high ground, passing judgment on my “crime.”
“How are you going to face the family after this?”
I looked at him and almost laughed.
“Does my reputation matter less than Blaire’s?”
For a moment, Spencer had no answer. He tugged irritably at his tie. “That’s not the same thing!”
Then he stormed into the study and slammed the door.
I sat alone in the cold living room.
I went over everything again, from Blaire accusing me in the group chat, to Spencer posting my photo and making me take the fall, to the ring somehow appearing in my jewelry box, and finally to him producing his so-called proof at the eightieth birthday dinner.
The entire setup had gone off without a single hitch.
I had spent all that time trying to prove I had not stolen the ring, but I had no evidence.
It was a dead end.
Unless…