Chapter 148: Chapter 150: The Evidence
The silence in the ballroom was deafening.
"I didn’t take this," Aria said, her voice steady despite the panic clawing at her throat. "Someone put it in my purse."
"Of course," Victoria said sympathetically. "That must be what happened. An honest mistake."
"No. Not a mistake. A setup." Aria looked at the woman who’d claimed her necklace was stolen. "You bumped into me in the bathroom. On purpose. You put this in my purse."
The woman’s eyes filled with tears. "I would never! Why would I do that?"
"Because you just wanted to frame me or someone paid you to," Aria said flatly.
"That’s a serious accusation," the event coordinator said. "Do you have any proof?"
"The security cameras in the bathroom," Aria said. "Check the footage. It will show exactly what happened."
The coordinator looked uncomfortable. "Actually, there seems to be a technical issue. The cameras in the ladies’ room stopped working this morning. We’ve been meaning to get them fixed but....."
"How convenient," Damien said, his voice absolutely lethal. "The cameras just happen to malfunction on the same day someone frames my woman for theft."
"No one is accusing anyone of anything," Victoria said quickly. "I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding. The necklace has been found. No harm done."
"No." Aria’s voice cut through the murmurs. "No harm done is not how this ends. Someone set me up. Someone orchestrated this entire thing. And I’m going to prove it."
"How?" Victoria asked, her confidence slipping slightly. "The cameras don’t work."
Aria smiled....cold and sharp. "Get me a laptop. And give me ten minutes."
"I don’t see how....."
"Do you want to know the truth or not? Because I can recover that footage. I can show everyone exactly what happened in that bathroom."
The coordinator hesitated. "I’m not sure that’s....."
"Get her a laptop," Damien said, his tone brooking no argument. "Now."
Five minutes later, Aria sat in the security office with a laptop, the supposedly broken security system, and an audience of about thirty people who’d followed to watch.
Damien stood behind her, his hand on her should.
Victoria was there too, her expression carefully neutral.
"The cameras aren’t broken," Aria said, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "Someone just corrupted the video files and disabled the feed. But the data is still there. It just needs to be recovered."
She worked in silence, lines of code scrolling across the screen. This was familiar territory.
Ten minutes turned into fifteen. Then twenty.
"Maybe it’s not recoverable," Victoria said hopefully.
"It’s recoverable. I’m just making sure I get clean footage with timestamps that will hold up in court."
"Court?" The woman who’d claimed theft went pale. "Why would we need...."
"Because if this footage shows what I think it shows, you committed fraud. Conspiracy. Attempted theft. Several felonies, actually."
"I didn’t do anything!"
"Then you have nothing to worry about."
Five more minutes. Then.....
"Got it." Aria pulled up the video file. "Here’s the bathroom footage from tonight. Starting at 8:47 PM when I entered."
The video played on the large monitor. Crystal clear. Timestamped.
It showed Aria entering, Victoria having their conversation, Victoria leaving. Then the woman entering from the stall.
"There," Aria said, pausing the video. "Watch carefully."
She let it play. The woman washing her hands. The deliberate stumble. The bump that looked accidental. And there....clear as day....the woman’s hand slipping into Aria’s open clutch and depositing the necklace.
"I didn’t....that’s not...." the woman started crying. "Please, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, someone paid me, I needed the money, please don’t press charges...."
"Who paid you?" Damien’s voice was quiet, dangerous.
"I don’t know! I swear! A woman contacted me through email, offered me fifty thousand dollars to do this, I never met her, I don’t know who...."
"Show me the email," Aria said.
The woman pulled out her phone with trembling hands, opened her email, showed them the message.
Aria scanned it quickly. "I can trace this. But it’s probably routed through multiple proxies. Whoever set this up knew what they were doing."
"Victoria," Damien said softly. "Care to explain?"
"I have no idea what you’re talking about." Victoria’s voice was steady, but her hands were shaking. "Why would I do this?"
"Are you sure you don’t have any reason to do this Victoria? Okay then, Answer to your father." But if anything like this ever happens again, I’ll make you regret it. And i mean it.’’
Victoria looked at her father, who’d appeared in the doorway at some point. Harold’s expression was unreadable.
"Come, Victoria," he said quietly. "We’re leaving."
As they left, the woman who’d been paid continued crying. "I’m so sorry, Miss Chen. I didn’t know....I didn’t think....please don’t press charges, I have a daughter, I can’t go to jail...."
Aria looked at Damien, a silent question.
He sighed. "Keep the fifty thousand dollars. Use it for your daughter. But if i ever see you at any event i attend again, I won’t be this generous."
The woman nodded frantically, thanked them through tears, and fled.
The crowd that had gathered began to disperse, murmuring about the drama, the hacking skills Aria had displayed, the humiliation Victoria had suffered.
"That was incredible," the event coordinator said. "We had no idea that footage could be recovered. You’re a genius."
"Just experienced," Aria said, closing the laptop.
Alone in the security office, Damien pulled her into his arms.
"Are you okay?"
"I’m furious. And humiliated. And...." she took a shaky breath. "I’m okay. Because you believed me. Because I could prove my innocence. But Damien, if I hadn’t been able to recover that footage....."
"I know. I know." His arms tightened around her. "But you did. You proved them all wrong. Showed everyone exactly how brilliant you are."
"Victoria isn’t going to stop."
"Yes, she is. Because I’m going to make sure of it."
There was something dark in his voice. Something that made Aria pull back to look at him.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing yet. But I will. I’m going to handle Victoria."
"Damien...."
"She tried to humiliate you Aria, I’m not going to let that go unanswered."
"What are you planning?"
He kissed her forehead. "Don’t worry about it. Just trust me to protect you. To handle this. That’s my job now."
And as they left the museum, Damien’s phone buzzed.
A message from Marcus, his private investigator: Full report on Victoria Ashford’s involvement attached. Email trail leads directly to her. Plus additional information about Harold Ashford’s financial irregularities you might find interesting.
Damien smiled coldly as he opened the attached files.
Within ten minutes of the necklace incident, he had everything he needed to teach Victoria a lesson.
But he didn’t tell Aria. Didn’t want her involved in what was coming.
Instead, he forwarded the evidence to Harold with a simple message: Keep your daughter in check, or I’ll make her disappear from our lives. Permanently.
Harold’s response came three minutes later: Understood. It won’t happen again.
It wouldn’t. Because Damien had just made it very clear that the next time Victoria came after Aria, he wouldn’t just threaten.
He’d obliterate them both.
And he’d enjoy every second of it.
