Chapter 5

Sophia POV

My fever broke, but the cough never got better.

My lungs felt like they were on fire.

Early in the morning, the entire Shaw household was in chaos.

Linda's wedding ring had gone missing.

It was a pink diamond that Tristan had specifically bid for at an auction, worth a fortune.

"It must have been stolen!"

Linda cried like a pear blossom in rain. "Yesterday only Sophia went into my room!"

Everyone's gaze focused on me.

I was wiping the stair railing.

Tristan walked over, looking down at me.

"Hand it over."

I stopped what I was doing. "I didn't take it."

"In the entire Shaw house, besides you, this thief with a record, who else would do such a thing?"

Tristan's words were like nails.

Criminal record.

Referring to that confession statement I was forced to sign.

"Search her!" Linda shouted.

Two bodyguards walked up and held me down.

"Tristan."

I looked at him. "You also think it was me?"

Tristan didn't meet my eyes, saying coldly, "The evidence is conclusive. Stop wasting words."

The bodyguards roughly searched my entire body.

Besides the few bills of change left from buying medicine, there was nothing in my pockets.

"It's not on her, it must be hidden in her room!"

Linda led people charging into the servants' quarters.

A thorough ransacking.

The sheets were torn, the pillow slashed open.

Finally, Linda kicked over that tin box.

The photograph fell out.

That was my most treasured possession.

Linda stepped on the photograph and ground it hard with her foot.

"Found it!"

She dug out a diamond ring from a crevice in the mattress. "Right here! Caught red-handed!"

I looked at that photograph that had been stepped on and soiled.

As for how the ring got into the mattress, I didn't want to ask or argue.

Too clumsy.

But Tristan believed it.

Or rather, he needed a reason to hate me.

"Sophia."

Tristan looked at the ring. "You're truly hopeless."

"Since you like money so much, this ring is yours."

He threw the ring on the floor. "Take it and get lost. Don't let me see you again."

I squatted down.

I didn't pick up the ring.

I carefully picked up that photograph and brushed off the dust.

In the photo, Mrs. Shaw's smiling face was somewhat blurred.

"What, not enough?"

Seeing me not pick up the ring, Tristan became even more furious. "Five years ago you sold the company for billions, now you look down on these tens of millions?"

I stood up, pressing the photograph to my heart.

"Mr. Tristan Shaw."

For the first time, I addressed him so formally. "I didn't leak the data from five years ago."

"Enough!"

Tristan cut me off. "Still lying at this point! All the network addresses pointed to your computer, the transfer records were also from your account! The evidence is ironclad!"

I laughed.

That kind of laugh when helplessness reaches its extreme.

Back then, my computer was taken by Marcus to be repaired, the account was opened by Marcus for me.

I'd said so. He didn't believe me.

Because Marcus was his most trusted assistant, and I was the "wolf that could never be tamed."

"Fine."

I nodded. "I took it. I stole the ring, I sold the data. I'm the bad person, you're all good people."

I admitted it.

Since I was going to die anyway, what did carrying infamy matter?

"Lock her in the basement!"

Tristan didn't want to see my face anymore. "Starve her for three days. She can come out when she's willing to admit her mistakes."

The basement.

Dark and damp there, rats running rampant.

I was pushed inside.

The moment the iron door closed, the light disappeared.

I fumbled in the darkness to sit down.

Three days.

Exactly one day before the wedding.

Tristan, you really know how to calculate time.

I hugged my knees and closed my eyes in the darkness.

Three more days.

This road was finally nearing its end.