Chapter 8
Uncle Hubert, Aunt Connie, Cheryl, and Chuck sneaked into the surveillance room.
They started messing with the footage, and the second they were done, the new clip painted the picture they wanted everyone
to see.
Cheryl couldn’t even resist bragging.
“With this, everyone’s gonna believe Adaline is the thief. There’s no way she’s getting out of this!”
“Exactly! Stealing jewelry worth millions? She’s looking at life in prison!”
At this point, it was obvious what was happening. Anyone with half a brain could.
see it.
Someone in the crowd blurted out.
“So, this whole thing was a setup? They all planned it from the start? That’s insane! They’re framing her like this and
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pretending to be the victims? What kind of monsters do that?”
“Weren’t they supposed to care about Adaline? If they care so much about her, why would they turn on her like this?”
Chuck snapped, jumping to their defense.
“Shut the hell up! What do you mean, setup? All we did was show what actually happened! She’s guilty, and we just made sure the proof got out there sooner. What’s wrong with that?”
But the cops
weren’t buying his excuse.
They cut him off with a serious face.
“If she’s guilty, we’ll find out through a proper investigation. But making up evidence to frame someone? That’s illegal, and you all know it.”
But Uncle Hubert and Aunt Connie weren’t backing down. They started whining, still trying to play the victims.
“We didn’t make anything up! We just
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switched out the footage. Okay, maybe we went about it the wrong way, but she did
steal those jewelry. There’s no doubt about it!”
I was so furious at their shamelessness that I could barely breathe.
I had to hit my inhaler a couple of times to keep from passing out.
Good thing I’d told Ira to grab the bag with the backup security footage earlier. Without that, they might’ve actually gotten away with it.
That would’ve been the end of me.
I was done wasting time with them. I stepped up and dropped the bomb.
“If this footage isn’t enough to clear my name, then let’s see another one, shall we?”
On cue, Atty. Bonaforté, my lawyer, stepped out from behind me and connected his phone to the big screen.
The new footage showed my uncle and my
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aunt staring widely at a blue piece of jewelry on a table and occasionally touching it.
While touching it, Uncle Hubert asked.
“So, once we force Adaline to confess, we can sell this thing, right? I’ve already lined
buyer!”
na
Chuck chimed in, “Yeah, but we’ve gotta get her inheritance first. Think about it–split
that fortune four ways, and we’re set for life!”
The room went dead quiet.
Even the people who had been defending them moments ago looked like fools.
One by one, they realized they’d been duped.
Before the footage could finish, a rock smashed the screen.
Uncle’s face twisted with rage. He had completely lost his mind.
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“It’s fake! All of it! Don’t listen to her–she’s
a liar! She always makes things up!”
I raised an eyebrow and asked back.
“Oh? And how do you know it’s fake? Got any proof?”
That’s when my “bestie“, ever the genius, jumped in and blew their whole plan.
“That place doesn’t even have cameras! Where’d you get that footage, huh? You know it’s fake!
She straightened up like she’d just outsmarted me.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Chuck didn’t find it funny. He slapped her hard across the face.
“You idiot!”
And he wasn’t wrong. She’d just admitted everything for me. By the time she tried to backtrack, it was way too late.
The crowd wasn’t about to let them off the
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“It’s fake! All of it! Don’t listen to her–she’s
a liar! She always makes things up!”
I raised an eyebrow and asked back.
“Oh? And how do you know it’s fake? Got any proof?”
That’s when my “bestie“, ever the genius, jumped in and blew their whole plan.
“That place doesn’t even have cameras! Where’d you get that footage, huh? You know it’s fake!
She straightened up like she’d just outsmarted me.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Chuck didn’t find it funny. He slapped her hard across the face.
“You idiot!”
And he wasn’t wrong. She’d just admitted everything for me. By the time she tried to backtrack, it was way too late.
The crowd wasn’t about to let them off the
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Chapter 8.
hook. Someone threw a rock, and that was all it took. The rest of the onlookers joined in, hurling whatever they could find.
The place turned into a madhouse, and it took the cops yelling and warnings to restore order.
Even as they stood there, bruised and battered, the four of them still wouldn’t admit they were wrong. Unbelievable!
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