Isabella stared at the giant screen. The Heart of the Sea was sitting securely in the center of the display area.
The timestamp showed it was forty minutes ago.
Right around the time she had changed her dress, gotten ridiculed by the socialites, and stormed out of the dressing room in a rage.
Next...
The footage was going to show exactly how she had stolen the jewel...
"No... no!" Isabella shrieked, her face a mask of pale panic as she lunged forward, trying to stop Serena. "Turn it off! Turn it off right now!"
But it was too late.
With her clumsy speed, she didn't even come close to reaching Serena.
The massive screen continued to play.
It showed Isabella storming out of the dressing room, marching straight to the gift display, and glaring at The Heart of the Sea with a face twisted by pure, toxic malice.
Then.
She skulked away.
And the camera lens tracked her every movement perfectly.
It even captured the audio with crystal clarity.
It broadcasted the entire sequence-how she walked into what she thought was a blind spot and called Augus to disable the security system. The entire unholy plot played out for the world to hear.
Then.
The main cameras cut to black.
But this feed kept rolling. Isabella crept back to the pedestal, looking around guiltily before snatching the sapphire.
Following that, she returned to the dressing room and shoved it straight into Black Jack's bag.
The whole sequence played out as if an invisible cameraman had been following a step behind her, documenting her every move in stunning 4K resolution.
It was a brutal public execution.
Isabella stared blankly at her own image on the towering screen.
At her own conniving, ugly, distorted expression.
She felt her entire world crash down around her.
It was over.
She was completely finished.
There was no room left for excuses.
"Bravo!"
Black Jack clapped enthusiastically. "Tsk, tsk. A fully self-directed frame-up. Now that's what I call prime entertainment."
Isabella looked like a walking corpse, staring at the screen, too horrified to even shed a tear.
"You... you absolute disgrace!"
Kiera Montrose was trembling so
bet
violently she could barely stand, her
ce shaking with rage
A curse on
this house! An utter curse
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"How did the Vinton family raise such a vicious, ungrateful monster?"
"You steal a national treasure and try to pin it on Serena's friends. You weren't framing them—you were trying to destroy Serena!"
"Between the Lancasters and the Vintons, we poured everything into raising you. We gave you the world and this is how your repay us with this venomous betrayal? My family... my family..."
She broke off into a violent coughing fit.
The emotional shock was clearly taking a heavy physical toll.
Serena instantly caught her
grandmother, her fingers pressing expertly into a few pressure few pressure points
to soothe the older woman's
System Grandma this is
a failure
of the Lancasters or the Vintons. It simply means... this person is rotten to her very core." Content
Both families had raised countless brilliant, honorable children.
Isabella was the sole, glaring anomaly.
Which only proved that her wickedness was innate.
Holden Vinton and the two uncles glared at Isabella with eyes stripped of all warmth.
There was nothing left but disgust and deep-seated disappointment.
Isabella looked around at the judgmental stares of the high-society crowd.
And then at the freezing, loathing glares from her own family.
The last remnants of her psychological defenses completely shattered.
Especially when Princess Isadora's guards stepped forward, pulling out a pair of restraint cuffs.
Isabella's knees gave out, and she collapsed heavily onto the floor.