Chapter 6
The scandal broke before breakfast.
Luxury jeweler accused of assaulting wife inside Fifth Avenue flagship.
By noon, the videos were everywhere.
The first slap.
The second.
Serena smiling.
Dominic telling me to get out of his store.
Then my voice.
You get out of my store.
People replayed that line like it was entertainment.
For me, it was survival.
Dominic released a statement calling it “a painful private matter.”
Naomi released the ownership records.
The internet corrected itself quickly.
Not his store.
Mine.
Then the theft investigation leaked.
Inventory missing.
Vendor accounts.
Forged divorce papers.
Attempted trust changes.
Evelyn’s emails.
Serena’s payments.
The police executed a search warrant on Dominic’s private suite above the store.
They found jewelry hidden in Serena’s luggage.
A ledger.
Two passports.
Cash.
And a folder labeled A.V. transition.
A.V.
Amelia Vale.
My own initials used like a target.
Inside were notes about declaring me unstable.
Pictures of wine bottles at charity dinners.
Old medical records after Noah’s birth.
A therapist invoice from when my father died.
They had planned to turn grief into weakness.
I sat at Naomi’s office reading the folder.
My hands shook.
“They were building a story.”
Naomi nodded.
“A story where you were too fragile to own what you own.”
I looked up.
“Can we bury them?”
She smiled slightly.
“Legally?”
“Preferably.”
“Yes.”
Dominic was arrested two days later.
Grand larceny.
Forgery.
Assault.
Conspiracy.
Evelyn was questioned.
Serena cried on camera and claimed she had no idea the jewels were stolen.
Then Naomi showed police texts where she had written:
May you like
Once Amelia signs, I want the emerald suite.
Serena stopped crying.
