Hannah''s gaze swept over the table, but she didn''t see the ne that had


    been special-ordered two months ago. It seemed her guess had been wrong after all. The ne really had been for Sandra.


    She picked up a random bracelet, fiddled with it for a moment, then tossed it back onto the table without a word and headed upstairs.


    "Hannah!"


    Her indifference infuriated Lionel. "What is it you want?" he demanded. "You sell the jewelry behind my back to hide assets, and I don''t say a word. I get it all back for you, and you give me this attitude. Is this still about what happened this morning?"


    Hannah paused on the stairs, her hand resting on the banister, her fingers tapping lightly. Her face, framed by her perfectly applied makeup, was as cold as ice. After a few seconds of thought, she turned back to him.


    "I''ll get the money and pay you back."


    The one saving grace was that she hadn''t spent any of it yet; it was still sitting in the ounts she shared with Tess.


    "Is that what I want?" Lionel retorted. Her coldness felt like a physical barrier between them, a distance that was growing wider by the day. "I''ve already gotten rid of Cora. She won''t being back."


    "As for this morning, if you had told me what happened, I would have checked the cameras. I wouldn''t have made youe home. You should have just told me."


    Hannah crossed her arms and leaned against the banister.


    He was always like this, never reflecting on his own mistakes, always finding a way to me her. Sometimes, she truly envied his mindset. If she could be half as immune to self-doubt, maybe her life wouldn''t be such a mess.


    Her gaze fell back to the jewelry. "Did you buy back the ne Sandra sold? If not, she''s probably going to throw a fit."


    "What are you talking about?" he asked, her sarcastic tone making it hard to follow her meaning.


    Owen, standing nearby, suddenly went pale, a thin sheen of sweat breaking out on his palms. He had nned to buy back Sandra''s ne as well, but he had been afraid of getting caught, see had only retrieved Hannah''s.


    "What do you mean, what? The ne," Hannah said, raising an eyebrow. The one that took two months to arrive. It wasn''t with her for two weeks before she sold it. You''re both selling off jewelry, Lionel, so why aren''t you yelling at Sandra?"


    "And another thing, did you ever investigate where Sandra got the money to pay


    off Mr. Jones? Where did a sum thatrgee from?"


    There had to be a limit to how much you could favor someone, no matter how much you loved them. He had never been this biased toward her, even when he had supposedly loved her.


    "Hannah, what are you talking about?"


    Lionel felt increasingly lost, unsure why Sandra was suddenly part of the conversation. He frowned and looked down at the pile of jewelry, then suddenly realized something was missing.


    "The ne that was ordered two months ago, you didn''t get it back?" he


    demanded, looking up at Owen.


    Owen just stared at him nkly. "Huh?"


    "I told you to get back all of Hannah''s jewelry!"


    Hannah watched the expressions on their faces, a sense of confusion dawning on


    her. "That ne wasn''t mine. Why would Owen get it back?"


    Lionel looked at her. "What did you say? If it wasn''t yours, whose was it?"


    ...