*Chapter 4: The Security Footage*
786 Words
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The guard’s words hung in the air like a death sentence.
“It was you, Miss Thompson. The cameras show you switching the glasses when no one was looking.”
Ava’s blood turned to ice. Her lungs forgot how to breathe.
“What?” She shook her head. “No. That’s impossible. I didn’t touch her glass. I was trying to save her—”
Alexander’s hand dropped from her face. The warmth was gone.
His storm-gray eyes went flat. Cold. The way they looked the night of the car crash before he lost consciousness. Dangerous.
“Is it true, Ava?” he asked quietly. Too quietly. “Did you try to kill her?”
The ballroom was empty now except for them and the guard. But Ava felt like the whole world was watching.
“I didn’t,” Ava whispered. Tears burned her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Not in front of him. Not in front of these people. “I swear. I was kneeling beside her. I checked her pupils. I smelled almonds on her breath. I was trying to—”
“Save her?” Alexander finished for her. His voice was empty. “Or kill her and play the hero?”
Ava flinched like he’d slapped her. “I would never—”
“Show me the footage,” Alexander told the guard without looking away from Ava.
The guard nodded and pulled out a tablet. He tapped the screen.
Grainy black-and-white footage played.
Ballroom. People mingling. Ava in her navy dress, looking small and terrified. She approached the table where champagne glasses sat. She looked left. Looked right. Then her hand moved fast. She picked up Sophia’s glass. Swapped it with another one. Put it back down.
Then 2 minutes later, Sophia drank from that glass and collapsed.
Ava stared at the screen. Her own face. Her own hands. Doing something she didn’t remember doing.
“That’s not me,” Ava said. But even she didn’t sound convinced. “I mean, that’s my dress. My hair. But I don’t remember—”
“Enough,” Alexander said. He took the tablet and paused the video on Ava’s face. Her terrified expression frozen mid-switch.
He looked at her for a long time. 5 seconds. 10 seconds.
Ava’s heart broke. Because she saw it. The doubt. The suspicion. The wall going up between them.
“You saved my life,” Alexander said finally. “You were brave. You were selfless. But people can change. Desperation makes people do things.”
“I’m not desperate,” Ava said. But her voice shook. Grandma’s surgery. The bills. The poverty. She WAS desperate.
Alexander sighed. He ran a hand through his hair. For the first time since she met him, he looked tired. Not like a billionaire CEO. Like a man.
“Guards,” he said. “Take Miss Thompson to the east wing guest room. Lock the door from outside. No one in, no one out.”
“Alexander, no!” Ava stepped forward. “You can’t lock me up! I didn’t do it! Check the footage again. Look at my hands. Look at the timestamps. Someone framed me—”
“Then prove it,” Alexander said. He turned away from her. “Prove your innocence, Ava. Because right now, all I see is a girl who lied about being my niece, showed up at my house, and poisoned my ex-fiancée.”
The guards grabbed her arms. Not rough, but firm.
As they dragged her away, Ava saw something on the tablet screen. Something the guard missed.
In the background of the footage, barely visible… Sophia. Standing behind her. Watching.
And Sophia was smiling.
Not the fake smile she gave the crowd. A real smile. Cold. Triumphant.
Ava’s eyes widened. “Alexander! Look! Sophia—”
But Alexander had already walked away. The sound of his shoes on marble was the only answer.
The door to the guest room slammed shut. Lock clicked.
Ava was alone. Framed for attempted murder. In the house of a billionaire who now thought she was a liar.
She pressed her forehead to the cold door.
“Grandma,” she whispered. “What do I do now?”
Outside the door, she heard footsteps. Heavy. Familiar.
Alexander’s voice, low through the wood: “I want to believe you, Ava. But you have 24 hours to prove me right. After that… I can’t protect you from what comes next.”
Footsteps faded.
Ava slid down the door and sat on the floor.
She had 24 hours.
24 hours to find the real poisoner.
24 hours before Alexander stopped believing in her.
*End of Chapter 4*
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- Writer
