President, I Know How to Listen Now; Why Are You Crying?

Chapter 2

I returned to the hospital.

Saul was already waiting in the ward. "Where have you been?"

His gaze fell on my bleeding ankle, and an inexplicable surge of anger rose in his chest.

Before I could answer, Leo knocked on the door.

He said, "Ms. Moore is attending a banquet and wants to borrow Mrs. Durand's emerald necklace."

Saul agreed on my behalf.

Turning back, his gaze fell on my leg in its cast.

After a few seconds of silence, he said, "She's just borrowing it. She'll return it to you."

That necklace was the gift he gave me on our first date.

I had once said, "I will leave it to Ash, as it's proof of our love."

Fannie had had her eye on this necklace for a long time.

Back then, I had refused firmly. "Unless we get divorced, this necklace will never end up around her neck!"

This time, I didn't put up a fight.

I just stood up and said, "I'll go get it."

Saul was a little surprised. "You were never this generous before."

The person who gave me the necklace had forgotten how important it was.

Our daughter, who was supposed to inherit it, was gone too. What was the point of keeping it?

"I don't care about it anymore."

Saul followed behind me, watching me.

I had clearly become the way he wanted me to be—quiet, considerate, and willing to go along with whatever he wanted.

However, a sense of unease rose in his heart, as if something was slipping through his fingers and out of his grasp.

Still, when I placed the necklace in his hand, he left right away with it.

He didn't even notice that all the other things he had given me were gone from the safe.

Those love letters, those expensive pieces of jewelry—I had thrown them all in the trash.

I'd just finished clearing out his trash when Saul kicked open my door again.

His eyes were wide with rage. "Fannie got scratched by the necklace. Did you tamper with it?"

He dragged me off the bed, and my calf slammed into the edge of the bed frame.

A searing pain exploded through my body, draining the color from my face in an instant.

But I didn't struggle. I only looked at him. "When I handed you the necklace, you found nothing wrong. And now you..."

"I'm asking you..."

For the first time, I cut him off instead of crying and making a scene like I used to.

"I gave you the necklace right next to the safe. The security cameras caught everything clearly. If you think something's wrong, go check the footage."

I immediately contacted the villa's security team.

Saul froze.

I continued, "If you don't care about the truth and just want someone to take your anger out on..."

I held out my wrists. "Then call the police. Have them arrest me."

Saul stood there stunned, and his fingers suddenly loosened their grip on me.

This was Fannie's usual trick.

She would deliberately fall in front of me, then cry and claim I had pushed her on purpose.

She would also deliberately cut herself at banquets, pretend that I had hurt her, and then plead for leniency for me.

Every single time, Saul would punish me.

If he had been willing to look into it even once, he would have found out that I was being framed.

But it wasn't that he couldn't see through her tricks.

He simply couldn't bear to let Fannie suffer any pain.

Saul took a deep breath. "I didn't say it was definitely you."

With difficulty, I stood up and lay back down on the bed.

"You'd already decided it was me the moment you walked in."

With that, I closed my eyes.

Saul stood by the bed and didn't leave for a long time.

The quieter I was, the more uneasy he felt.

It was as if something precious was slipping through his fingers. And he hadn't the slightest idea what was leaving him.

This discomfort made him want to break the silence.

"Tomorrow is Ash's funeral. You should come. It's her final send-off, and she would want to see you there."

Just as he was talking, Leo suddenly pushed the door open and rushed in.

"Ms. Moore is in tears, asking to see you right now."

Reason told Saul he shouldn't go. But in the end, he left anyway.

The surveillance footage arrived ten minutes later, clearly showing that I'd done nothing from start to finish.

I sent the video to Saul.

He saw it but didn't respond.