A Little girl whispers “There’s a camera in your office ” Millionaire exposes spy fiancée…
We’re like a real family now. Sometimes the most unlikely allies become the strongest. Teams.
Who has stood beside you when it really mattered? Three days later, their carefully laid plans collapsed like a house of cards in a hurricane. Eli stood in his office, holding the tiny surveillance device Josephine had carefully extracted from behind Sabrina’s painting, while his world tilted on its axis. The evidence was undeniable now.
A sophisticated piece of equipment worth thousands of dollars, broadcasting on encrypted frequencies to receivers they’d traced to a location downtown. But when he’d confronted Sabrina with it an hour ago, expecting guilt or confession or at least surprise, she’d looked at him with such genuine confusion and hurt that he’d begun to doubt everything. You think I’m spying on you? She’d whispered, tears gathering in her green eyes.
Eli, how could you even imagine I’d do something like that? Her reaction had been so perfect, so utterly believable that for a moment he’d wondered if they’d made a terrible mistake. Sabrina was an actress by training, he reminded himself. A media expert who understood exactly how to manipulate emotions and perceptions.
But the pain in her eyes had seemed so real. Maybe there’s another explanation. He’d found himself saying, hating the uncertainty in his own voice.
Maybe someone else planted these devices, someone trying to frame you or destroy our relationship. Sabrina had thrown herself into his arms then, sobbing against his chest, whispering about how scared she was that someone was targeting them, how grateful she was that he was willing to consider her innocence. And that’s when Isla had walked into the room.
The eight-year-old had taken one look at the scene, Sabrina crying in Eli’s arms, the surveillance device abandoned on his desk, and her face had gone completely blank, not hurt or disappointed, but empty. Shut down. It was an expression Eli recognized from their first few weeks together, when she’d still been braced for rejection and abandonment.
Isla, sweetheart, he’d started, but she’d turned and walked away without a word. Now, an hour later, he couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. Josephine was searching the grounds while he combed through every room, calling her name, growing more frantic with each empty space.
He found her finally in the last place he thought to look, the small storage room behind the garage where they kept holiday decorations and forgotten furniture. She was curled up behind a stack of boxes, her tablet clutched against her chest, her face streaked with tears she’d tried to wipe away. Isla.
He sank down beside her, his heart breaking, at the defeat in her small frame. Talk to me, sweetheart. You don’t believe me, she said quietly, not looking at him.
I showed you everything, I explained everything, but you still choose her. That’s not true. I do believe you.
The evidence is overwhelming. Then why is… she still here? Isla’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it cut through him like a blade. Why are you letting her cry on you and tell you she’s innocent when we both know she’s lying? Eli had no answer for that.
Or rather, he had an answer he didn’t want to admit. Despite everything they’d discovered, despite the surveillance equipment and the documented deception, part of him still wanted to believe Sabrina was innocent. Part of him was still susceptible to her tears and her explanations and the intoxicating possibility that this was all some terrible misunderstanding.
Adults are complicated, he said lamely. Sometimes we want things to be true even when we know they’re not. Isla finally looked at him, and the disappointment in her brown eyes was devastating.
I thought you were different. I thought you actually listened. I am listening.
I did listen. No, she said with the terrible clarity of a child who’d been let down too many times. You listened to what I said, but you didn’t believe it was more important than what you wanted, just like all the other adults.
She was right, and they both knew it. Eli had spent his entire adult life making hard decisions based on evidence and logic, cutting ties with people who threatened his business or betrayed his trust. But when it came to Sabrina, when it came to his own emotional needs and desires, he’d wavered.
He’d allowed doubt to creep in not because the evidence was weak but because accepting it would mean losing something he desperately wanted to keep. You’re right, he said quietly. You’re absolutely right, and I’m sorry…