His Wealthy Family Forced Him to Stand at Their 30th Anniversary Dinner — Until He Put the Gold Envelope Back in His Pocket

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Mia’s hands trembled so violently she could barely unclench her fists. She stared at Brad, who was groveling on the floor under my grip, sweating through his expensive designer collar.

"Mia, don't! He’s crazy!" Brad choked out, struggling against my hold. "Don't listen to him, baby!"

"Check the right interior pocket, Mia," I repeated calmly. "Check where he slid Eleanor’s vintage sapphire brooch when Mother went to the powder room before coming up here."

Eleanor gasped, her hands flying to her collarbone. Her vintage Tiffany sapphire brooch—an heirloom passed down from her grandmother, valued at over forty thousand dollars—was gone. In her hysteria over the restaurant bill, she hadn't even noticed it was missing.

"Brad?" Eleanor whispered, her voice cracking in pure horror. "Brad... tell me he's lying."

Mia didn't hesitate. She stepped forward, tears streaming down her cheeks, and shoved her hand into the inside pocket of Brad's jacket.

Her fingers closed around cold platinum and faceted gems.

She pulled out the sapphire brooch. And alongside it, two blank checks torn from Arthur's personal desk ledger, already stamped with Arthur’s signature stamp.

"You bastard!" Mia screamed, throwing the brooch onto the marble counter and slapping Brad across the face with all the strength she possessed. "You used me! You were stealing from my family while pretending to love me!"

Brad scrambled backward the second I released his wrist, scurrying like a cornered rat toward the elevator doors. "You think you're so noble, Connor?!" he hissed, clutching his bruised arm. "Your family is a joke! Your dad is a bankrupt fraud, your mom is a vanity-obsessed narcissist, and your sister is an insecure idiot who bought my affection with stolen money! You deserve each other!"

The elevator doors slid open behind him.

Standing inside the elevator were two uniformed Chicago police officers and a plainclothes detective holding an arrest warrant.

"Bradley Keller?" the detective asked coldly.

Brad's jaw dropped. He tried to turn, but the two officers stepped forward, seized his arms, and shoved him against the elevator wall. The crisp, metallic click of handcuffs snapping shut echoed through the foyer.

"You have the right to remain silent," the officer droned, pulling Brad out of my penthouse as he screamed obscenities down the hallway.

When the elevator doors slid shut again, the loft plunged into absolute, deafening silence.

Mia collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably into her emerald silk dress. Eleanor stood frozen, staring at the sapphire brooch on the counter, her face drained of every drop of color.

Arthur looked at me, a broken, shattered old man whose facade of wealth and prestige had been burned to the ground.

"Connor..." Arthur choked out, tears rolling into his grey beard. "What are you going to do to us?"

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