Chapter 7 - Preston Had Changed the Game
Preston refused to speak for two days.
During that time, Claire traced the replica through entirely ordinary channels.
No secret criminal workshop.
No elaborate underground operation.
A legitimate theatrical jeweler had produced it months earlier for what they were told was a private insurance photography rehearsal.
The order was paid for by a company Preston used for event staging.
He signed the pickup.
Simple.
Direct.
Isabella read the invoice.
“You made it three months ago.”
Preston’s attorney objected to the wording.
Claire corrected calmly.
“His company commissioned it.”
Preston stared at the table.
Three months.
Before Sophie’s most recent accusations.
Before today’s showroom event was even formally scheduled.
So the fake brooch had a purpose before there was an opportunity to plant it.
“What were you planning?” Isabella asked.
Preston finally answered.
“Nothing involving Sophie at first.”
Diane turned sharply.
Even she looked surprised.
Preston continued.
He had commissioned the replica because Diane sometimes used replicas during private events when security concerns made displaying originals inconvenient.
Claire interrupted.
“I never authorized this one.”
“I know.”
“Then why copy the brooch?”
Preston’s jaw tightened.
Because he wanted a dramatic object available.
Not for theft.
For accusation.
He had watched Diane use small planted items for years.
He thought her method had become weak.
People forgot hair clips.
Compacts.
Brooch pins.
Nobody would forget a five-year-old being caught with the family’s centerpiece gemstone.
“You wanted Sophie destroyed over one night,” Isabella said.
“No.”
“What word would you prefer?”
Preston looked at her.
“Discredited.”
The honesty chilled the room.
“Why?”
Because Sophie had seen him do something six weeks earlier.
Not steal jewelry.
Not tamper with the pedestal.
Something far more ordinary.
She had heard him telling Diane which family members were “safe” to accuse because they were unlikely to fight back.
A conversation.
A list of names.
A method.
Sophie later repeated one phrase to Isabella:
“Preston says people believe shiny things more than people.”
Isabella remembered.
She thought Sophie was making up one of her strange child sentences.
Preston did not.
He heard her say it.
And from that moment, he believed Sophie might eventually repeat the rest.
So the fake-brooch setup had one purpose:
make sure anything Sophie said afterward sounded like another lie from a child already “caught stealing.”
The larger significance was not the jewelry.
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It was credibility.
And Preston had just admitted he tried to destroy a five-year-old’s before she learned how valuable it was.
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