Chapter 17 - The Second Ring
Eleanor had tried to collect insurance.
While the first ring sat in police evidence.
The second ring.
Its duplicate.
Was supposedly stolen.
Mara investigated.
The duplicate was purchased using Chloe’s trust.
Insured separately.
Eleanor planned to report one ring missing after the wedding.
If the frame against me succeeded, she could claim the “stolen ring” was never recovered.
How?
Because the ring planted in my purse would have been the duplicate.
The real wedding ring would disappear through Jonathan’s network.
Insurance payment.
Asset movement.
Another fraud.
Amanda had unknowingly ruined that part.
She took the real ring from Chloe’s jewelry box instead of the duplicate Eleanor had hidden in a side compartment.
That explained Eleanor’s panic when the ring appeared in Amanda’s purse.
She expected a different serial number.
Chloe stared at the findings.
“She planned all of this during my wedding.”
Yes.
Her daughter’s wedding was not sacred.
Just useful.
Chloe asked to confront Eleanor.
Her attorney advised against it.
She did anyway during a supervised legal meeting.
I did not attend.
Later, Chloe told me what happened.
She placed both ring certificates in front of her mother.
“Was any part of my wedding about me?”
Eleanor cried.
Apparently.
Chloe said she had never seen her mother cry like that.
Then Eleanor answered.
“I wanted you to have the life I never had.”
Chloe asked.
“By stealing from me?”
Eleanor said.
“By making sure you never lost status.”
Chloe replied.
“I lost a husband before our honeymoon because you taught me to treat people like dirt.”
That hurt.
Ethan had filed for annulment.
He said he did not know whether Chloe had been part of the ring conspiracy.
More importantly, he said the woman he saw in the ballroom was not someone he wanted to build a life with.
Chloe could not blame Eleanor for everything.
She admitted that.
But Eleanor had raised her inside a worldview where wealth determined innocence.
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Now Chloe had to decide whether to remain that person.
For the first time, I hoped she might not.
