My Unfazed Mind Saves Me Chapter 09

My Unfazed Mind Saves Me Chapter 09

The day of the birthday party, I finally saw my family again.

Once my parents and brother saw I was healthy, the tension they’d been carrying around lately finally drained out of them. Victor hadn’t let them visit while I was recovering. I never found out why.

They looked like they hadn’t slept properly in weeks.

Stella trailed behind them. The second she saw me, her eyes locked on me. Once everyone else had said

their hellos, she started to slip away.

I stopped her. “Stella.”

She stopped. Turned.

I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t know you’d been trying to hurt me this whole

time.”

She hadn’t expected me to say it to her face. I could almost see her mind racing.

Something clicked, and she arranged her face into something guilty.

“Chloe, I’m so sorry. I’ve had a lot of time to think, and… I was jealous. I admit it. But I know what I did was wrong. Can we please just be sisters again?”

Victor had wired me – a precaution. He stood in a far corner of the party, listening. Stella’s voice came

through his earpiece, crystal clear.

He almost smiled. Did Stella really think a cheap apology would work? Chloe wasn’t that stupid-

She wasn’t a fool…

“Of course! You already know what you did was wrong – how could I hold it against you?”

My voice came through the earpiece, bright and cheerful. I pulled her into a hug, smiling.

Something cracked. Victor had shattered the glass in his hand.

His jaw clenched. “Chloe, you idiot…”

Even Stella seemed stunned by how easily I’d forgiven her. She was probably calling me an idiot in her head,

then linked her arm through mine with a smile.

“Come on, then. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

She pulled me toward the stairs. On the way, she caught someone’s eye across the crowd and gave a subtle

nod.

Audrey caught the signal and slipped away to prep the trap.

Stella led me upstairs, farther and farther from the noise, until we reached a quiet hallway on the second floor She opened a door and shoved me through it. Again.

I stumbled forward. The door slammed shut behind me.

Stella’s voice came through the door, laughing.

“God, Chloe, you’re so stupid. I can’t believe you fell for it again. What do you think Victor’s going to do when he finds out his fiancée was caught with another man in front of everyone?”

“You want someone to blame? Blame Mom and Dad for bringing you back. Blame yourself for taking

everything that was supposed to be mine.”

A hand clamped around my wrist.

The man in front of me was flushed red, his pupils blown wide. Clearly drugged.

He grinned at me, glassy-eyed. “Victor’s girl. Perfect. This is perfect.”

Once Stella was satisfied I wasn’t getting out, she headed back downstairs. She caught Audrey’s eye across

the room and nodded.

Audrey clapped her hands for attention. “The video’s ready! Everyone, keep your eyes on the screen!”

The screen flickered on, broadcasting a live security feed.

“Please – please, I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again!”

On screen, the man was hog-tied on the floor. I had one foot planted on his back.

“Who put you up to this? Say it to the camera.”

I grabbed his head and angled it toward the lens. The man’s face was a mess of bruises. He sobbed.

“It was Stella and Audrey. They knew I had a grudge against the Sterlings. They said they’d deliver Victor’s

fiancée to me, and I… I went along with it.”

Down in the ballroom, Stella and Audrey went pale at the same time.

“He’s lying! That’s slander!” Stella’s voice cut through the room. “Chloe’s the one who set this up with him!”

I could hear Stella screaming my name from downstairs. I looked into the camera and smiled.

“Then how about this?”

I pulled a voice recorder from my pocket and hit play. Stella’s voice filled the room – through the door.

every word she’d hissed