“Mom stole my wife’s jewelry?”
Sinta immediately glared at her son, her face flushed red. Rather than feeling guilty, she looked even angrier now that everyone had seen the footage.
Her face was perfectly clear on the computer screen. There was no way to hide what she had done when she entered Arrabella’s room, opened the drawer, took the jewelry box, and put all the jewelry into her bag.
Even the bag from the footage was still in her hands.
Yet the woman continued shaking her head vehemently. “I wasn’t the one who stole it!”
Arrabella stared at her in disbelief. “Everyone can see it, Mom.”
“So?” Sinta shot back with a sharp look. “Do you really think that camera proves I stole it?”
Nareswara frowned. “Then what were you doing in Arrabella’s room?”
“I already told you, I only took it!”
“Without permission?”
Sinta fell silent.
A moment later, however, she lifted her chin again. “That jewelry was in this family’s house. I only took it for a little while.”
“What for?”
“That’s none of your business.”
The answer made Nareswara’s face grow even colder. “Mom.”
“Don’t call me Mom in that tone!” Sinta snapped. “Are you all satisfied now that you’ve humiliated me? You deliberately installed a camera, and now you’re accusing me of being a thief!”
Arrabella sighed. Her mother-in-law was putting on another dramatic act. “No one set you up. The camera was installed for the house’s security.”
“Shut up!” Sinta pointed at Arrabella with a trembling hand. “Ever since you came into this house, everything has changed! Nareswara has grown more distant from his own mother!”
Arrabella said nothing.
Sinta then turned to her son. “You believe her too?”
Nareswara fell silent.
His gaze remained fixed on the screen. Something heavy weighed on his chest. Yet he couldn’t say that what his mother had done was right.
“Mom was wrong,” he said at last.
Those two words made Sinta’s face freeze.
“What?”
“Mom was wrong.”
“How dare you say I was wrong!”
“If you didn’t take the jewelry, prove it.”
“I don’t have to prove anything!”
“Then return the jewelry.”
“I didn’t take it with me!”
Arrabella glanced at the bag in Sinta’s hand. “Then open your bag, Mom.”
Sinta instinctively hugged the bag to her chest. “No!”
This time, even the servants lowered their heads. That answer alone was enough to prove Sinta was guilty.
Sinta realized there was no way she could win the argument. Her face filled with shame and anger, she turned toward the door.
“I don’t want to stay in this house anymore!”
“Ma’am—”
“Don’t anyone try to stop me!”
Sinta yanked the door open. Before leaving, she turned back one last time. Her eyes were fixed on Arrabella.
“Don’t think you’ve won just because of that footage!”
With that, Sinta left.
Her footsteps echoed rapidly down the corridor.
No one chased after her. A moment later, the front door could be heard closing.
Silence filled the room once again. Nareswara stood motionless for a while.
Then he turned to Arrabella. His face was as expressionless as ever. But there was something different in his eyes.
The guilt there was unmistakable. He knew that all this time, he had defended his mother far too often without ever truly finding out the truth.
And today, for the first time, he realized just how terribly Sinta had treated Arrabella.
“I’ll replace the jewelry.”
Arrabella immediately looked at her husband. “You don’t have to. It’s not just the jewelry that’s missing, Nareswara.”
He looked at her. “Then what is?”
“My trust.”