The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella)
Chapter 52 Fifty Two

By the next day, Kevin had gathered enough evidence to prove the identity of the woman who had sent the ring to the auction. He made a report at the local station, and she was summoned for interrogation. When Jacob arrived at the station, he saw that it was indeed the woman from the pawnshop. He stood in the next room, watching her interrogation through a glass window in the wall. A speaker in the room allowed him to hear the conversation in the other one.

"What am I doing here?" the woman asked, looking at her wrist watch impatiently. "I should be opening my shop right now."

Jacob's mouth twitched. She didn't seem rattled that she had been summoned to the police station. She must have plenty of experience getting away with screwing people over.

"We've received a report that you stole a ring yesterday and put it up for auction," the officer replied, gathering a few sheets of paper in his hand.

"A ring?" The woman asked, her tone implying that what the officer had said was incredulous. "Why would I steal a ring from anyone? Customers sell rings to me, and those are the only ones I put up for sale." The officer reached for a small plastic bag. Jacob's sapphire ring was inside. "In that case," the officer said, "did you send this ring to the auction yesterday?"

The woman looked at the ring, cleared her throat, and said, "Yes, I sent that one to the auction yesterday. I bought it from one of my customers."

"Is that so?" the officer asked. "How much did you pay for it?"

"It was a high price," she replied. "Two million."

The officer nodded and consulted the papers he held. The woman shifted on her seat, impatient. "Can I go now? Unless it's become a crime to sell second-hand jewellery at an auction, I don't see why I am here."

"When you buy such an expensive item from a customer, I'm assuming that you keep records, right?"

She sat still. "What?"

The officer pegged her with a stare. "Would you be able to provide your copy of the records showing who you bought it from, and how much you paid? Since this ring has been reported as stolen, it's important to check your records to ascertain the claims being made."

The woman fidgeted with her fingers. "The woman who sold it to me was in a hurry to get the cash, I didn't really get her details before she left."

"You paid her in cash?" the officer asked. "Do you keep that kind of money at the shop?"

The woman leaned in and said, “Look, she didn't want her husband knowing that she sold the ring, so I didn't keep any records. I was simply doing my customer's bidding. The customer comes first, you know." Jacob scoffed and folded his hand into a fist. She really knew how to weave stories to get out of a fix, didn't she? Not this time. She wasn't getting out of here any time soon.

"If you cannot prove that you bought the ring from the owner," the officer told her, "we'll have to go ahead with the case made against you."

"What?" the woman shouted. "That makes no sense! There's no evidence that I stole the ring, how can they make a case against me?"

The officer waved the papers in his hand. "We have plenty of evidence showing that the owner did not sell you the ring. Instead, it has been reported that you acquired it in a fraudulent manner. There's also a notification that your surveillance footage was so poor that one couldn't tell what was going on. Luckily, our IT department has the means to clear up the video. Once we're done with that, we'll be able to see what went on at your shop, and the truth will come out."

The woman paled, so much that Jacob could see it through the glass. She must have realised that the footage she had thought would be her backbone was going to be the ultimate piece of evidence. "Can I talk to the woman who sold me the ring?" she asked. "This is a misunderstanding. Maybe she got caught by her husband and wants to act innocent. If that's the case, it's fine, I'll just give her back the ring and she can return the money."

So she was still sticking to that story? Jacob wondered what she would come up with next.

The officer shook his head. "The owner said he is done talking to you. He said that he gave you a chance to come clean, but you refused. The matter is in our hands now." He gave her a tight smile. "If what you're saying is true, don't worry, we'll replace that out on your surveillance footage. I'm sure we'll be able to see the transaction taking place well enough."

The woman bit on her bottom lip. If the police got hold of the footage and studied it, even without improving its quality, they would definitely see that at no point did money change hands.

When the couple had shown up at her shop the other day and the man threatened to send her to jail, she hadn't thought he would be able to build a case against her. How had he traced the ring to the auction? How had he even gotten details about her involvement in the sale? Nobody had ever been able to do that before.

It was then that she realised she was dealing with someone who was capable of sending her to jail. If she kept lying and the footage revealed the truth, she could even lose her business. It would be better to come clean and beg for forgiveness.

The officer began gathering his stuff. "We are done here. Now, I'll come with you to the shop to get a copy of the footage. Once-"

"It's true," she cut him off, "I stole the ring."

The officer looked up at her and lifted his brow. "What?"

Wringing her hands together, she confessed, "I offered her a high price for the ring, but she didn't want to sell it. I offered to clean it for her and replaced it with a counterfeit. I'm really sorry. I would like to talk to her and apologise. Settle this between the two of us. I'll never do it again."

The officer cleared his throat. "So you are confessing to the accusations made against you."

She nodded. "I want to solve this with the owner. Can I talk to them?"

"If the owner wants to settle this privately, the investigation will stop," the officer told her, "but if not, since you've confessed, we'll have to detain you while we collect the last piece of evidence."

"Detain?"

He nodded, and then gestured to the door. "The owner is right outside this room. I'll call them in and see whether they are willing to settle this out of court with you. Mr Garcia?"

Jacob opened the door to the interrogation room and walked in, his eyes zeroing in on the woman. When she saw him, she gulped, and then shot to her feet, her hands clasped together in front of her. "Please,

sir-"

"Send her to jail," he said firmly, cutting her off and looking at the officer. "I'll be pressing charges. Thank you, officer. When can I have the ring back?"

***

In the evening, Jacob went back to the apartment with the ring, planning to give it back to Isabelle. Now that he had dealt with the con and gotten it back, he hoped that things would go back to normal. To his consternation, when he offered her the ring, she refused to take it.

"I'm not good at keeping things," she told him, "so I'm afraid if I lose it again, some people might think I sold it for money."

He sighed at the barb. How long was she planning to be mad about it? Didn't the fact that she had lost it and he had gone looking for it when she should have been responsible mean anything? Not that he blamed her for getting conned, but damn. Did he deserve to suffer so much for one mistake?

"It's yours now," he told her, "and I got it back for you. So please take it."

"Mine?" she questioned. "Didn't you say it belonged to your mother? Why would you give your fake wife your mother's ring? And...if it were mine, I would have the right to sell it, right? But you accused me of selling your family's antique. I don't want it."

She walked past him and disappeared into her room, ending the conversation. Jacob cursed and paced. It was dawning on him that he really did not know how to coax a woman.

If him apologising and getting the ring back didn't make her feel better, what would?

Finally, he left the house, with the intention of seeking the advice of one man he knew would know what to do in this situation. Jason Del Mundo.