Chapter 120 Chapter 120
Hailey’s POV
I stepped out from the corner where I’d been hiding, my face flushing with embarrassment at being caught.
“How did you know I was there?” I asked, trying to sound less guilty than I felt
Sophia didn’t turn around immediately, still facing the open vault. “I heard you breathing. And your footsteps, even though you tried to be quiet. I’ve lived in this house my whole life. I know every sound it makes.”
I moved closer, stepping fully into Elena’s room now that there was no point in hiding. “How did you get the key? Louis took them from me. He has the only set.”
Sophia finally turned to look at me, and there was something almost triumphant in her expression. “This is my mother’s room. Did you really think I wouldn’t have my own key? I’ve had access to this room since the day it was sealed.”
That revelation caught me off guard. “You’ve been coming in here all this time?”
“Whenever I needed to feel close to her,” Sophia said, her voice softening slightly. “When things got too hard. When I missed her too much.”
I looked around the room with new understanding. The lack of dust in certain areas. The way some things seemed slightly moved from where they’d been. Sophia had been maintaining this space, keeping it alive in her own way.
My mind immediately went to the journals hidden under the floorboard. Did Sophia know about them? Had she found them during one of her visits?
I needed to know without revealing that I’d already discovered them.
“Did your mother keep personal things in here?” I asked carefully, trying to sound casual. “Like… I don’t know, diaries or journals? Things she wrote down?”
Sophia’s expression remained blank, showing no recognition. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“Just wondering,” I said, relief flooding through me. “If she was as worried as Vincent said, maybe she wrote things down. Documented what she was afraid of.”
“If she did, I never found them,” Sophia said, turning back to the vault. “I’ve been through this room hundreds of times. There’s nothing like that here.”
She didn’t know. Sophia had no idea about the hidden compartment under the floorboard, about the journals containing her mother’s fears and observations.
That meant I still had information she didn’t. Still had an advantage.
I watched as Sophia reached into the vault and carefully pulled out a box. It was elegant, clearly expensive, with intricate designs carved into the dark wood.
She set it on a nearby table and opened it slowly, almost reverently.
Inside was jewelry. But not just any jewelry, these were pieces that even I, with my limited knowledge, could tell were worth millions. Diamond necklaces. Emerald bracelets. Ruby earrings. Each piece more stunning than the last.
“My mother’s collection,” Sophia said quietly. “She loved jewelry. Beautiful, rare pieces. My father gave her most of these for special occasions. Anniversaries, birthdays, the birth of….”
She stopped herself, her voice catching.
Sophia carefully moved aside several pieces, searching for something specific. Then her hand closed around something, and she lifted it out with such tenderness it made my chest ache.
A pendant. Heart-shaped, made from a pink sapphire that caught the light and seemed to glow from within. It was suspended on a delicate platinum chain, and the craftsmanship was breathtaking.
“This was her best jewel,” Sophia said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Her absolute favorite. My father had it custom made for their fifth anniversary. Pink sapphire is incredibly rare, and this stone was one of the finest ever found.”
She held it up, and I couldn’t help but move closer to see it better. The sapphire was flawless, its color a perfect soft pink that seemed to shift in the light.
“It’s beautiful,” I said honestly.
“She promised to give it to me when I turned eighteen,” Sophia continued, tears now streaming down her face. “She said it would be mine, that she’d pass it to me on my birthday as a symbol of becoming a woman. But she didn’t live long enough to hand it to me.”
I didn’t know what to say. Despite everything between us, despite all the hatred and conflict, I felt genuinely sorry for her in that moment.
“Sophia, I’m…”
“Do you know why I’m telling you this?” Sophia interrupted, her voice suddenly hardening as she looked at me directly. “Why I’m sharing something so personal with you?”
I shook my head, confused by the shift in her tone.
“Because I want you to understand,” Sophia said, her grip tightening on the pendant. “I want you to know how it feels. Having someone your age, trying to take your mother’s place.”
“I’m not trying to take her place,” I protested.
“Yes, you are,” Sophia said, her voice rising. “You’re living in her house. Sleeping with her husband. Carrying his child. Taking everything that should have been hers. Everything that should still be hers.”
“Your mother is dead, Sophia,” I said gently. “I’m sorry for that. Truly. But I’m not replacing her. I’m just….”
“Just what?” Sophia demanded. “Just living the life she should have lived? Just becoming the new Mrs. Alejandro? Just giving my father the fresh start he wanted with someone younger, someone without all the baggage and history?”
She held up the pink sapphire pendant, and in the light, it looked almost like a beating heart.
“I swear,” Sophia said, her voice dropping to something cold and deadly serious. “I swear on this sapphire, on my mother’s most treasured possession, on everything she held dear, I won’t let you live happily. I won’t let you have the life that was supposed to be hers. I will find a way to make you miserable, to drive you away, to destroy whatever happiness you think you’ve found with my father.”