Chapter 40 A Calm Meeting with Sabrina
Michael got even angrier once Sabrina brought it up. "Sabby, perfect timing. Remember yesterday when I told you someone wanted to buy my paintings?"
Sabrina nodded guiltily.
Michael was fuming. "I went to the studio to look—all my finished pieces are gone! Even some of the half-finished ones disappeared."
He was absolutely livid.
Melissa paused here, grinning mischievously.
"Don't keep me in suspense. You're saying Sabrina couldn't tell which ones were finished and which weren't, right?"
Melissa snapped her fingers. "Bingo!"
I facepalmed with a bitter smile. Made perfect sense, really. Sabrina was vicious and calculating, pouring all her energy into pleasing my four brothers and stealing their affection from me. She'd barely put any effort into actual learning.
As the real Rosewood family daughter, I'd attended public school. Meanwhile Sabrina, with her terrible grades, had always gone to private schools that Andrew paid for. Even getting into the same university as me required Andrew and James to pull strings and donate a whole building to get her in.
Melissa and I found it contemptible but couldn't help feeling a twinge of envy. Especially the old me. Who wouldn't want that feeling of always having powerful backing, no matter what you did?
The tangent passed quickly. Melissa resumed her performance.
Of course Sabrina would never admit it was her fault.
"Mike, it must be one of the servants with sticky fingers. They stole your paintings to sell. Probably can't get them back now."
Jason thought she made a good point and joined in consoling Michael. "Yeah, don't be too upset."
Sabrina, always sweet-talking, continued. "Mike, they're all country bumpkins from nowhere. What would they know? When they were cleaning and saw your amazing artwork, they probably got greedy. But you're a genius artist! You lost these paintings, but you can paint even better ones!"
She grabbed Michael's hand and acted cute. Her soothing seemed to lower his anger level considerably.
But the more he thought about it, the madder he got. He was a genius painter—did he need validation from common people?
"No way!" Michael looked at Sabrina. "Sabby, come check the surveillance with me. I'm finding that thief and sending her to jail!"
His emotions were running high, absolutely indignant.
Sabrina's guilty expression almost showed through. Check the surveillance? Even though she'd deleted that footage, the gap in the timeline would be obvious! What if there were other traces left behind...
The more Sabrina thought about it, the more terrified she became. Michael would catch her before Catherine even had to report anything. Sabrina absolutely couldn't let that happen.
She quickly stopped Michael. "Mike, even if we check, where would we start? The surveillance only keeps recordings for the past month. What if the theft happened earlier? Just forget about it and paint some new ones, okay?"
Sabrina argued convincingly, not forgetting to urge Michael to paint more—so she could steal and sell those too.
Michael found her reasoning sound and finally backed down.
"Michael, why don't you just clean your studio yourself from now on? Don't let random people in," Jason suggested.
Michael, pampered since childhood, had no idea how to do chores. He rejected the idea without thinking. "No way. My time is precious and should be spent on creating art, not wasted on trivial tasks."
But saving face, Michael couldn't just let it go completely. He ordered the butler that because the paintings were stolen on the servants' watch, everyone would have a month's salary docked as punishment. They also had to monitor and report on each other—any repeat incidents and he'd replace them all.
Melissa's performance was vivid and entertaining. When she finished, I applauded enthusiastically.
"So you're upset about the salary thing?"
Melissa deflated again, nodding weakly.
I casually transferred her five thousand dollars. "Feeling better now?"
Melissa's eyes lit up. She nodded vigorously, looking at me like I was some kind of treasure.
"Cate, are you loaded now or something?"
I smiled slyly. "Secret."
Obviously I couldn't tell her that Nicholas was now my personal chauffeur for commuting. He'd also taken care of my meals and even paid me extra as a "chef fee." He'd even domineered his way into paying my rent.
Basically, my only expenses now were shopping for myself. But I wasn't particularly materialistic, so I'd managed to save a bit.
Having solved her emotional crisis, Melissa was reinvigorated. "Cate, I'm gonna go dig up more entertainment for you. I'm totally your most loyal little helper now, milady!"
"Sounds perfect. Go for it."
We ended the call and went about our business.
A few days later, Sabrina contacted me first.
"I've got what you wanted. How do you want it?"
I sent her the address of a coffee shop near my office and suggested meeting in person. Sabrina, worried I might have backup copies of the photo, agreed.
When we actually sat across from each other peacefully in that coffee shop, we both fell silent. A scene like this would've been impossible before. Where I was, Sabrina wasn't. Otherwise it would've been like before—constant conflict.
Sabrina pushed a cardboard box toward me. "Everything I could dig up is in there." Her tone was careless. "You know I sold all the valuable stuff. You should be grateful I found even this much."
I gave her a cold look. Couldn't believe she had the nerve to admit it so casually.
"What's in it?"
"Open it and see for yourself."
Sabrina's attitude was terrible. If not for those photos, she wouldn't have bothered with this charade.
I eyed her warily and carefully opened the box. There wasn't much inside. Dad's diary from when he was alive. Mom's old phone... All worthless items, really.
But to me, they were the most precious treasures in the world.
"Ha, look at you. Can't let go of the Rosewood family after all, huh? Why don't you beg me? Maybe I'll be generous and let you come back."
"No need."
I forced the tears back, carefully collected the items from the box, and pulled out my backup phone.
"Delete it yourself."
Obviously I wouldn't actually hand over my leverage. Sabrina looked at me skeptically but still took the phone and deleted the photo. She was extremely thorough, deleting it from the backup folder too.
"Catherine, are you really being this nice?"
I acted offended and immediately reached for the phone. "Don't believe me? Give it back!"
Sabrina refused. She quickly deleted everything, practically wanting to format my entire phone.
"Here. Your phone back."