Not Linda.
Even the people who had watched me on the floor only minutes earlier were now looking at him as though they had never seen him before.
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
“I was going to take it back.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“I wasn’t going to let Mom call the police.”
The sentence landed so strangely that I needed a second to process it.
“You put her bracelet in my purse.”
Ryan exhaled sharply. “Because I needed her to see something.”
Linda’s voice trembled. “See what?”
Ryan turned toward his mother.
“That you were right.”
I felt the air leave my lungs.
Linda looked almost as stunned as I was.
Ryan began talking faster, as though speed could somehow make the explanation less monstrous.
“You kept saying Sarah only cared about money. You kept saying she’d take something if she thought she could get away with it. I thought if the bracelet showed up in her bag, you’d finally stop talking about it afterward.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“That makes no sense.”
“I was going to pretend we found it somewhere else later.”
“You framed me.”
“No. Sarah, listen.”
“You planted stolen jewelry in my purse and then stood there while your mother dragged me across the floor.”
Ryan flinched.
“I didn’t know she was going to do that.”
“But when she did, you still didn’t stop her.”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
That silence was worse than every excuse he had offered.
Linda sat down heavily on the edge of a chair.
“You put my bracelet in her purse?”
Ryan turned toward her. “Mom—”
“You let me think she stole from me?”
“I was going to fix it.”
Linda’s voice rose. “You let me accuse her!”
I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Five minutes earlier, Linda had been willing to condemn me without evidence. Now she was furious because Ryan had manipulated her into doing exactly what she had already wanted to do.
I looked at both of them and understood something with sudden, painful clarity.
Ryan had not invented Linda’s hatred of me.
He had simply weaponized it.
His plan had only worked because he knew she would believe the worst without hesitation.
My attorney’s voice came from the phone again.
“Sarah? I’m still here.”
Everyone looked at the device in my hand.
I lifted it back to my ear.
“I’m here.”
“Do you need me to call someone?”
I looked down at my scraped knees, then at the strands of hair stuck to Linda’s tile floor.
“Yes.”
Ryan’s head snapped toward me.
