Filed to story: Second Chance Mafia Bride Drama Novel
“What’s going on here?” Lady Salerno’s gaze fell on the shattered pendant, and her face changed. She hurried over. “What happened? Who broke this?”
“Lady Salerno, please, you have to help me!” May fell to her knees in a panic.
She sobbed, “I was only the one who delivered the box to Mrs. Salerno. Now the pendant is broken and I just know she’ll say it was me… but I swear I didn’t do it! If I get blamed for this, there’s no way I could ever pay for it. It’ll ruin me!”
Alice spoke up, “For it to be this broken, someone would have had to throw it hard. How could May have done that? She’s just a servant. Like she said, if she broke it, she’d owe more than she could ever repay. Why would she do that on purpose? She’d have to be out of her mind.”
With May out of the picture, that left Serena as the prime suspect.
Lady turned to Serena, her expression icy. “So, you’re Nicholas’s new wife, aren’t you? Be honest-was it you who broke the figurine?”
Serena hadn’t expected her first meeting with Lady, after her second chance at life, to happen under circumstances like these.
Would Lady judge her unfairly, jump to conclusions-hold a bad impression of her from the start?
In her former life, Serena wouldn’t have cared. But this time, she wanted to make things right with Nicholas. Now, she had to think about these things.
She steadied herself. “Grandma, it wasn’t me.”
Alice jumped in at once. “And what proof do you have that it wasn’t you?”
Serena’s eyes flashed, cold and sharp, locking onto Alice.
The porcelain Madonna had just happened to shatter, and Lady just happened to show up? All of it-far too convenient.
Alice shrank back at Serena’s gaze, only to catch herself and bristle with embarrassment. Both Mr. Salerno and Lady were here what could Serena even do to her?
She pressed on, voice shrill. “If you have no evidence, who are you to-“
“Enough.” A low, commanding voice cut through the tension. It was Nicholas who spoke.
Alice bit her lip. “Mr. Salerno?”
Nicholas ignored her. He turned to Lady. “Let’s just say it was an accident. There’s no need to make a fuss. It’s a shame about your gift, but once my leg’s healed, I’ll go with you to the church and get another one.”
Alice seethed in silence. Mr. Salerno was defending that woman!
Serena looked at him in surprise her heart a tangle of relief and disappointment. Relief, because he’d stood up for her. Disappointment, because did he not believe her? Did he think she’d done it after all?
Lady’s anger drained away, replaced by surprise and a glimmer of joy.
Her grandson, pleading for someone else? That had never happened before.
She stole a sidelong glance at Serena. Maybe this girl really was different. If she could bring some happiness into Nicholas’s remaining days, make him feel like a normal person, then what was one broken Madonna? Ten? A hundred? Lady would let her smash them all.
Her eyes grew damp with emotion. She smiled, voice gentle. “Alright, alright. We’ll do as Nicholas says.”
Alice protested, “Lady-!”
But Serena reached out and tugged gently at Nicholas’s sleeve. “I have proof.”
Nicholas’s gaze sharpened. “What?”
“I said, I have evidence to clear my name.”
At once, every eye in the room landed on Serena.
She stood tall at Nicholas’s side, graceful and calm.
“You have proof? What proof?” Alice demanded.
Serena ignored her, turning instead to May. “You handed the box straight to me, didn’t you? No one else touched it in between, right?”
May felt a flicker of unease. She’d been so careful, so secretive when she dropped the box-how could Mrs. Salerno possibly know?
She forced herself to sound confident. “Yes, I brought it straight to you-everyone saw me hand it over downstairs, and the figurine was still perfectly fine then!”
A wry smile tugged at Serena’s lips. She spoke, sudden and clear. “There’s a camera in my bedroom. After you gave me the box, whether I touched the figurine or not we can check the footage and find out.”
Alice and May both blanched.
A camera? Since when? Why hadn’t they known?
May shot Alice a panicked look.
Alice’s eyes flashed: Don’t admit a thing.
Serena was probably bluffing.
But this time, Serena wasn’t bluffing. After her notebook was taken by Rubina and the flowers were secretly swapped out by May, how could she possibly feel at ease in her own room without installing a security camera?
She pulled out her phone, tapped the screen a few times, and brought up a surveillance video.
The footage clearly showed that she had only touched the box once-from the moment she’d just taken it down.
May’s face drained of color, her legs buckling beneath her.
Given her reaction, it was obvious to everyone who had really broken the item.
Lady’s expression turned thunderous. “Unbelievable! You dare to frame your mistress? Where did you ever get that kind of nerve?”
May collapsed to the floor, sobbing, “Lady, Mr. Salerno, I’m sorry! I was wrong!”
At the same time, she instinctively glanced at Alice for help, only to see shock and fury written all over her friend’s face. “May, I thought we were close-I even spoke up for you just now! How could you do something like this?”
May froze, her heart turning cold. She wanted to retort, Wasn’t it your idea? But when she met Alice’s warning glare, the words died in her throat.
No-she couldn’t drag Alice down with her. Alice was Mary’s daughter, and if Mary pleaded with Lady, Alice would walk away unscathed. If May tried to implicate her, she’d get nothing but trouble-and likely revenge.
May had no choice but to choke back Alice’s name and continue pleading. “Lady, Mr. Salerno, it was just a moment of weakness…”
Lady’s brows arched sharply. “And a moment of weakness is all it takes to frame your employer?”
“I didn’t mean for things to go so far! It was madam-she was the one who made things impossible for me!”
Serena’s eyes narrowed. “And when exactly did I make things impossible for you?”
May wept pitifully. “All I did was take a few of Madam’s flowers, and she made a huge scene, threatened to throw me out! If Mary hadn’t begged on my behalf, I’d be gone already. But Madam still docked my pay for months…”
“Lady, please have some mercy. My father’s disabled, my mother’s gravely ill, and my little brother is about to start school-my whole family relies on my salary and bonuses to survive!”
“It was just a few wilted flowers! Even if I hadn’t touched them, Madam would’ve tossed them in the trash in a day or two. But for that, she took away the money my family desperately needs…”
Around them, the other staff couldn’t help but look on with sympathy, and even Lady’s demeanor softened, her gaze turning disapprovingly toward Serena.
As the new mistress of Rosewood Manor, of course she needed to establish her authority-but was it really necessary to make such a spectacle out of something so minor? Was she being too harsh?
The maids began to think, Maybe the new lady of the house really is heartless…
Seeing their reactions, May covered her face, quietly curling her lips in a hidden smile.