A Trap Under the Spotlight
23: CHAPTER 23.
A Trap Under the Spotlight Camila’s POV”Come with me!”
I had no choice but to walk quickly, trailing behind Adriana, who strode ahead with unmistakable, lingering irritation.
I had no idea at all where she intended to take me today.
My mind was clouded with anxiety — was Adriana planning another cruel scheme to frame me again?
Thud!
I caught her branded handbag swiftly as Adriana suddenly spun around and hurled the luxurious object straight at my chest.
“Watch over all my things! If even one item goes missing from inside there, it means you stole it!” Adriana threatened, her words heavy with emphasis.
I hugged the bag to myself, my brow furrowing.
“Why does it have to be me? You have a personal assistant — why doesn’t she carry and watch it like usual?” I protested.
Adriana halted her haughty stride.
She turned, staring at me with an exceedingly sharp gaze while a mocking smile curled at her red lips.
She stepped closer, closing the distance between us.
“Already forgotten what I said back then, Camila?” she whispered, dripping with triumph.
I shook my head faintly, though my hands still tried to push the bag back toward her.
“But there must be plenty of valuable things of yours in here, right?
What if something really does go missing?”
”Then watch it properly!
Or would you rather I call Aunt Isabella right now and report what you did last night with Javier in your room?
How about that, hm — what if Aunt Isabella found out?”
I instantly gripped the bag’s strap so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
My heart pounded wildly.
Adriana was truly cunning, using that threat to toy with me like a slave.
Forcing myself to swallow what little pride I had left, I finally nodded in defeat and clutched the bag, which she claimed held so many valuable things.
But my guess was far off the mark.
The woman, it turned out, was heading to a studio for work — a photoshoot session for her latest fashion magazine feature.
“Where’s Adriana’s bag?” her personal assistant suddenly demanded, approaching me in the corner of the waiting room.
I could only let out a tired breath as I handed over the luxurious bag.
My heart flared with irritation at the assistant’s attitude, who was just as arrogant and looked down on me the same way.
Not knowing what else to do in this unfamiliar place, I chose to step a little further away, sitting on a sofa in the corner of the studio, fiddling with my phone to distract myself.
But before I could sit quietly for long, a shriek from Adriana’s voice coming from the dressing room startled me, and I immediately turned around.
“Camila!
Get over here, now!”
”What’s wrong?” I asked in a panic after stumbling over to the crowd of crew members gathered in the dressing room.
Adriana turned the small compartment of her bag inside out with a furious expression.
“Where’s the diamond necklace that was supposed to be in this bag?!”
I shook my head slowly, my brow creased in confusion.
I didn’t even know what the necklace she was talking about looked like.
“I—I don’t know.
I didn’t even know there was a diamond necklace in that bag.”
”Liar!
That necklace is clearly missing, Camila!
And I need to wear it right now for the main themed photoshoot!” Adriana snapped furiously, drawing the attention of the entire studio crew, who now began eyeing me with suspicion.
“But I really don’t know anything, Adriana,” I defended myself, my voice beginning to tremble.
“Why don’t we just search through the bag she brought? Who knows, maybe she deliberately hid it and stole it,” Adriana’s assistant chimed in, stoking the tension in the room.
I turned toward her assistant at once with a look of disbelief.
Steeling my courage, I quickly took off my own sling bag and thrust it into the middle of the room.
“Here! Go ahead and check! I never took that necklace. I don’t even know what it looks like!” I declared defiantly, certain of my own innocence. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Hearing my firm, confident words, Adriana snatched my bag roughly.
Instead of checking through it politely, the woman flipped my bag upside down and dumped its entire contents onto the floor without a second thought.
Clang!
Clatter!
All of my personal belongings scattered across the cold studio floor, leaving nothing inside.
But in the very next second, my entire body suddenly froze stiff as stone.
My eyes widened in horror at the sight of a small, deep red velvet box rolling out from among my things.
It was a box for luxury jewelry.
My heart pounded so violently it caused a sharp ache in my chest.
I was certain, I knew for a fact, that I had never owned anything so extravagant.
Whose box was that?
Suddenly, a suffocating sense of dread seized my entire consciousness.
And sure enough, as Adriana knelt and opened the box with a dramatic flourish, a dazzling, luxurious diamond necklace lay nestled perfectly inside.
“What is this, huh?! Were you trying to steal my diamond necklace, Camila?!” Adriana screamed, looking up at me with an expression as though she were the most wronged victim in the world.
“No! I never did that!” I cried out in frustration, tears beginning to spill down my cheeks.
“Then what is this?! There’s no way this expensive jewelry box could just walk in on its own and sneak into the bag of a servant like you!” one of the crew jeered mercilessly.
“I don’t know how that box ended up there! But I swear, I swear to God, I never stole it!” I defended myself amid the sobs that had begun to break free.
“You’re a thief! Ungrateful wretch!” one of the studio crew members standing behind Adriana cursed under their breath.
I could only lower my head deeply beneath the judgmental stares and vicious whispers of everyone in the room.
My chest felt so tight, so unbearably suffocating, that it was hard to breathe.
Every one of them condemned me as a thief, when in truth I had clearly been set up and knew nothing at all about the dirty game Adriana had just played.