His Childhood Sweetheart Accused Me of Stealing

I had just flown back to the city after finishing my design degree abroad. The moment I landed, my grandfather informed me that a marriage had been arranged for me since birth. He promptly dragged me to the Ashworth estate to finalize the engagement.
I got bored listening to the old men drone on, so I slipped out to wander through the family’s sprawling gardens.
Suddenly, a woman stormed up to me and slapped me hard across the face.
"Who the hell are you, you little tramp? How dare you steal my things!"
I cupped my stinging cheek, staring at her in shock.
She tilted her head back, her voice dripping with the kind of arrogance that sounded like charity. "That ruby on your finger? That was a birthday gift from Mr. Ashworth himself! Can a little charity case like you even afford to wear something like that?"
My mouth fell open. I was about to tell her it was mine when she slapped me again, even harder this time.
"Do you have any idea who I am? I am the future Mrs. Ashworth! This entire estate will be mine one day!"
I pulled out my phone, and right in front of her, I sent a message to the contact saved as "Fiancé."
"Stanley Ashworth, there's a rabid dog in your garden. Are you going to handle it, or should I?"

1
To my surprise, the message was immediately followed by a red exclamation mark.
I almost laughed. The engagement wasn't even official, and he'd already blocked me.
"Where did you sneak in from? Give Miss Vance back her property this instant!" An older maid rushed toward me, but I sidestepped her easily.
"I am an honored guest of the Ashworth family," I said, my voice cold. "Is this how you treat your guests?"
Penelope Vance scoffed and pulled out her own phone, dialing the man who was supposed to be my fiancé. A deep, smooth voice answered on the first ring.
"What is it, Penny?"
Not bad, I thought. He has a nice voice. Grandfather has good taste, at least in that.
"Stanley, darling! There's some wretched girl who snuck into your house claiming to be a guest, and she stole the ring you gave me!"
I cut through her sickeningly sweet tone before he could get the wrong idea. "Mr. Ashworth, my name is Seraphina Blackwood. I'm your fiancée."
He paused for a beat, as if trying to place the name. When he spoke again, his voice was laced with ice. "What fiancée? No one enters the Ashworth estate without an invitation. Otherwise, you'll be dealt with as a trespasser."
Then, his tone melted back to honey. "Penny, don't be upset. It's just a ring. I'll buy you a new one when I get back."
This pigeon's blood ruby was my parents' engagement ring. There wasn't another one like it in the entire world.
As I was seriously reconsidering the wisdom of this alliance, Penelope was bent over laughing, her eyes raking over me with contempt. "You? Look at you! Your clothes don't even have a brand name! And you have the nerve to call yourself Stanley's fiancée? That's hilarious!"
I had been studying fashion design abroad. The clothes I was wearing were my own creations, of course they didn't have a label. My designs were already sought after by socialites across Europe, but this woman didn't recognize them. It made me question her credentials.
Her little scene had ruined my mood. I turned to leave.
Penelope blocked my path. "Didn't you hear Stanley? You need an invitation to be here! You claim to be a guest? Where is it?"
I rolled my eyes and dug into my pockets, but came up empty. I suddenly remembered my grandfather saying we wouldn't need one.
She saw my hesitation, and her smirk widened. "I knew it! You're a liar! Guards! Get the ring off her finger, tie her up, and throw her out!"
I shielded the ring with one hand and took a step back, my expression hardening.
Several household staff members approached me, one of them speaking with a hint of pity. "Miss, you should just give the ring back to Miss Vance. If you don't, you won't even know what hit you."
"Yeah, that ring is a symbol of their love. Mr. Ashworth and Miss Vance grew up together. He won't spare you when he finds out."
"I saw it with my own eyes. A guy once spilled a drink on Miss Vance's dress. The next day, his hand was just... gone."
The staff's warnings only fueled Penelope's sneer. "Did you hear that? Now, get on your knees, place this ring respectfully in my hand, and then get the hell out of here. Otherwise, you'll end up just like the man who dirtied my dress."

2
In my entire life, I had only ever seen people kneel before me.
The last person who dared to speak to me like that has been fertilizing a patch of daisies for years.
I stepped forward and slapped Penelope across the face.
Her head snapped to the side, her eyes wide with disbelief. "You dare hit me?!" she shrieked, clutching her cheek and ordering the maids to attack.
A smirk played on my lips.
Before I went abroad, my grandfather, fearing I'd be vulnerable on my own, had personally arranged for me to be trained in Krav Maga. A few beefy housekeepers were nothing.
A few quick strikes sent them stumbling back, dazed and confused.
"Pathetic," I muttered, shaking out my slightly numb fist. I turned to leave, ignoring Penelope's enraged screams.
Suddenly, one of the maids shouted, "Mr. Ashworth is back!"
I looked up to see a man in a perfectly tailored suit striding toward us, his face a mask of cold fury.
In an instant, Penelope's vicious expression melted away, replaced by one of heartbreaking fragility. She threw herself into Stanley Ashworth's arms. "Stanley, darling! You're finally back! I was being bullied so horribly!"
I had to admit, Stanley Ashworth was handsome enough to be a movie star. It was a shame that, knowing full well he was engaged to me, he was now cradling his childhood sweetheart with such tender concern.
I curled my lip in disgust. I needed to call my grandfather and tell him this wedding was absolutely, unequivocally off.
I ignored their little melodrama and headed for the garden exit.
"Stop right there," Stanley's voice cut through the air, cold as steel. "You think you can just walk away after touching my woman?"
He didn't even look at me, his attention focused on gently wiping away Penelope's tears. From behind him, several large bodyguards moved to block my path.
I let out a resigned sigh and turned back to him. "Mr. Ashworth, my grandfather is currently in your grandfather's study discussing our engagement. If they were to find out about this, it wouldn't look good for you, would it?"
At the mention of his grandfather, the maids' expressions flickered.
"What? Is she really his fiancée?"
"Who cares? Look how protective he is of Miss Vance. This engagement might not even happen."
"Exactly. We'd better not say the wrong thing and get on Miss Vance's bad side. With her temper, she'll make our lives a living hell."
The word "engagement" seemed to enrage Stanley even more. His face darkened. "What engagement? I never agreed to anything. Besides, my grandfather adores me. He would never force me to marry some nobody from God knows where."
Penelope looked up from his embrace, her eyes gleaming with triumph. "Stanley and I are childhood sweethearts. What right does a common thief have to the title of Mrs. Ashworth?"
I nodded slowly. A scumbag and a shrew. They were made for each other. Let them be locked together forever so they couldn't inflict themselves on anyone else.
Still, my grandfather had told me that of all the families who had sought an alliance with ours, the Ashworths had put in the most effort. I had met the elder Mr. Ashworth a few times; he was a kind man. I could only imagine the storm that would erupt when he found out his grandson had single-handedly destroyed the union he had worked so hard to secure.
But there was nothing to be done about it. Sometimes a fine bamboo stalk produces a rotten shoot.

3
I shook my head with a sense of pity and was about to leave for good when Penelope shrieked again. "Don't let her go! The ruby ring you gave me is still on her hand!"
At Stanley's signal, his bodyguards seized me, their hands grabbing for the ring without a shred of gentleness. But the ring had been custom-fitted to my finger. They pulled and twisted, but it wouldn't budge.
"Penelope," I said, a mocking tone in my voice, "if this ring is yours, why does it fit my finger so perfectly?"
My taunt only enraged her further. She shook Stanley's arm. "She's fatter than me, obviously! She must have forced it on, and now it's stuck!"
"Then use a power drill!"
My face paled. This was bad. I hadn't brought my own security today.
Stanley's bodyguards were big, and there were too many of them. I fought back, but they quickly found an opening and pinned me to the ground.
Penelope crouched in front of me, her eyes alight with manic glee. Her blood-red nails dug into my chin. "Not so tough now, are you?"
She slapped me with all her might. The grit from the garden path scraped against my skin, drawing blood.
Stanley stared down at me for a moment, a cold smile playing on his lips. "Penny, did you hurt your hand? Want to see something more fun?"
Her eyes lit up.
"Tie her to the boat in the middle of the pond!"
My eyes widened in horror. I looked at Stanley's face, which was twisted with a strange excitement. Did he know something?
"No! You'll regret this!" I screamed.
Penelope’s voice was a cocktail of disdain and thrill. "Regret? That word isn't in my vocabulary. But you? You're about to regret ever touching what's mine."
The guards dragged me to the ornamental pond in the center of the garden and threw me into a rickety old boat, tying me down with coarse rope. Before I could even open my eyes, they flipped me onto my stomach. A high-pitched whirring sound filled the air as a power saw descended toward my hand.
A searing pain shot up my arm, and I screamed. Blood splattered onto the pigeon's blood ruby, making it gleam with a sinister light.
"Oh dear, looks like another one's about to learn a lesson the hard way."
"Such a pretty girl, too. Had to be stubborn. Now Mr. Ashworth won't let her off. She'll lose a finger, at least."
"It's too brutal. I can't watch."
The maids and servants chattered on the edge of the pond, but their voices were a distant buzz.
The pain made me thrash wildly. The old, dilapidated boat rocked violently, slapping against the water. The scene was horribly reminiscent of the night my parents died at sea.
A deep-seated terror clawed its way out from the recesses of my mind. My face turned ashen. My hands, acting on their own, flew up to clutch my head as fresh blood from my finger trickled down my cheek.
"No! Please! Let me off this boat!"
But Penelope and Stanley just stood on the shore, watching the spectacle as if it were a play. He even kicked the boat, sending it drifting toward the center of the pond.
I forced my eyes open and saw Penelope clutching the ring, her face a mask of triumph. Stanley had his arm around her, whispering, "That ring is tainted with her filthy blood now. Throw it away. I'll buy you a new one."
And then, as I screamed, they casually tossed my parents' ring into the murky water.
"Stanley Ashworth! Aren't you afraid of what my grandfather will do to you?!"

4
He just laughed, his eyes full of contempt, as if he were looking at a piece of trash. "Your grandfather? Who the hell is he to demand an accounting from me?"
"Your family is just you and that old fossil now, isn't it?"
"She was bad luck enough to get her own parents killed, and he actually wants me to marry her? In his dreams!"
His words—get her own parents killed—were a dagger to my heart. My pupils constricted.
On my eighth birthday, my parents were supposed to be on a cruise, coming home to celebrate with me. But a storm had rolled in. The captain of our yacht advised them to wait it out in port.
But I had called them, crying, telling them how much I missed them.
So they took a smaller boat, determined to make it back for me.
Just as they were nearing the shore, a freak squall hit. A fifteen-foot rogue wave crashed over them. Right in front of my eyes, their boat capsized and disappeared into the churning sea.
The scene flashed before my eyes, triggered by Stanley's cruel words. I curled into a ball on the boat, trembling uncontrollably, tears streaming down my face. All I could do was whisper the same words over and over.
"Daddy... Mommy... I'm so sorry. I don't want you to come back for my birthday anymore..."
Penelope clapped her hands, delighted by my suffering. "So she's a jinx! No wonder she has such a foul aura! Stanley, darling, we should stay far away from her, or her bad luck might rub off on us!"
Abroad, no one knew my past, so it was never mentioned. At home, to protect me from the pain, my grandfather had forbidden anyone from speaking of it. He'd even had the lake on our estate filled in.
The guilt and grief I had suppressed for so long erupted now, a toxic volcano of self-loathing. I felt an overwhelming urge to throw myself into the water and atone for my sins.
Suddenly, my phone rang. It was the custom ringtone I had set for my grandfather.
A sliver of clarity pierced through the fog of my despair. The Blackwood family was just me and him now. He had already suffered the agony of burying his own children. If I left him, too... I couldn't bear to think of the consequences.
I took a deep breath, fighting down the impulse, and struggled to reach for my phone.
But Penelope saw. She ordered one of the guards to throw a rock at me. My body, weakened by the sudden depressive episode, was trembling uncontrollably. The rock hit its mark. My phone flew from my grasp, its screen flickering twice before going dark as it sank into the pond.
The rock had also punched two large holes in the bottom of the boat. Icy water seeped through my clothes, making me shudder.
"Seraphina Blackwood, weren't you just dying to join your parents? I'm giving you the chance! You should be thanking me!"
Stanley stood with his arms crossed, watching coldly as I began to sink. "And that old geezer of a grandfather of yours... when he gets here, I'll send your whole family down for a reunion!"
I struggled weakly, but it was no use. My mind screamed one last, silent apology.
Grandfather... I'm sorry...
Just as the water closed over my nose, I heard the sound of familiar footsteps approaching.
A heavy, sandalwood cane swung through the air.
A voice like thunder roared, "I'd like to see who plans on sending my family to their graves!"

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