Chapter 158

Kayla

The pearl almost seemed to catch the dim light from beneath my vanity. I frowned, crawling out of bed, and dropped to my knees, reaching under to pull it out. It was small and smooth with an almost pinkish hue to it—and I knew that I didn’t own any earrings like that.

But I knew this earring.

I knew it because I had bought it.

Not for myself, but for… Vanessa.

I recalled the day I’d bought it like it was yesterday—it was her twenty-first birthday, and she had just inherited her grandmother’s pearl necklace, but didn’t have any earrings to match it. I had gone out of my way to ensure these earrings matched the pearls on the necklace perfectly so she could wear the set together.

She had said she loved them. She’d said she loved me too, that I was the best friend in the whole wide world. The very thought now made me want to laugh out loud.

I frowned, turning the pearl over in my hands. This was Nicholas’s room—even when Liam lived here, Vanessa wouldn’t have come into this room for their little trysts. Was she here recently without my knowledge, or was it just a fluke?

Curious, I made my way downstairs to show the earring to Nicholas. I found him relaxing on the couch, scrolling through his phone, and dropped it into his lap.

“That’s Vanessa’s earring,” I said as he picked it up, holding it up to the light.

He furrowed his brow and glanced at me. “Where did you find it?”

“Under my vanity.”

Nicholas’s eyebrows rose skeptically. “In case you’re wondering, I never let that woman into my room before.”

“I know,” I replied slowly, crossing my arms. “You don’t think she could have gotten in there without your knowledge while she and Liam were… sneaking around?”

Nicholas firmly shook his head. “Absolutely not. When Isabella and Liam lived here, I kept my bedroom locked up tight. Even when I was in it, I kept the door locked. And I had the locks custom-made, so they didn’t have any copies of the key. Besides, I never saw Vanessa here.”

I was silent for a moment, considering the implications. If Vanessa hadn’t gotten into Nicholas’s room before, and I hadn’t noticed the earring until now, then that made me wonder…

Suddenly, my breath caught.

“What if she got in there recently?” I asked, my eyes widening as I began to put two and two together.

Nicholas’s face paled, quickly realizing what I was implying. “You think Vanessa is the one who cut up your wedding dress?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek with a shrug. “I don’t know for certain, but I wouldn’t put it past her.”

With a nod, Nicholas rose from the sofa, grabbing my hand. Without a word, he led me to the security office in the basement of the house, where the cameras were set up. We found the security officer on duty, an older wolf with graying hair and a stern set to his brow, sitting in front of the screens.

Within a few minutes, Nicholas had explained the situation to the officer, who went back through the CCTV footage of the night before the wedding. They had already checked the footage and scanned the perimeter of the property and found nothing, but we checked again anyway, just in case we had missed something the first time.

And sure enough, on one of the furthest cameras pointed at the corner of the property between the main road crossing in front of the estate and a small dirt road perpendicular to it, was a car.

The car was a nondescript black sedan. There was nothing particularly off-putting about it as it drove casually past the estate, seemingly just passing by. It went out of sight, disappearing off the edge of the frame as it turned down the dirt road.

But I recognized that car.

“That’s Vanessa’s father’s car,” I said, pointing. I turned to face the security officer. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

The officer’s face went ashen. “I’m sorry, Luna. I didn’t see anything suspicious, so—”

I shook my head, passing my hands over my face. “What’s done is done. But that’s Vanessa’s father’s car, for certain. She might have used it to drive close enough to the estate, then somehow snuck in.”

Nicholas’s eyes darkened. “You’re sure?”

“I’m pretty certain,” I affirmed. “Besides, who else would try to ruin my wedding day for a second time? It had to have been her. And if she already knew a good route to sneak in without being seen from the days when she and Liam used to…”

My voice trailed off, unable to say it out loud. I swallowed and went on, “Anyway, if anyone knows how to get into the house unseen, it would be her, wouldn’t it?”

“Then we’ll have to confirm it,” Nicholas said, turning and striding out of the security office. I followed him, my heart thumping in my chest as he approached the head housekeeper upstairs. “Burt, I need you to start putting together a dinner party for tonight, please. Invite Isabella, Liam, and Vanessa.”

“Yes, Alpha,” the housekeeper said before he hurried away.

I turned to Nicholas, my eyes wide. “A dinner party? Tonight?”

His mouth tugged into a faint smirk. “I hope you’re ready to show off those party-throwing skills of yours, Luna.”

And just like that, we were swept into a whirlwind of preparations. Over the rest of the day, invitations were sent out, the house was cleaned and decorated, and I worked painstakingly to develop a menu that was certain to impress.

But it wasn’t the flavors of the food that I was concerned about. It was the message behind each dish, which was carefully curated to slowly reveal that we knew about Vanessa’s stunt.

By the time evening arrived, I was practically buzzing with excitement. As I smoothed down the front of my simple dress in front of the mirror, picking away invisible pieces of lint and primping my curls, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the looks on their faces when they realized that we knew what they had done.

Or at least, what Vanessa had done. But if Vanessa had done this, then Isabella certainly wasn’t far behind, and Liam likely had a hand in it as well. I should have known since the day Nicholas and I turned down Isabella’s ‘offer’ to end the smear campaign that they would have retaliated, especially when we handled the smear campaign ourselves and made them all look like a bunch of conniving fools in public.

“Ready?”

The sound of Nicholas’s voice made me look up, and I met his gaze in the mirror. He was leaning against the bedroom door frame behind me, his hands tucked into his pockets, looking handsome as ever in a cream fisherman’s sweater and a pair of smart trousers.

I beamed, turning to face him. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said.

He nodded, and we stood there in silence for a moment, his eyes flicking across the sleek fabric of my burgundy dress. My cheeks warmed slightly, even more so when he glanced at the bed behind me for the briefest of moments.

I wondered if we would share a bed tonight, after all was said and done. Truthfully, I hadn’t given myself a chance to think about it yet, what with everything going on today.

But it had been at the back of my mind nonetheless, and if the look in his eyes now was any indication, then it had been at the back of his as well.

He swallowed, his throat bobbing, just as we heard the rev of a car engine outside. My heart leapt as we moved over to the window to see a familiar vehicle pulling through the front gates.

Nicholas placed his hand on my lower back, his jaw tight.

“Looks like our honors guests have arrived,” I murmured.