The Billionaire's Daughter They Tried to Scam

The first time I visited my fiancé's hometown for the holidays, his mother made a grand show of generosity and presented me with a gold necklace.

I waved my hands and tried to decline. "This is too valuable. I can't accept it."

But she wouldn't take no for an answer, insisting that my fiancé put it on me himself.

"This is my mom's way of welcoming you," Chad Fletcher said, his voice gentle and coaxing as he fastened the clasp around my neck. "Don't let her down."

The next day, I was driving home. My car hadn't even made it out of the village when my phone rang.

Chad's voice was frantic on the other end. "Muriel Stephens, you need to come back right now. My dad fell and hit the back of his head. It's serious. The surgery costs two hundred thousand dollars."

"We don't have that kind of money. Bring back the necklace from yesterday so we can pawn it for the medical bills."

I turned the car around immediately.

But at the jewelry store, the owner examined the blackened fragments and shook his head. The gold necklace was brass.

Zoey Finch slapped a receipt down on the glass counter and demanded answers at the top of her lungs.

"God as my witness, what I gave you was real gold! I have the receipt right here to prove it!"

"Either you give me back the real necklace, or you pay two hundred thousand dollars for my husband's surgery!"

……

For Chad's sake, I swallowed my temper and held my tongue.

In my entire life, no one had ever dared to shout at me like that.

I looked Zoey square in the eye, my expression open and unbothered.

"This is the exact necklace you gave me."

"I haven't taken it off since Chad put it on me yesterday. Ask him if you don't believe me."

Zoey let out a sharp, mocking laugh and looked me up and down with undisguised malice.

"What, does my son follow you around every second of the day? You swapped it out the moment he wasn't looking!"

I had no interest in arguing with a woman who refused to listen to reason. I turned to Chad, expecting him to step in and set the record straight.

He hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice deliberately.

"I know it's not great to ask for a gift back, but this is an emergency. My dad is lying on the operating table right now, waiting to be saved."

"You hid the real gold and tried to pass off a piece of brass. What's the point of that?"

"Muriel, just give it back to my mom. I'll buy you a new one later, okay?"

His voice was quiet, but I could hear the anger simmering underneath.

I didn't understand. What possible reason would I have to keep that necklace?

What they considered a lifetime of savings wasn't even pocket change for a single night out in my world.

I lifted my gaze to meet his, keeping my tone level.

"I'll say it one more time. I did not swap the necklace."

"What you gave me is what you're looking at right now."

"And if the necklace is fake, shouldn't I be the one asking why you gave me a counterfeit in the first place?"

Zoey charged up to me, practically vibrating with rage.

"What are you trying to say? That the Fletcher family set you up on purpose?"

She shoved the crumpled receipt in my face, flecks of spit landing on my skin.

"Open your damn eyes and look! This is a receipt from an authorized dealer. It has the photo. It has the official stamp. You can't weasel your way out of this!"

The receipt was genuine. The photo on it matched the necklace they'd given me.

But using that alone to declare me guilty of theft?

Sorry. I wasn't going to accept that.

I shrugged and held out my handbag.

"Since nothing I say will convince you, go ahead. Search it. If you find the real necklace, I'll have nothing left to say."

Zoey snatched the bag out of my hands and tore through it, dumping the contents all over the floor.

She came up empty.

I thought that would finally put her suspicions to rest. But instead, her mouth twisted into a sneer.

"A broke little nobody like you, of course you'd have sticky fingers. I bet that was the first time in your life you'd ever seen real gold."

"Gold prices have skyrocketed. That necklace is worth at least two hundred thousand dollars."

"You've obviously hidden it somewhere safe, then handed me some empty bag to search through like I'm stupid. You think that little act is going to fool me?"

Had she never seen real gold in her life?

I had to admire the audacity. The cosmetics she'd dumped out of my bag and scattered across the floor were worth enough to buy ten gold necklaces.

She lunged at me, dirty claws outstretched, trying to pat me down.

Her nails raked across my arm, drawing blood. I hissed at the sting and shoved her back.

She stumbled on her own feet, staggered a few steps, and crashed into the wall. Immediately, the wailing began.

"Oh, my son! This fiancée of yours is vicious! She's beating up an old woman!"

Chad's expression darkened, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.

"Enough, Muriel! You're giving that gold back today, one way or another!"

I laughed in disbelief, holding both palms up.

"I never took it. What exactly am I supposed to give back?"

"You searched my bag. You found nothing. So stop trying to pin this on me."

Zoey kept going: "Give me back my gold! I want the exact same gold!"

Chad slammed his palm against the glass display case and barked at me.

"If you can't produce the gold, you pay market value. Two hundred thousand. Not a cent less!"

I almost laughed at the absurdity.

Setting aside the fact that I never took it, this brass knockoff weighed less than ten grams. And they wanted two hundred thousand dollars from me.

This family genuinely thought I was an idiot.

There was no point arguing. I refused to waste another ounce of energy on this circus.

I pulled out my phone and transferred ten thousand dollars to Chad without hesitation.

"Your necklace doesn't even weigh ten grams, but let's round up and call it ten. I've calculated the value of your brass at gold's market price. Ten thousand is more than generous. It's already in your account. Don't bother me again."

"Oh, and give your dad my best wishes for a speedy recovery."

I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. I didn't even bother picking up the cosmetics scattered across the floor. I just wanted out of this godforsaken place.

The whole house reeked of toxicity. I could feel the bad luck clinging to me like a film.

I never wanted to set foot here again.

But Zoey's greed was nowhere near satisfied.

She darted to the front door, craned her neck, and let out a shriek that carried down the street.

"Everybody! Some little brat came here to walk all over the Fletcher family!"

The next second, villagers who'd been milling about the lane appeared with shovels and axes, surrounding me in a tight circle.

Every face was hard with menace.

"This village isn't somewhere you stroll in and out of whenever you please."

Their eyes were cold and predatory, every last one of them looking like smalltown thugs straight out of the backwoods.

Zoey's laugh was shrill, dripping with arrogance.

"There's a resort about to be built right here in this village. It's a project from Chad's company. He earned it because the chairman thinks so highly of him."

"My family is this village's numberone benefactor. These people follow my lead. One word from me, and they could end you right here. No one would ever find you."

Zoey wasn't wrong about one thing.

The resort project did have Chad's involvement.

But he held no real authority over it whatsoever.

Whether it got built or not was never his call.

Dozens of people blocked my path. I couldn't move an inch. I turned to Chad.

"Chad. You invited me all the way out here over the holidays to meet your family, and you're just going to stand there and let them do this to me?"

A shovel hovered inches from my face. He didn't flinch. Didn't move. His expression was utterly indifferent.

When he finally spoke, his voice was ice.

"You still owe a hundred and ninety thousand. Pay up, then you can leave."

And just like that, everything clicked into place. He'd never had any intention of introducing me to his family to discuss our wedding. This whole thing, from the moment I arrived, was a trap. The entire family had planned it together.