He didn't believe a word. In his eyes, a servant couldn't possibly afford the Bloodstone Qilin.
"If the Farleys find out about this, you're done for. So you'd better come clean now. Cooperate and maybe you'll get a lighter sentence. Unless you're eager to go back to prison?"
Gladys's shrill voice cut in from beside me. I ignored her completely.
I turned to the officer and asked if I could make a phone call. He nodded. I pulled out my phone and dialed Dudley's number.
The call connected.
And in that same instant, the phone was slapped out of my hand. It hit the concrete floor with a sickening crack.
"Oh, give it up, sis." Gladys's voice dripped with mock sweetness. "Who are you even calling? Your dead mother? Or some man you found on the side? I heard you shacked up with some guy thirty years older than you. The second you left Elliot, you turned into nothing. Proved everyone right."
While she was still talking, she reached into her purse, pulled out a thick stack of cash, and tossed it at the officer. His eyes lit up. He mumbled something about having other business to attend to, handed the Bloodstone Qilin over to Gladys, and walked away without a backward glance.
"Tell you what, I'll be generous." Gladys smiled down at me. "If the Farleys found out you were trying to pass off a fake as the real thing, and then it came out that you're Elliot's ex-wife? The embarrassment alone would bury you. So here's what we'll do. Get on your knees. Knock your head on the floor twice. Thank me. And I'll let you walk out of here today."
I stood where I was. Silent. Still.
My eyes were fixed on the phone lying on the floor, split clean in two.
That phone. I'd carried it for years.
My mother gave it to me as a birthday present, right before she died. She'd been frail for so long, barely able to stand, spending her days collecting bottles and scraps to save up a little money. And she'd used it to buy me a phone that cost five figures.
I still remembered the last words my mother ever said to me: "Imogen, that man doesn't love you. Let him go. Mama will always love you, and you have to always love yourself."
At the time, I'd been stunned. I couldn't understand why she would say something like that. She had always liked Elliot. He'd played the role of the perfect husband flawlessly back then, without a single crack in the facade.