Patricia opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Monica suddenly touched the necklace around her throat.
Jasmine noticed immediately.
It was the same necklace.
Her mother’s necklace.
Years earlier, Jasmine had pleaded for its return while Monica laughed and told her she had nothing.
Now Monica’s fingers closed around the pendant.
“This old thing?” she said quickly.
“I was going to give it back.”
“You’ve had years,” Jasmine replied.
Monica unclasped it without another word.
She placed it on the table.
For Jasmine, that tiny sound—the chain touching the wood—felt almost louder than the announcement of 2.8 billion dollars.
She picked it up carefully and closed her hand around it.
Natasha finally found her voice.
“So what exactly is happening here?”
Jasmine turned toward her.
Natasha’s expression had changed.
The superiority was gone.
She still looked polished, still wore the expensive clothes and immaculate makeup, but now she was calculating.
Jasmine had seen that same expression in school when a student realized the easy assignment they had mocked was actually the final exam.
Sebastian noticed it too.
“This has nothing to do with you,” he snapped at Natasha.
Natasha stared at him.
“Considering what you’ve been telling me, it absolutely does.”
That sentence landed harder than she intended.
Sebastian’s face tightened.
Jasmine said nothing.
Natasha looked at her, then at Sebastian.
“You said she had nothing.”
“She lied to me for ten years!” Sebastian shouted.
There it was.
Not regret.
Not shame.
Anger that the woman he had humiliated possessed something he had not been allowed to exploit.
Jasmine’s attorney remained beside the table, silent.
Sebastian pointed at Jasmine.
“You let me believe you were broke.”
“I let you believe I was an art teacher,” Jasmine said.
“Because I was an art teacher.”
“You hid billions from your husband.”
“I followed my grandfather’s condition.”
“You manipulated me.”
Jasmine almost smiled.
“For eight years, you believed I had no money.
During those eight years, did I force you to cheat on me?”
Sebastian stopped.
“Did I force your mother to call me barren?”
Patricia looked down.
“Did I force Monica to steal my mother’s necklace?”
Monica’s eyes filled with sudden embarrassment.
“Did I force Natasha into our bed?”
Natasha looked away.
Sebastian’s jaw moved, but he had no answer.
Jasmine continued.
