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It is worth mentioning that the CCTV footage obtained by police investigators captured Ms. Kent leaving her student accommodation shortly before the crash, which was her last known movement. Analysis of this footage confirmed Ms. Kent was wearing the necklace at the time; however, when Ms. Kent’s body was discovered, she was not wearing the necklace. The scene of the wreckage and Ms. Kent’s dormitory were searched as part of the police investigation, but the necklace was not found and remains missing.
My gaze flicked back to the photo; it had captured her laughing, her lips pulled into a beaming smile, while one hand was raised to her neck, her fingers toying with a necklace. My eyes narrowed on where she held the necklace’s pendant between her thumb and pointer finger, and I found myself leaning forward to get a better look.
My own hand flew to my neck, my fingers wrapping around the diamond pendant hanging from my necklace, the one Jacob had given me for my birthday, and the one I hadn’t taken off since our wedding.
I glanced from the photo, down to my necklace, and then back to the one Amy wore. Disbelief raged through me like a wildfire. They were almost identical, the only difference being that hers matched the color of her light-blue eyes, while mine was silver, matching my eye color.
Before I could give it proper thought, a throat clearing startled me, and my gaze whipped to the door, blinding panic rushing through me at seeing who was standing there with a devious grin on his face.
“Looking for something, angel?”
Chapter 35
“J…J…Jacob,” I stammered, jumping to my feet, my entire body vibrating as fear rushed through my veins like poison. “What are you doing here?”
His head tilted to the side as he stepped into his office and closed the door behind him, the soft thud sounding like a gunshot, sealing my fate. “I could ask you the same thing.”
My heart stuttered at the tone of his voice; it was the same one he’d used seconds before spanking me. The one when he informed me that he was the one who’d ordered Wallace to drug me and lock me in the cell. His cool, collected one.
The calm before the storm.
Words lodged in my throat, paralyzed by the pure terror crawling through me. He took a step forward, prowling toward me like a deadly lion who had cornered a frightened lamb and was about to pounce any second and rip me apart with his sharp teeth.
My head spun, a million thoughts churning in an attempt to find an excuse as to why I was in his office, but I couldn’t focus on any of them.
Jacob held my gaze, his eyes impossibly dark. “Would you care to tell me why you’re in my office, angel?”
My heart thundered in my chest as I tried to find the words. “I…uh…I’m…”
“You, what?” he growled, his voice low.
Dangerous.
Deadly.
He took a step forward. “How about you start by telling me where the USB came from?”
My brows lifted, my pulse racing as fast as a bullet. I swallowed the lump of terror clawing at my throat, and when I spoke, my words were barely a whisper. “How, um, how do you know about that?”
A smirk creased his lips. “You should know by now, angel; there isn’t a single thing you can do that I don’t know about.”
Lost in the myriad of thoughts spinning in my mind, and the fear crawling through my body, words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them. “Is that why you have cameras hidden around the house, Jacob? So you can watch me and invade my privacy?”
Jacob scoffed as he took another step toward the desk separating us. “I would hardly call it an invasion of your privacy. You’re my wife; I like to know what you’re doing.”
“Not all the time!” I cried, alarm bells rapidly ringing in my head. “Don’t you see how fucked up that is? Your obsession with me isn’t healthy!”
Nerves screamed at me to shut the hell up and that I was making the situation worse for myself, but I couldn’t help but fire back at him. Maybe, with all the information I’d discovered in the last hour, my brain had finally caught up to just how dangerous Jacob was, and I was no longer going to put up with his lies.
A slow, devious grin lifted his lips. “I don’t hide what I feel, Charlotte. I don’t deny it, nor do I fight it. I own it because I am obsessed with you.”
“The way you were obsessed with Amy?” As soon as the words slipped from my mouth, I bit down on my lip to stop myself from spewing anything else.
His gaze darkened, amusement dancing across his features. “Yes, I saw the files you loaded onto my computer.” He paused, releasing a humorless chuckle when my brows reached my hairline at his confession. “You didn’t think my security system just happened to give you access to all my folders, did you, angel?” He shook his head. “That’s one of the many things I love about you: your naivety. It’s endearing.”
My hands balled into fists, my mouth opening to retort, but he held up a finger, and like the good puppy he’d trained me to be, I fell silent. “My computer is linked to my phone; I got a notification that someone was trying to access it, and when I checked the camera—” he pointed over his shoulder “—I granted you access. I wanted to know why you were frantically typing away to figure out my password.”
I lifted my gaze to where he had pointed, my head reeling, but wherever the camera was, I couldn’t see it. Stupidity rushed through me; I should have known that the computer wouldn’t have unlocked on its own. Jacob was right; I was naive.
