Shredded Vows: The Billionaire’s Secret Heir novel Chapter 30

"Done. I'll ship them out today!"

Hanging up, Lydia carefully secured the Bracelet back in its box. She pulled out a fresh sketchbook and a pencil, sinking deep into thought.

Forcing her mind back two decades, she began to rapidly sketch the scene of the tragedy, trying to map out every single face present that day.

"Jeffrey, don't go home yet. Stay and play!"

"Yeah! Come with us to the back trails!"

She vividly remembered two older boys shouting those exact words to a pale, quiet kid before everything went wrong.

For years, Lydia had been desperately hunting for Jeffrey Jenson. He was the only person she knew for an absolute fact had witnessed the fall.

He could clear her name.

But the billionaire heir had moved to Canada during high school and vanished into the global elite. She had zero ways to contact him.

If she couldn't find him, who else in the country could possibly prove her innocence?

Lydia had never belonged to Gideon's world. As the maid's daughter, she only existed in the periphery, tagging along when her mother worked at the Gray estate.

Gideon had simply enjoyed her company.

Because of that, she had been allowed to stay for Xavier's birthday cake. And then, during their hike up the back mountain, Xavier fell...

Even if Serena had been there, the girl would lie through her teeth to keep Lydia condemned.

She finished the sketch—seven or eight blurry children surrounding the cliff edge. Yet Jeffrey Jenson was the only one she could put a name to.

Gideon never returned home that night. After showering, Lydia stood in her silk pajamas, staring out the massive bedroom window.

The sprawling estate grounds were dead silent, swallowed by the freezing dark of the wind-swept night.

His eyes turned pitch black. Without a single word, he lunged at her, blinded by absolute, violent rage.

"It wasn't me! Gideon, please believe me, I didn't push him!" she begged and fought, her tiny voice tearing apart with pure desperation.

Gideon had attacked like a rabid, grieving lion.

"I didn't do it... why won't anyone believe me?" Thrashing under the heavy duvet, Lydia trembled violently, trapped in the suffocating agony of her nightmare.

"I didn't!" She bolted upright, ripping herself from the dream, entirely drenched in a cold sweat.

The dim bedside lamp cast a faint glow over the massive, empty room. The only sound was the frantic, ragged gasps of her own breathing.

The image of Xavier falling into the abyss flashed violently through her mind again, crushing her chest like a boulder until she could barely draw air.

She sat frozen in the massive bed for a long time, desperately trying to steady her racing heart, but the trauma surged like a tidal wave, pulling her endlessly under.