The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella) novel Chapter 51

The sound of Jacob’s voice surprised Isabelle, and she turned around to face him. What was he doing here? Had he followed her? Why? To see whether she would go to wherever it was he thought she had exchanged his ring at?

But instead of confronting her, he was looming over the security guard who had been about to throw her out of the shop threateningly. She supposed he felt it was his duty to defend her. His eyes flickered to her, and avoiding his gaze, she walked past him and out of the shop.

As Isabelle ignored him and walked out of the shop, Jacob frowned. Of course, she was still mad at him for accusing her of selling his mother’s heirloom. But before he could go after her and apologise, he needed to have a talk with the one who had conned her.

Turning to the owner, he said, “You had better return the ring you stole from my wife.”

“Like I’ve told your wife, I did not exchange her ring. She gave me her ring for a maintenance service and when I was done, I returned it to her. If she thought I had exchanged it, she should have let me know back then.”

Jacob folded his hand into a fist and banged it on top of her desk, fixing her with a stern glare. “I’m not interested in playing your little mind games. That’s not the ring I gave to her, and I’m advising you return it right now before I take further action.”

The woman looked visibly shaken by his firm insistence, but she pushed the computer towards him and said in a haughty tone, “Why don’t you check the surveillance footage and show me exactly when I replaced the ring? Your wife checked it and didn’t find anything. What other kind of proof do you need?”

One look at the footage on the monitor was all Jacob needed to know it would be useless to watch the video. The woman must have installed low quality cameras to give customers a false sense of security.

If she conned them and they came back to make claims, she could confidently show them the footage, knowing well enough that she would not be caught. She probably scammed many people this way. Well, her days were now numbered.

“Maybe you should ask your wife where she got her fake ring,” the woman told him. “She refused to sell it to me when she was here. Maybe she got a higher price elsewhere and finally parted with it.”

“Watch what you say about her,” he warned the woman, enraged by her words about Isabelle. It was funny that hearing someone else make the same accusations he had made about her made him so mad. Mad, and disgusted at the fact that he too had entertained such thought.

“Whatever,” the pawnshop owner said. “This is none of my business. If you don’t leave, I’ll call the police.”

“Go ahead,” he shot back. He leaned towards her, and even though there was a desk between them, she still cowered and took a step back. “One way or another, I’ll make sure you end up in jail. That’ll teach you a thing or two about scamming your customers.”

While Jacob confronted the shop owner, Isabelle stood near the entrance, listening to their conversation. So he finally believed her, huh?

He must have heard her entire conversation with the owner. Her pulse shot up when the woman suggested that maybe Isabelle had sold the ring elsewhere and gotten a replacement.

She almost turned and walked away, not willing to hear him agree with a stranger’s accusation towards her. He himself had accused her of the same, hadn’t he?

But she froze when he immediately defended her. She felt relief that he believed her side of the story, but that was not enough to rid of the hurt and anger he had caused when he accused her of exchanging the ring.

When he turned around and walked towards the door, she started down the street. Would he start asking questions about why she had needed to come to a pawnshop?