Seraphina's POV
The detective slams a folder on the metal table so hard I jump.
"Let's start with the easy stuff, Ms. Vale." He opens the folder and spreads papers across the table like he's dealing cards. "These are shipping manifests. All signed by you. All for illegal blood transfers to vampire organizations."
I stare at the documents. My signature is right there at the bottom of each one. Perfect loops, the way I always write my name. But I've never seen these papers before in my life.
"I didn't sign those."
"Really?" He taps one with his finger. "Because that's your signature. We had it analyzed by three different experts. It's a perfect match."
My hands are shaking so badly I have to sit on them. They took the handcuffs off when we got to the interrogation room, but my wrists still hurt. Everything hurts. "Someone forged it. They must have. I don't even know what blood trafficking is!"
The detective pulls out more papers. "These are bank statements. Your bank account. See those deposits? Fifty thousand dollars. Then another hundred thousand. Then two hundred thousand."
The numbers blur in front of my eyes. "That's not my money. I only have about three thousand dollars saved. You can check!"
"We did check." He smiles, but it's not kind. "We checked this account. The one in your name. With your social security number. At your bank."
"Then someone opened a fake account!" My voice comes out too loud, echoing off the walls. "Please, you have to believe me. I'm a researcher. I make forty-five thousand dollars a year. Why would I suddenly have hundreds of thousands of dollars if I wasn't doing something illegal? Doesn't that prove someone set me up?"
"Or it proves you're guilty." He pulls out a tablet and turns it toward me. "Security footage from your lab. Three months ago."
I watch the video. It shows me—or someone who looks exactly like me—walking into the restricted blood storage area late at night. The person is wearing my white lab coat. They use a keycard to unlock the freezer. They load bags of blood into a cooler. They look directly at the camera.
It's my face. My hair. My everything.
But it's not me.
"I wasn't working late three months ago," I whisper. "I was on vacation. I went to the beach with Marcus and Jade for a whole week. I have pictures!"
"Funny thing about pictures." The detective leans back in his chair. "They're easy to fake. Just like you faked being innocent."
"I AM innocent!" I stand up so fast my chair scrapes backward. "Someone is framing me! Can't you see that? The money, the footage, the signatures—it's all too perfect!"
"Sit down, Ms. Vale."
"No! I want a lawyer. I want to call someone. This is insane!"
"You can call a lawyer after we finish here." He picks up his phone. "But first, I think you should hear from someone you trust. Someone who knows the truth about what you've been doing."
My heart stops. "Who?"
The door opens.
Marcus walks in.
For a second, I feel hope. He's here to help me. To tell them this is all a mistake. To save me like he always does when things go wrong.
Then I see his face.
He looks sad. So, so sad. His eyes are red like he's been crying. He won't look at me directly.
"Marcus?" My voice breaks. "Tell them. Tell them I didn't do this."
He sits down in the chair across from me. His hands are folded on the table. He's wearing the suit I bought him for his birthday—the expensive one I saved up for months to afford.
"I'm sorry, Sera." His voice is quiet. "I wanted to protect you. I thought if I kept quiet, maybe you'd stop. But I can't lie anymore."
The room tilts. "What are you talking about?"
"Ms. Ashford already gave us her statement," the detective says. "Now we need yours, Mr. Thornfield. In your own words. Tell us what Seraphina Vale did."
Marcus takes a deep breath. A tear rolls down his cheek. "She started about a year ago. She said it was just a one-time thing—selling a few blood samples to make extra money for the wedding. She said the vampires paid really well and it wasn't hurting anyone."
"That's not true!" I slam my hands on the table. "Marcus, why are you lying?"
He flinches like I hit him. "I told her it was dangerous. Illegal. But she said if I loved her, I'd help her. She said we could pay off my student loans, buy a house, have the life we always dreamed about."
"Stop it!" I'm screaming now, but I don't care. "You're lying! Why are you doing this?"
"She threatened me." Marcus's voice shakes. He looks at the detective, not at me. "She said if I told anyone, she'd ruin my career. She works with dangerous people now—vampire criminals. I was scared of what they'd do to me."
"I never said that! Marcus, please!" I reach across the table for his hand, but he pulls away like I'm poison. "It's me. Sera. The person you're going to marry. How can you say these things?"
Finally, he looks at me. His eyes are cold. Empty. Like I'm looking at a stranger wearing Marcus's face.
"I'm not going to marry a criminal." He stands up. "I'm sorry it came to this. But you made your choices."
He walks toward the door.
"Marcus, wait!" I try to follow him, but the detective grabs my arm. "Please! I love you! We're supposed to get married next month! How can you—"
The door closes behind him.
I collapse back into my chair. My whole body is shaking. This can't be happening. Marcus loves me. He proposed three weeks ago on the beach at sunset. He cried happy tears when I said yes.
That Marcus wouldn't do this.
But the Marcus who just walked out that door wasn't the man I thought I knew.
The detective sits back down. "Ms. Vale, you have one chance to help yourself. Confess. Tell us who you were working with in the vampire world. Give us names, and maybe the prosecutor will go easier on you."
I can't speak. Can't think. Can't breathe.
"I didn't do anything," I finally whisper.
"Then you're going to prison for a very long time." He closes the folder. "Life sentence, probably. Blood trafficking to vampires is considered treason against humanity."
Life sentence. The words echo in my head. Life. Sentence.
For crimes I didn't commit.
Framed by the two people I loved most in the world.
The detective stands. "Think about it tonight in your cell. Tomorrow, you can decide if you want to cooperate or spend the rest of your life behind bars."
He leaves me alone in the interrogation room.
I sit there in silence, staring at the papers covered with my forged signature. At the bank statements showing money I never touched. At the frozen image on the tablet of someone wearing my face stealing blood I never stole.
And I realize something that makes my blood run cold.
This wasn't done in a week. Or a month.
This took a year of planning. Maybe more.
Marcus and Jade have been setting this trap for a long, long time.
Which means everything—the proposal, the friendship, maybe even the love—was all a lie from the very beginning.
The door opens again. A different officer steps in. "Time to process you for holding. Up you go."
"Wait." My voice sounds hollow. Dead. "Can I ask one question?"
"Depends."
"Marcus. Where is he now?"
The officer shrugs. "Probably went home. Why?"
Home. Our home. The apartment we share. Where all my things are. My research notes. My journals. My computer.
"He has access to my apartment," I say slowly.
"So?"
"So he can take anything he wants. Change anything. Delete anything that might prove I'm innocent."
The officer's expression doesn't change. "You should've thought about that before you committed crimes."
He pulls me to my feet and leads me out.
As we walk down the hallway toward the holding cells, I pass a window. Outside, in the parking lot, I see Marcus.
He's not alone.
Jade is with him.
They're standing by his car, talking. As I watch, Jade throws her arms around Marcus's neck. He pulls her close.
And then they kiss.
Not a friendly kiss. Not a comfort kiss.
A real kiss. Deep and long and familiar.
Like they've done it a thousand times before.
My knees give out. The officer catches me before I hit the floor.
"Easy there."
But I can't look away from the window. Can't stop watching as Marcus and Jade pull apart, laughing about something. Jade wipes tears from her face—but she's smiling now. Marcus opens the car door for her.
They drive away together in the car I helped him buy.
And I finally understand the whole horrible truth.
They didn't just frame me.
They've been together all along.
Everything was a lie.