My gaze drifted toward the estate's private gallery. That room had once held my mother's life's work: countless jewelry design manuscripts, along with the brand's irreplaceable collection of vintage raw gemstone samples. They were the testament to everything she'd built, year after year, from a young woman to an old one, pouring her soul into a jewelry empire.
Every time I looked at those manuscripts and stones, I felt she'd never really left. She was still beside me, helping me guard her dream.
Then one morning two years ago, all of it vanished. The manuscripts. The gemstones. Gone without a trace. The police investigated and concluded that everything had been anonymously destroyed. No leads.
I'd broken down completely. Samuel held me for three days and three nights without closing his eyes, murmuring comfort, promising he'd recover everything. He swore he'd protect my mother's legacy.
Now I finally understood. The one who destroyed it all had always been him. He was the one who'd obliterated the last thing my mother left me, who'd severed the final thread connecting me to her.