I looked straight at Sybil and questioned her again, "You only started working at the department store a week ago. However, I was locked up by my own husband a week ago in the security department after he falsely accused me."
"How could you possibly know whether I was slacking off at work? Not to mention, I’ve been repeatedly recognized as an outstanding employee. Why would I slack off?" I asked.
Sybil's eyes flickered as she stole glances at Blake several times.
I sneered. "Did Blake tell you that?"
Blake immediately pulled Sybil behind him. "I'm the one who told her. Stop giving her a hard time!"
My eyes wandered to the pair of adulterers in front of me and I pinched my thigh hard. Then I turned to the crowd with teary eyes and asked them, "Do you see this? They keep insisting they have nothing between them, that they’re completely innocent. Yet here my husband is, shielding her while confiding in her about my personal affairs. Ladies, would your husbands do this?"
The faces of a few married women in the crowd turned into uneasy expressions.
Sybil quickly feigned anger and with anger in her voice, she asked, "Blake, how could you? Jane is your wife. You should be protecting her! My late husband’s dying wish for you to take care of me means nothing."
Then she made her stance clear, "I understand that Jean has a lazy and jealous nature and that you don’t like her attitude. So, I understand that sometimes as a human, you need to vent to me. However, she’s your wife for life. From now on, we shouldn’t see each other anymore."
Tears streamed down her face, yet she looked heartbreakingly noble like a woman resisting temptation.
I scoffed internally. What a performance. No wonder she could string so many men along.
Sybil counted to the scenario that I would react like I did before, that I would fly into a jealous rage and attack her. That way, she could naturally paint me as an unstable, hysterical wife.
However, this time, I kept my expression calm and spoke evenly, "Whether you two see each other or not in the future, it was not my concern, but you need to return my money. It's one hundred and twenty dollars in cash and my food stamps."
Sybil stiffened. "What do you mean one hundred and twenty dollars? What food stamps do you mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about."
I pulled out a thick stack of receipts and an IOU note from my pocket then spoke again, "After we got married, Blake and I saved three hundred dollars together. One hundred and twenty dollars of that was mine, along with my monthly food stamps and they all had gone. With all the proof, how dare you say you did not take them?"
Every single receipt and IOU bore Sybil's signature. The IOU was written by Sybil herself. She was pretending she couldn’t possibly accept Blake’s money for free.
"None of the things he bought ever made it into my hands. They’re all in your house!" she refuted.
I grabbed her wrist and raised it up. "This woman's wristwatch is an exact match to the one Blake bought. Should we compare it to the receipts and check the serial number?"
The crowd gasped in shock.
"Didn’t Sybil claim this watch was her late husband’s wedding gift? How could it become a gift from Blake"
"Yeah, but Jean had the receipt? What can she say in front of the evidence?"
"It's one thing to give her some food stamps to help out but to give her an expensive watch like that? Something feels off!"
"Wasn't Jean said that one hundred and twenty dollars that she had was lent to another without her knowing? That’s stealing!
Sybil lowered her head because she did not dare to refute anything.
Blake scowled and leaned in to whisper in distressed in my ear, "Are you still not over this? You still did not calm down and make a scene here even though you had spent a week in custody, huh? If you keep this up, aren’t you afraid you’ll drive Sybil to her death?"
I met his gaze, my eyes like ice.
