The next morning, Joanna was jolted awake by the sound of something shattering.
She pushed open her door, and the scene before her sent the blood rushing to her head.
Lola stood in the center of the living room. At her feet lay a broken jewelry box.
And her mother's necklace was dangling from Lola's fingers, being toyed with like a trinket.
"What are you doing?! Give that back!"
Joanna lunged forward, reaching for the necklace.
Lola watched her. A slow, deliberate smile curved across her lips.
Then she opened her hand.
Joanna's fingers grazed the edge of the necklace. She couldn't catch it.
The imperial jade struck the floor and split into pieces, shards scattering in every direction.
Joanna froze where she stood, staring at the fragments on the ground.
That was her mother's.
All those years, when she'd been too poor to afford a meal, she hadn't sold it. When she'd been too sick to see a doctor, she'd never once considered parting with it.
Now it was gone.
Joanna crouched down, her hands trembling as she gathered the broken pieces.
Lola withdrew her hand at a leisurely pace, leaning against the back of the sofa, watching her with a look that hovered between amusement and contempt.
"Oops. Butterfingers."
She lifted her foot and nudged one of the shards with the toe of her slipper.
"Joanna, I'm not trying to be mean, but you pinch every penny like your life depends on it. How nice could anything you own really be? Cheap knockoff stuff like this falls apart if you breathe on it. How is that my fault?"
Joanna's fist tightened around the shards. The jagged edges bit into her palm.
"Say that again."
Lola straightened up and looked down at her.
"I said, everything you own is cheap garbage. It was bound to break sooner or later. You got what you dese—"
Crack.
A slap rang through the room.
Lola's voice cut off mid-word.
She clutched her cheek, staring at Joanna in disbelief.
"You hit me?"
Joanna's gaze was cold and razor-sharp. She didn't answer. Instead, she pulled out her phone.
"Hello, I'd like to report a crime. Someone deliberately destroyed another person's property. The item is of significant value."
Twenty minutes later.
The police station.
The two women sat in a mediation room. Paddy arrived in a rush after getting the call.
The moment he walked through the door, Lola threw herself into his arms.
"Paddy, I didn't mean to! I thought it was just a necklace. I figured if I accidentally broke it, I could just pay for it. But Joanna wouldn't let it go. She insisted on dragging this all the way to the police station..."
Paddy murmured reassurances to Lola, his gaze drifting to Joanna, who sat off to the side in composed silence.
The officer looked at the jade fragments laid out on the table. "You said this necklace is of significant value. Do you have anything to back that up?"
Joanna took out her phone and opened a folder.
"This is the appraisal certificate."
She handed the phone to the officer.
He took it. The instant his eyes registered the words on the screen, they went wide.
"Imperial jade. Appraised value... twenty-eight million dollars?"
