Richard opened the security application on his high-end smartphone, his thumb hovering nervously over the playback button. His earlier confidence was beginning to crumble into visible anxiety. The bright screen reflected off his sharp features as he rewound the video timeline by thirty minutes, setting it to the moment the dinner party had first begun.
Sarah stood right beside him, her hand resting protectively on Lily's shaking shoulder. Lily watched from the chair, wiping her bleeding forehead with a tissue her mother had handed her. The surrounding guests pushed forward slightly, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the small screen.
Sarah: Press play, Richard. Let everyone see who the real criminal is in this house.
Richard: Fine! I will prove to all these people that your daughter is nothing but a thief!
He hit the play button, and the high-definition video began to stream clearly across the bright display. The overhead wide-angle lens captured the entire oak-floored foyer in crisp detail, showing the guests chatting and drinking champagne near the grand staircase. On the screen, a fair-skinned man in a tailored suit walked into the middle of the frame—it was Richard himself from half an hour ago.
As the guests watched the video screen, they saw Richard standing near his coat rack while holding a heavy crystal glass of whiskey. He unclipped his vintage gold Rolex watch from his wrist, intending to show it off to a nearby client. However, as he took another sip of his drink, the expensive watch slipped right through his sweaty fingers and tumbled silently onto the thick decorative rug resting beside his private study door.
A few seconds later on the footage, Richard walked away toward the kitchen, completely unaware that he had dropped his own watch. Minutes passed on the recording until a tall, well-dressed guest—one of Richard's top business partners standing right there in the room—walked past the study door. The partner stopped, looked around nervously, picked the golden watch off the rug, and slipped it directly into his own inner suit pocket.
Sarah: Look at that! Lily wasn't even in the frame when you dropped it!
Richard: What... how could that happen?
Sarah: You dropped your own luxury watch because you were drunk, and your own rich friend stole it right off your floor!
Guest: Is that true, Marcus? You took his watch?
The business partner named Marcus went pale as death, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as forty pairs of eyes turned toward him in absolute disgust. Marcus reached into his coat pocket with a shaking hand and pulled out the gleaming gold Rolex, dropping it onto a nearby table before backing away toward the front exit in complete embarrassment.
Richard stood frozen in the center of his own grand foyer, his phone almost slipping from his limp hand. The evidence was absolute, broadcast clearly on his own device in front of the most influential people in the city. Little Lily had never touched the watch, nor had she ever stepped foot near his private study desk.