Page 101 of Fake Dating Mr. Prince

I hadn’t thought that through. In a rash decision, I’d added Ashlyn’s name.

Damn it!So much for keeping the heat off of Ashlyn for now. “Honestly, Roni. I don’t know.”

“I see.”

Deciding honesty was the only way to handle this, I admitted, “She was the one to tell me the designs had been stolen.”

Roni’s eyes narrowed.

“Ashlyn said she didn’t help her stepmother take the designs, but there was one night they were out on my desk, and she saw them.”

“That doesn’t mean she took them, but it’s suspicious,” Roni responded thoughtfully.

I scrubbed my hand across the back of my neck. “She admitted that her stepmother had asked her to steal them.”

“Ah—”

“And that she’d taken one picture before she changed her mind.” That last admission felt like a dagger in my heart. With every word I spoke, I implicated Ashlyn. It wouldn’t matter what I believed anymore.

“Do you believe her?”

“I don’t know. The evidence points right to her.”

“Yet you didn’t tell your father.”

Why was I admitting this to Roni when I was struggling to understand my actions? “I didn’t. Part of me wants to trust she had no part in this, but I’ve been lied to before.”

“If we do find irrefutable proof that she was the one that did this, I need to tell your father.”

“I know.”

“Then let’s watch the recordings and figure out what happened. There’s a camera that’s angled to face your door. We can easily see who’s been in your office during the past three weeks and narrow it down.” She pulled two laptops out of her bag and handed me one. “I’ve transferred the feed to these devices. You take the first week, I’ll take the second. Then we can divide up the third. Got it.”

“Yes.”

“Was there any other time Ashlyn was in your office without you here?”

“Other than when I was away in Paris, and that one time I left her there alone, no. The week I was away, we didn’t have the designs yet. There would’ve been nothing for her to find.”

“Would she have had enough time to steal all of the designs when you left that night?”

I thought back, “There was a crisis with the design department. I was probably gone at least twenty to thirty minutes which would’ve given her plenty of time.”

Roni looked thoughtful. “But she only gave her stepmother four of the twelve designs?”

I shrugged. “They're a smaller operation. Maybe Elaine realized their boutique couldn’t handle all of the designs and picked her favorites?” It was strange. If Elaine and Ashlyn were going to do this, why would they stop at four?

Oddly enough, as much as I wanted to protect her, I seemed to be the one trying to convince Roni of Ashlyn's guilt. Instead of the other way around.

“Mm-hm,” she said, opening up the computer.

“What?”

“Something seems off about it all, but as you said, she was the only one with motive and a way to take them. So I’m not about to rule her out just yet.”

I leaned back and got comfortable. Searching the videos was going to take hours. In my feed, I notated who entered my office and when. I’d only gotten through two days’ worth when my desk phone rang.

Grateful for the interruption, I stood and stretched.