Chapter 2
Victoria recovered first.
Cruel people often do.
She climbed from the flower boxes with crushed ribbon hanging from one shoulder.
“This is absurd.”
My father looked at her.
She laughed nervously.
“We thought she was nobody.”
The ballroom went silent.
Sebastian’s eyes hardened.
Victoria realized.
Too late.
I closed my hand around the signet ring.
Preston stared at it.
Then me.
“You’re Pembroke?”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me.”
I almost laughed.
“You punched me.”
“That isn’t the point.”
There.
Even now.
His humiliation mattered more than my blood on the marble.
Victoria stepped forward.
“You entered our family pretending to be poor.”
“I never said I was poor.”
“You let us believe it.”
“You chose to.”
Tiffany lowered her phone.
My father noticed.
“Give her the phone.”
Tiffany laughed.
“No.”
I looked at her.
She smiled.
“You think being Sebastian Pembroke’s daughter suddenly makes you scary?”
One of my father’s bodyguards shifted.
Tiffany noticed.
Her smile weakened.
I held out my hand.
“Phone.”
She hugged it to her chest.
“It’s private.”
Victoria snapped:
“Delete today.”
Tiffany looked at her mother.
That was the mistake.
They both knew there was more than today.
I took one step forward.
“What else is on it?”
“Nothing.”
Preston interrupted.
“This wedding is over.”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
He hadn’t expected agreement.
His face changed.
“You don’t get to humiliate my family and walk away.”
I stared at the muddy floor.
“My mother-in-law kicked dirty water onto me.”
“Because you embarrassed her.”
“I was cleaning.”
“You refused to clean the upstairs staircase first.”
My father’s expression changed.
I hadn’t told him about that.
Preston continued before realizing.
“You’ve been difficult for weeks.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“Weeks?”
I said nothing.
Victoria smiled cruelly.
“There. She didn’t tell Daddy everything.”
She turned to him.
“Your precious daughter has been washing linens, cleaning bathrooms and serving dinners because she needed to learn what marriage requires.”
My father looked at me.
I hated the hurt in his face.
Not because I had suffered.
Because I had hidden it.
Then Tiffany’s phone chimed.
A message appeared across the locked screen.
PRESTON: Delete the basement videos too.
Nobody moved.
May you like
I looked at him.
“What happened in the basement?”
