Chapter 3 - The VIP Table
The ballroom floor felt miles long, but every step I took was deliberate, measured, and entirely unhurried. Behind me, Eleanor’s voice rose in a frantic screech.
"Security! Drag her out! Someone throw her out before she ruins the signing ceremony!"
I ignored the rising tide of murmurs. My gaze was fixed entirely on Table One—the elevated platform reserved for the primary financiers and stakeholders of the evening. Sitting alone at the center of that table, sipping champagne with absolute, regal detachment, was Margo Kensington.
Margo was a legend on Wall Street. As the billionaire Chairwoman of Kensington Global, she didn’t just fund corporations; she dismantled them for sport if they crossed her. Clad in a tailored charcoal pantsuit that cost more than my first car, with silver-streaked dark hair pulled back into a severe chignon, she embodied absolute, unshakable power. She was the woman who held the four-hundred-million-dollar pen in her hand tonight.
As I approached Table One, two burly security guards in black suits stepped out from the shadows, their arms crossing over my path.
"Ma'am, you need to step back—" one began, reaching out to grab my arm.
"Touch me," I said, my voice dropping an octave into a tone so cold the guard actually hesitated, "and your employment with Kensington Global will terminate before the next sentence leaves your mouth."
The guard blinked, momentarily paralyzed by the absolute authority in my voice. That hesitation was all I needed. I slipped past his shoulder and stopped directly beside Margo Kensington’s high-backed velvet chair.
Behind me, I heard the rapid, panicked click of Julian’s designer shoes as he sprinted across the marble floor, desperate to intercept me before I could speak to the most important woman in the room.
"Vivian! Stop this instant!" Julian’s voice cracked slightly, losing its polished boardroom timber. "Madame Kensington, please, I am so sorry, my wife is having a hysterical episode—she’s unstable—"
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I ignored him entirely. I leaned down, bringing my face close to Margo Kensington’s ear, and spoke three simple words in a tone clear enough to carry across the silent VIP section.
"Mother."
