Chapter 6 - The Mask Slips
"Your life, Nathan?" I asked, my voice carrying clearly across the silent, watching ballroom. "You mean the life you built on my capital, while lying to my face about emergency surgeries so you could whisk your mistress and your mother off to the Amalfi Coast?"
Gasps rippled through the surrounding crowd. High-society gossips leaned in, their eyes gleaming with savage delight.
Diane pushed past her son, her face contorted with rage. "How dare you speak to my son like that, you ungrateful little parasite! He gave you a home, a name, a place in this family! Without Nathan, you were nothing—just a mousy nobody clipping coupons in the shadows!"
I turned my cool, unblinking gaze onto Diane. The matriarch who had spent ten years making me feel small suddenly looked very old, very desperate, and very small herself.
"A nobody, Diane?" I stepped closer, my heels clicking sharply against the floor. "Let’s talk about who I am. My grandfather founded this very foundation. The shares of Mercer-Vance Development—the ones keeping your son out of federal bankruptcy court—are registered entirely under my maiden name, Vance. Nathan was never a partner; he was a tenant at will. And as of this morning, his lease has been terminated."
Jessica, realizing she had hitched her wagon to a sinking, bankrupt ship, stared at Nathan in absolute horror. "Nathan... is this true? You told me you owned this firm! You told me she was just a housekeeper you were divorcing!"
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"Jessica, wait, don't listen to her—" Nathan stammered, reaching out a trembling hand.
"Don't touch me!" Jessica hissed, ripping her arm away, turning on her heel, and storming out of the ballroom in front of dozens of society reporters.
