Chapter 2

I woke up to the sterile smell of antiseptic and the soft beeping of a heart monitor. I was in one of the private suites of the estate, a place reserved for medical emergencies. A doctor was checking my vitals.

"You' re awake, Mrs. Thorne," he said with a professional calm. "Your blood pressure is extremely high. You' re suffering from acute stress. You need to rest."

The words meant nothing. All I could see was Richard on that stage with her. The memory was burned into my mind.

The door swished open and the matriarch, Eleanor Thorne, entered. Her face was rigid with anger. She dismissed the doctor with a sharp wave of her hand.

"Do you have any idea the scene you caused?" she hissed, her voice low and venomous. "Fainting? How common. You have embarrassed this family, Ava."

I just stared at her, speechless. I was the one who was embarrassed?

Through the open doorway, I could see down the hall into the main sitting room. Richard was there. He was kneeling in front of the boy, Leo, gently dabbing a scraped knee with a cloth. Chloe stood beside him, her hand resting on Richard' s shoulder in a gesture of intimate ownership. They looked like a perfect family. My son, Liam, was nowhere in sight.

Richard must have felt my eyes on him. He looked up, his expression hardening when he saw me. He said something to Chloe, then walked to my room, stopping at the doorway. He didn' t come in.

"You needed to faint to get my attention?" he asked, his voice dripping with scorn. "It was a simple announcement. It changes nothing for you."

"It changes nothing?" I whispered, my voice hoarse. "You brought your mistress and her child to a public event, Richard. You stood on a stage and disrespected me in front of hundreds of people."

"Chloe is not just a mistress," he snapped. "And Leo is my son. My firstborn son. You will learn to accept that. You' re making this harder than it needs to be."

He turned and walked away without another word, returning to Chloe' s side. I watched as she leaned down and kissed his cheek.

The gala was over. The guests were gone. But the scandal was just beginning. It had shattered the night, and now it was going to shatter my life. The laughter and music from downstairs were replaced by a heavy silence, a silence that felt louder and more threatening than any noise. The party had become a public execution of my dignity, and my own family was holding the axe.