Chapter 5 - THE SHATTERED GIFTS
With a flick of her wrist, Victoria tossed the wrapped box onto the marble floor. The sound of something inside cracking echoed loudly.
Lily gasped, her lower lip trembling.
“Oops,” Victoria mocked, her eyes locking onto Elena’s as the maid rushed forward. “Clumsy me.”
“Ms. Hale, please,” Elena begged, dropping to her knees to gather her daughter into her arms. “We’re leaving. I’m sorry. We’re leaving right now.”
But Victoria was unhinged by her own malice. She grabbed the second gift from the little pile Lily had dropped—the beautiful book Nathaniel had given her.
“Let’s see what the little rat dragged in,” Victoria sneered, ripping the paper. When she saw the antique book, her face contorted with rage. She recognized Nathaniel’s custom bookplate inside the cover.
Without a second thought, Victoria tore the cover backward, ripping the spine, and threw it to the ground.
By the time the third birthday gift hit the marble floor, the ballroom had gone so silent that Elena Carter could hear her daughter trying not to cry.
That was the sound that broke her more than the torn ribbon, more than the gasps from three hundred rich strangers, more than the sharp laughter of a woman in emerald silk who had never once scrubbed a floor or worried about rent.
Elena stood there in her black staff dress, one arm wrapped around her daughter, the other hand trembling at her side, and tried to make herself small enough to survive the moment.
But Nathaniel Whitfield, the billionaire who owned the mansion, did not stay small.
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He had just walked into the ballroom.
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