Chapter 3 - The Public Execution
“You can’t do this!” Julian screamed, the polished, arrogant aristocrat violently shattering into a desperate, hyperventilating fraud. He shoved past a waiter, knocking a tray of champagne glasses to the marble floor with a shattering crash. “It’s a lie! She’s lying! This is a personal vendetta because she couldn't give me a child!”
The sheer, disgusting cruelty of his outburst echoed through the ballroom, but it didn't trigger the sympathy he expected. It triggered absolute, overwhelming revulsion. The high-society guests backed away from him as if he were carrying a plague.
Gabriel stepped forward, instinctively moving to shield me, but I placed a gentle hand on his arm. I didn't need to be protected from a cornered rat.
“I assure you, Julian, this is strictly business,” I replied coldly into the microphone. “The federal agents waiting in the lobby to secure your corporate servers share my exact sentiments.”
Dalia’s jaw dropped. She looked at Julian, her eyes wide with a horrified, sudden realization. “Federal agents? Julian, what is she talking about? You told me you secured the Lancaster funding! You told me the house in Aspen was paid for!”
“Shut up, Dalia!” Julian snarled, his true, abusive nature completely exposed under the blinding press lights. He pointed a shaking finger at me. “You set me up! You dragged me here tonight just to humiliate me!”
“I didn't drag you anywhere, Julian,” I said softly, lowering the microphone, though the silence in the room allowed my voice to carry effortlessly. “You came here to mock me for the cameras. You wanted to humiliate the barren, discarded wife. I simply decided to introduce you to the woman who owns your entire existence.”
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Right on cue, the heavy, gilded doors of the ballroom swung open. A team of federal agents in dark suits stepped into the venue, their badges catching the light of the chandeliers.
Julian froze. He looked at the agents, then at the flashing cameras capturing his spectacular, irreversible ruin. The man who had laughed at me just ten minutes earlier was completely, utterly destroyed, stripped of his wealth, his reputation, and his freedom in a matter of seconds.
