Chapter 5 - The Final Departure
I didn't wait for Vance to beg. I didn't wait for my father to scream.
I turned my back on the head table, the dead silence of the ballroom parting for me like the Red Sea. Three hundred of the most powerful people in the Midwest watched as I walked down the center aisle, my head held high, the heavy white fabric of my dress gliding over the marble.
When I reached the grand double doors of the ballroom, I stopped.
I looked over my shoulder one last time.
Vance was standing exactly where I had left him, looking at Blair not with love, but with the horrified realization that she was the anchor that was about to drag him to the bottom of the ocean. Magnus was slumped in his chair, a broken king in a ruined castle.
I pushed the doors open and walked out into the cool, dark night.
The valet brought my car around. I didn't need a driver. I gathered the massive skirts of the dress, climbed into the driver's seat, and put the car in gear.
May you like
As I drove away from the Golden Oak Country Club, leaving the wreckage of three lives behind me, I reached over to the passenger seat and picked up my phone. I dialed the number of my lead attorney.
"It's done," I said, watching the lights of the club fade in my rearview mirror. "File the annulment. And draft the press release. The Sterling era is under new management."
