Chapter 2 - The Monogram
I did not stay on the terrace to watch him hyperventilate. I turned my back on the man who had abandoned me in a hospital room and walked through the glass doors, stepping directly back into the glittering warmth of the ballroom.
I didn't walk toward the bar. I walked straight toward the center of the room, directly into the glaring lights of the press pool, where Paige was standing with a glass of champagne, soaking in the attention she believed she had finally earned.
Nathan burst through the terrace doors seconds behind me, his face a mask of absolute, unadulterated panic. "Evelyn, wait! Don't do this!"
His shout echoed over the string quartet. The music abruptly stopped. Three hundred wealthy guests, politicians, and socialites turned their heads in unison. The press photographers instantly swiveled their cameras toward us.
Paige’s smug smile vanished. She looked at Nathan, then at me, clutching the white sable coat tightly against her chest.
"Take the coat off, Paige," I said. My voice was not a scream. It was a calm, lethal command that carried to the very back of the silent ballroom.
"Excuse me?" Paige stammered, looking around frantically as the cameras began to flash. "Nathan gave this to me. It's mine."
"Nathan bought that coat with my family's money, and he had it delivered to my closet three days after our child died because he was too busy sleeping with you to come to the hospital," I stated, the unvarnished truth dropping like a bomb into the center of high society.
A collective, horrified gasp rippled through the crowd.
"Evelyn, shut your mouth!" Nathan hissed, lunging forward to grab my arm.
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Before his fingers could even graze my silk dress, two massive, armed private security contractors stepped seamlessly out of the crowd, blocking his path and forcing him backward.
I kept my eyes locked on Paige. "If you look at the inside left seam, you will find three letters stitched into the ivory silk in gold thread. E.R.H. Evelyn Rose Hale. You are wearing a coat meant to comfort a grieving mother. Take it off right now, or I will have security strip it from your shoulders and arrest you for possession of stolen property."
