She Mocked My “Useless” Husband Then My Family Ended the Party Chapter 01
Highcrest high society had two legendary black sheep.
Me, Clara Hayes, Highcrest’s spoiled princess, useless at everything except swiping credit cards and partying.
And Julian Sterling, my childhood best friend, born into obscene wealth, autistic, with a heart that had been failing since birth.
The catch was our siblings.
My oldest brother, Arthur Hayes, ran the most feared crime syndicate on the Eastern Seaboard, and my other brother, Silas Hayes, had a net worth that made Fortune 500 CEOs sweat.
As for Julian’s sisters? Victoria Sterling had never lost a case in her life, and Eleanor Sterling was the kind of surgeon other surgeons called when they were out of options.
The four of them decided our fate over a poker game. “We’re already babysitting one lost cause each. Might as well put them together. Two for the price of one.”
So Julian and I got married. Just like that.
Married life looked like this: Silas’s black card for shopping, Arthur’s private tables for dinner, and Victoria and Eleanor making sure we didn’t accidentally kill ourselves.
It was a great setup, until I got bored and dragged him to a banquet hosted by the wealthiest family in Bayport.
That was where I met Chloe Thorne, the host’s daughter. She took one look at me, pulled up a photo of some woman’s back, and decided I was the homewrecker sleeping with her husband.
I kept my cool. “You’ve got the wrong person. I’m married. This is my husband.”
Chloe snapped. She reared back to slap me.
“Married and still out here acting like a cheap tramp?”
Julian stepped in front of me before I could react. The slap hit him square across the face, and blood pooled at the corner of his mouth.
She laughed. “Oh, he’s a little slow, isn’t he? Too stupid to know his wife’s screwing around, and he’s still trying to play hero?”
“A tramp and a half-wit. What a perfect pair.”
She snapped her fingers, and her bodyguards closed in.
“Take them both.”
My chest hurt just looking at Julian. I slipped my phone out behind my back and hit Arthur on speed dial.
“Arthur. I need you. Now.”
They had no idea. Mess with the four monsters of Highcrest, and you might still leave breathing. Mess with the two of us, the ones they treated like fragile glass, and you wouldn’t leave at all.
…
“Oh, calling for backup? That’s cute. Arthur. Let me guess, that’s another one of your sugar daddies?”
Chloe snatched the phone from my hand and smashed it onto the floor.
“What, one idiot husband isn’t enough? How many guys are you stringing along and saving in your phone as ‘family’?”
I looked down at my phone, lying cracked against the marble. Took a slow breath.
“Miss Thorne. I’m going to say this one more time.”
“You’ve got the wrong person.”
“Take your people and walk away, and I’ll forget this ever happened.”
Chloe threw her head back and laughed.
She turned to the crowd circling us like this was dinner theater.
“Did everyone catch that? The side piece just told me to leave.”
“The audacity of this trash, Miss Thorne.”
“Right? She even brought the slow husband as a prop. That’s a new one.”
Chloe stepped forward, her stilettos clicking against the marble.
She lifted one manicured finger and jabbed it an inch from my face.
“In Bayport, my family makes the rules.”
“Get them.”
The bodyguards came at me.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
The hit never came.
Julian had folded himself around me.
“Don’t… hit… Clara.”
Every word sounded like it cost him effort. His voice was thick and clumsy, like his tongue couldn’t keep up.
The sensory overload was too much for him to process.
But he knew one thing. I wasn’t supposed to get hurt. So he held on tighter.
The fists kept landing on his back, one after another.
Thud!
Thud!
Every sick crunch made my stomach drop.
“Julian!”
I fought to pull free, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Let go of me! Julian, your heart. You can’t take this!”
Julian shook his head.
His face had gone pale as a ghost, but his arms around me didn’t give an inch.
“No… hurt… Clara.”
“Won’t let… Clara hurt. I’ll… protect you.”
He managed a smile. For me. Even now.
That stubborn fool.
His whole body was shaking, and he was worried about me.
“Stop it! All of you, stop!”
His heart couldn’t survive this.
My vision blurred with tears. I twisted around and screamed at Chloe.
“Stop it. You’re going to kill him.”
Whispers rippled through the onlookers nearby.
“That dress is couture. And she doesn’t exactly carry herself like a call girl.”
“Keep it down. You want to get ruined? She’s in a mood. Nobody crosses her when she’s like this.”
Mr. Bates, the family’s butler, wiped the sweat from his forehead and leaned in close.
“Miss Thorne, that young man doesn’t look well. I think he may have a heart condition.”
“If something happens to him…”
Chloe backhanded him across the face.
“Shut up!”
“He’s a defective freak. Since when is that worth anything?”
She jabbed a finger toward Julian, her lip curling.
“His life? I could bury him and write a check to cover it without blinking.”
“Drag them to the ballroom. I want everyone to see.”
“Let all of Bayport see what happens when you touch what’s mine.”
The bodyguards hauled us toward the ballroom.
Julian’s hand found mine. His fingers were ice cold.
His chest heaved with every breath, and sweat beaded across his forehead.
I thrashed against their grip, my heels scraping across the stone floor.
“Don’t touch him! His heart. He has a heart condition!”
“You’ll kill him!”
Chloe kept walking. She didn’t even look back.
“Then let him die.”
