She Mocked My “Useless” Husband Then My Family Ended the Party Chapter 02
They shoved us to our knees on the ballroom floor.
Chloe strutted onto the stage.
“Quiet. Everyone.”
The room went dead silent.
Every pair of eyes in the room locked on us.
Chloe snapped her fingers.
The massive screen behind her flickered on.
A paparazzi-style photo filled the display. A woman, shot from behind.
She was wearing a white haute couture gown. She was stepping into a black Maybach.
Chloe pointed at the screen, then stabbed her finger toward me.
“This is the slut in that photo, the one who’s been sleeping with my husband!”
“She’s married, she’s out here screwing around, and she brought her idiot husband along as a meat shield.”
“Does she think everyone in this room is stupid?”
“Look at her. Tell me that’s not the same woman.”
I was wearing white too, as it happened.
But anyone in that room with half a brain could see the difference.
The silhouette, the drape, the silk. It was in another league from the cheap knockoff in the photo.
Silas had it custom-made in Paris for me.
But nobody in that hall had the guts to correct her.
“Same dress, same hair. It’s definitely her.”
“God, she looks so innocent too. It’s always the quiet ones.”
“I feel bad for the husband, honestly. Too slow to know he’s the joke.”
The whispers hit from every direction, one cruel comment after another.
Julian couldn’t handle loud noise or bright light on a good day.
The noise, the staring. It was too much. He pressed his hands over his ears.
“Clara…”
He curled into himself on the floor, hyperventilating.
His lips were turning purple.
I threw myself over him, pulling him into my arms.
“Julian! Look at me. Breathe. Just breathe.”
My hands were shaking as I dug through his pockets.
He always carried his emergency nitro pills and a custom glass oxygen inhaler.
Eleanor had designed the inhaler herself, built specifically for Julian’s condition.
My fingers had just closed around the bottle of pills when a stiletto heel came down on the back of my hand.
Chloe grabbed the meds and the inhaler out of my reach.
“You want this to save him?”
She dangled the inhaler between two fingers.
“Beg me.”
“Get on your knees and say it. Say you’re the other woman. Then maybe I’ll hand it over.”
“Clara… don’t… beg…”
The words barely made it past his lips.
“Chloe!”
I lifted my head and locked eyes with her.
“Arthur Hayes is my brother. The Hayes family of Highcrest.”
“If anything happens to him, the Hayes family will tear your family apart. Every last one of them.”
Chloe stared at me for a beat, then burst out laughing.
“Arthur?”
“Arthur? The crime lord?”
She was laughing so hard she was almost crying.
“Oh my God. What movie do you think you’re in?”
“Honey, if you’re Arthur’s sister, then I’m the Queen of England.”
“You didn’t even do your homework before playing that card. Nobody from the Hayes family is here tonight.”
She was right. My brothers hadn’t bothered with this event.
I’d gotten bored in Bayport, heard the Thorne banquet was the event of the season, and dragged Julian along to crash it for fun.
My silence only made her bolder.
“What, run out of lies already?”
She lifted her chin.
“If anyone from the Hayes family were actually here, my father would’ve rolled out the red carpet himself.”
Bates took one look at Julian’s face, gray now, lips almost blue, and stepped forward again.
“Miss Thorne, he needs that oxygen. He’s going into cardiac arrest. I mean it this time.”
The smile dropped off Chloe’s face.
She turned on Mr. Bates.
“I already told you. If he dies, I’ll write his family a check!”
She hurled the glass inhaler at the floor in front of the entire room.
It shattered on impact.
“No!”
I lunged for the pieces, but two bodyguards caught me and slammed me back down.
Chloe grabbed a fistful of my hair and wrenched my head back.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Then get on your knees. We’re live-streaming this. The whole city’s going to watch you apologize.”
“Say it. Say you’re a homewrecker. Say you went after my husband.”
“Do that, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be generous enough to call an ambulance for him.”
Julian’s eyes dragged open.
He shook his head at me.
“Clara… don’t kneel.”
But how could I not? That was my Julian. The boy I’d grown up with. The only person in this world who’d take a beating just to keep me safe.
I started to lower myself to my knees.
A deafening crash shattered the closed mahogany doors of the banquet hall.
