3
Everyone still lingering was watching, their
faces alight with anticipation, hungry for the
drama, waiting for my answer.
I thought of the promise I’d made to Dad.
Arguing with Silas was a waste of breath.
く
They’d all find out soon enough who I was
really marrying.
On the drive home, I somehow ended up in
the same car as Cora.
She kept staring at the diamond sparkling on
my finger, a raw flash of jealousy in her eyes
before she quickly masked it with her usual
smug superiority.
“Quinn,” she began, her voice dripping with
false pity, “so what if you manage to marry
Silas? You’ll never, ever have his heart.
Honestly, you should try to cultivate some
self–respect and stop clinging to him like this.
You’re just embarrassing the Hamilton name,
dragging us all down with you.”
With Silas not around to witness her
With Silas not around to witness her
performance, Cora had dropped her sweet,
innocent little lamb act. Her true, grasping
colors were on full display.
Seeing that blatant, unearned arrogance
simmering in her eyes, I was suddenly thrown
back to a memory from long ago.
I was ten when her mother, a woman with
hard eyes and a desperate air, had shown up
on our doorstep with Cora in tow.
My parents were, by all accounts, a golden
couple, their marriage a beacon of love and
partnership. Cora and her mother’s sudden
appearance nearly shattered that idyllic
image.
Later, the truth, sordid and ugly, had
く
emerged. Dad had been drugged on a
business trip years ago. Cora was the
unfortunate, unplanned ‘accident‘ that
resulted from that violation.
But Cora’s existence, her very being, had
never truly threatened my position within the
family. If anything, Dad, consumed by a quiet
guilt, had become even more attentive to me,
ensuring lawyers drew up my inheritance
rights iron–clad and early on.
Later, when Dad had arranged for Cora to go
abroad, he’d done so with a sense of duty,
ensuring she was well provided for, her future
financially secured.
She never lacked for anything – food,
clothes, a generous allowance. She was taken
care of.
Г
This time around, a cold curiosity sparked
within me: if no one interfered with her
choices, her actions, her karma… what would
ultimately become of her?
Mulling this over, I ignored her barbed taunts,
simply replying with a cool, detached air, “If
the other woman isn’t ashamed of her
actions, why on earth should I be?”
She blinked, her smugness deflating like a
pricked balloon, her intended insult falling
flat.
I wasn’t interested in watching her face twist
into a mask of impotent rage. I just got out of
the car.
It was Grandma King’s 80th birthday. Mom,
Dad, and I went to offer our heartfelt
congratulations.
After presenting our gifts, I slipped away to
the quiet sanctuary of the backyard, hoping
to escape the inevitable barrage of questions
from busybodies wanting to dissect my
upcoming marriage.
I didn’t expect to see Cora there.
Word on the grapevine was that Silas had
been showering Cora with extravagant gifts
lately, even going so far as to buy her a lavish
villa on the hillside, all registered in her name.
Suddenly, a bitter wave of realization washed
–
over me as I thought of all the money my
–
money — I’d poured into Silas over the long,
wasted years.
Every single one of his expenses, from his
tailored suits to his fancy dinners, had been
funded directly from my accounts.
And now, he was using my hard–earned
money to pamper his precious, conniving
darling.
I took in Cora, preening in her haute couture
gown a priceless, practically unobtainable
creation. Two hundred million dollars certainly
looked impressive on her, I’d give her that
much.
Spotting me, Cora sauntered over, her chin
held high in an arrogant tilt. “Quinn, darling,
what do you think of my new dress?”
Her voice was cloyingly sweet. “Silas had it
く
custom–made for me by a renowned French
designer. It’s utterly unique, you know, one of
a kind in the entire world.”
When I didn’t deign to respond, she pressed
on, relentless, grabbing my arm. “And look,
this exquisite jade bangle! Silas also…”
I impatiently shook her hand off. I was about
to deliver a sharp warning to keep her
distance when my eyes snagged on the jade
bangle adorning her wrist.
My breath hitched. That bangle… it was the
one my maternal grandmother had given to
my older brother, intended as a precious gift for his future wife. When I was a little girl, I’d
whined and pouted about how much I loved it, and because my brother doted on me, he’d
indulgently given it to me.
く
After my brother disappeared without a trace,
that bangle was the only tangible thing I had
left of him, a sacred memento.
I cherished it beyond words, keeping it safely
locked away in my jewelry box, only taking it
out on rare occasions when the ache of
missing him became too unbearable to
endure.
I reached for Cora’s hand, a desperate need
to examine the bangle more closely surging
through me. But before I could touch it, she
suddenly stumbled backward, collapsing
dramatically to the ground, clutching her face
and letting out a theatrical wail.
“Quinn, what are you doing?” she cried, her
voice laced with feigned terror. “I know you’re
Vuilt Taltu will relynieu leitui. I KNOW You Te
jealous that Silas prefers my company, but
you can’t just resort to bullying me like this!”
My mouth opened to retort, but a hand
clamped onto my wrist like a vise, hard and
unyielding.
An icy voice, laced with fury, snapped from
behind me, “Quinn, what in the goddamn hell
do you think you’re doing now!”
Silas was glaring at me, his face a mask of
cold rage.
I wrenched my arm free, my eyes, sharp as
shattered glass, fixed unwaveringly on Cora.
“I’m asking you one more time, Cora: where
did you get that bangle?”
A fleeting shadow of guilt, or perhaps fear,
flickered across Cora’s face.
She instinctively darted a glance at Silas, her
ever–present protector and enabler, then,
drawing strength from his presence, she lifted
her chin defiantly. “Silas gave it to me, of
course. Who else?”
“You’re lying! That bangle is clearly—”
Before I could utter another word, Silas’s
hand arced through the air, connecting with
my cheek in a stinging slap.
“Quinn, will you ever goddamn stop?” he
seethed, his voice raw with anger. “It’s just a
stupid bangle! Is it really worth making such
an ugly, public scene over something so
trivial?”
Г
He jabbed a finger towards Cora. “I’m telling
you, I gave this bangle to Cora! Now drop it!”
