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Once Harold had confirmed it, it wasn't just Julian who was broken. Chloe was broken. The whole dining room detonated into a different kind of noise.

"Somebody pinch me. Am I dreaming this?"

One man actually grabbed his friend and pinched him. The friend yelped.

"Oh my god. It's real. She's actually Evangeline Ashford."

"We were—we were mocking her. Laughing at her."

"Some of you ripped her dress. You ripped an Ashford's dress."

"What do we do. What do we do."

Whispered panic rolled around me in waves. Everyone praying I'd forgotten their face.

I hadn't forgotten any of them. I'd told them earlier: laugh at me, and you become the joke.

Harold reacted first. He swung his foot and kicked Chloe straight across the floor until she landed at my feet.

"You poisonous little leech. Where did you find the nerve to go after Ms. Ashford?"

"Letting those old men tear her dress? Making her take a piece of raw meat in her teeth and crawl? How many lives do you think you have?"

Chloe was still reeling. She collapsed at my feet again. This time, nobody had the courage to help her.

She looked up at Julian, pleading. Julian's eyes never left me. He didn't look at her once.

Harold was shaking with rage.

"The reason the Harringtons are where we are. Every single rung of it. Is because of her."

"I didn't know until last year. I flew to Newport on business and I saw her. At the head of the Ashford family board. Running the room. Every old billionaire in New England treated her like royalty. That was when I realized what my daughter-in-law actually is."

"She was going to reveal it tonight. She was going to take you home. Introduce you. Make you her consort at the Ashford board."

"And you. You threw it away. For a cheap little side piece."