Chapter 7 - The Betrayal on Display
|
Julian was standing near a towering swan ice sculpture, a glass of expensive champagne in his hand, laughing uproariously at a joke told by the CEO of his firm.
And clinging to his left arm, looking entirely too comfortable, was Chloe.
She was wearing a sleek, backless black cocktail dress, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders. She was young, beautiful, and completely oblivious to the fact that her borrowed kingdom was about to burn to the ground.
Julian wasn't hiding her. He had brazenly brought his mistress to a highly publicized corporate event, introducing her to his colleagues and superiors. It was a level of sheer, unadulterated arrogance that I couldn't even begin to fathom. He truly believed he was untouchable. He believed I was sitting safely in the suburbs, wearing sweatpants and watching television, completely blind to his public humiliation of our vows.
I felt a surge of nausea, but I swallowed it down, letting the pure, unfiltered rage take over.
"Mom," Leo whispered, his voice trembling for the first time all evening as he saw his father parading another woman.
I squeezed his hand tightly. "I'm right here, Leo."
We didn't march directly toward them. I wanted the tension to build. I wanted the room to realize what was happening before Julian did.
We slowly walked across the ballroom floor, making a deliberate, highly visible path. As we passed groups of colleagues who knew Julian and me, conversations abruptly stopped. Glasses were lowered. Eyes darted between the beautiful woman in red and the senior partner laughing with his mistress across the room.
May you like
The atmosphere in the grand ballroom shifted from jovial celebration to suffocating, horrific anticipation. The air grew heavy, charged with the electric current of a bomb about to detonate.
I stopped about thirty feet away from Julian's group, positioning myself directly in his line of sight, though he was still too distracted by Chloe to notice the silence falling over the room.
