Chapter 10: The Final Confrontation
Chapter 10: The Final Confrontation
The growing success of the tailor shop and the rising prestige of the charity felt like a slap in the face to James. Unable to bear seeing Lily thrive without him, James personally drove down to the coastal town.
He stormed into The Open Seam late one afternoon, just as they were preparing to close. His face was gaunt, his eyes bloodshot with rage and exhaustion from his company's mounting crises.
"Lily, enough of this game!"
James roared, slamming a massive diamond ring onto the cutting table.
"Look at the pathetic excuse of a life you're living here. Smelling like fish and serving peasants? Come back to New York with me. I’ll forgive the public humiliation at the altar, and we can start over."
Lily looked at the glittering ring, then at the man who had once been her fiancé. She felt a wave of pity for how blind she had once been.
"You still don't understand a single thing, do you, James?"
Lily said calmly, her hands never stopping as she neatly organized the spools of colored thread.
"I was never playing a game. And this place is not pathetic—it is my home. The people you call 'peasants' have more dignity in their little fingers than you will ever have in your entire lifetime."
James lunged forward, reaching out to grab Lily's wrist.
"Who do you think you are? Without the Vanderbilt name and backing, you're just a nobody dressmaker in a bankrupt town!"
Smack!
A sharp, resounding crack echoed through the shop. But it wasn't Lily who had delivered it—it was Eleanor. She stood by the door, holding a heavy wooden yardstick.
"Get your filthy hands off my niece,"
Eleanor growled, her eyes burning with pure venom.
"James Vanderbilt, your company is on the verge of total collapse because of the massive financial fraud scandal exposed by the media this morning, isn't it? You didn't come here because you love Lily. You came here to steal whatever clean reputation we have left to bail out your sinking ship."
James turned pale, taking a staggered step back. His desperate motive had been completely unmasked.
"You... you will both regret this!"
May you like
James screamed in sheer impotence, turning on his heel and fleeing the shop like a defeated dog into the evening shadows.
Lily watched his car speed away into the darkness, letting out a long, peaceful breath. The thread tying her to that toxic past was finally severed forever.
