Chapter 12 - Confronting the Princess
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The wine cellar beneath the Moretti estate was damp, cold, and smelled of earth and aged cork.
Cassandra Vance was sitting on a wooden crate in the center of the room, her designer dress wrinkled and stained with dust. She had been crying, her mascara running in dark streaks down her face. When the heavy iron door swung open, she jumped up, looking hopeful.
"Adrian!" Cassandra cried, rushing forward. "Please, let me out! This is a mistake!"
Her hope vanished the second she saw Elena standing right beside him.
Cassandra stopped, her eyes narrowing with residual, desperate arrogance. "Why is she down here? Adrian, you can't possibly be taking the word of this fat little—"
"Finish that sentence, Cassandra," Adrian interrupted, his voice a low, lethal growl that echoed off the stone walls. "And I will have Marco remove your tongue."
Cassandra snapped her mouth shut, trembling as she backed away.
Elena stepped past Adrian, walking directly into the cold cellar. She didn't look at the floor anymore. She looked Cassandra dead in the eyes.
"Your father stole my mother's life," Elena stated clearly. "He forced her to sign over her inheritance while she was pregnant and terrified. He let her die in a charity hospital while you bought diamond engagement rings with her money."
"I didn't know!" Cassandra sobbed, shaking her head frantically. "I swear to God, Elena, I didn't know what my father did! I just thought my family was wealthy!"
"You knew enough to try and steal her necklace tonight," Elena pointed out coldly. "You knew the name Moretti was dangerous. You knew you had to hide the truth the second you saw the locket."
Cassandra fell to her knees on the stone floor, sobbing violently, covering her face with her hands. The untouchable socialite was completely broken.
"What are you going to do to us?" Cassandra wept.
Adrian stepped forward, his imposing shadow falling over the kneeling woman.
"When your father arrives tonight," Adrian said clinically, "I am going to force him to sign every single asset the Vance family owns over to Elena and Leo. Every building, every bank account, every offshore trust. You are going to be left with absolutely nothing."
Cassandra gasped, looking up in sheer horror. "We'll be ruined! We'll be on the street!"
Elena looked down at her, feeling a dark, satisfying sense of poetic justice.
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"Then I suggest you learn how to serve champagne, Cassandra," Elena said softly. "I hear they’re hiring."
She turned her back on the sobbing woman and walked out of the cellar, leaving the heavy iron door to slam shut behind her.
