Part 6
“No, you did not. You were easy for him. That was the point.” Vivian’s voice shook now, though she tried to control it. “He looked at you and became softer. He listened to you. He let you tell him when he was wrong. You made him feel like he could be different from his father, and he loved you for it.”
Chloe’s throat tightened.
Vivian looked toward the windows.
“And then you left.”
“I didn’t leave him. He pushed me away.”
“You left.”
“He believed you.”
“He believed what he saw.”
“He saw what you gave him.”
Vivian’s eyes returned to Chloe’s face.
“You are still trying to make this my fault.”
“No,” Chloe said quietly. “I’m trying to make it mine too. I should have fought harder. I should have demanded he listen. I should have gone to Margot. I should have done a hundred things differently.”
Vivian’s expression flickered.
Chloe continued before she could stop herself.
“But none of that means you get to decide what happened.”
The corridor seemed to shrink around them.
Somewhere beyond the closed door at the end of the hall, a floorboard creaked.
Vivian heard it too.
Her face changed.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“I am asking you once.”
Chloe backed up a step.
The top of the staircase waited behind her.
She did not notice how close until her heel touched the edge of the first marble stair.
Vivian saw it.
Her gaze dropped.
Then lifted again.
“Do you think Gabriel will leave me?” Vivian asked.
Chloe’s pulse quickened.
“This isn’t about that.”
“It is entirely about that.”
“I don’t know what he will do.”
“You know exactly what you want him to do.”
“I want him to know the truth.”
“You want him to choose you.”
Chloe closed her eyes briefly.
When she opened them, Vivian was closer.
“No,” Chloe said. “I want him to stop thinking I betrayed him.”
Vivian’s face twisted.
“And what do you think happens after that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
“No.”
“He will look at you the way he used to.”
Chloe’s breath caught.
Vivian’s voice became almost a whisper.
“And I will be the woman who lied.”
“You are.”
The slap of silence after the words was so complete that Chloe heard the small electric hum of the chandelier below.
Vivian’s jaw tightened.
“You were supposed to disappear,” she said.
Chloe’s eyes widened.
The sentence was too cold to be a threat and too personal to be anything else.
Vivian stepped forward.
Chloe lifted the leather case between them.
“Don’t touch me.”
Vivian’s gaze dropped to the case.
“You have no idea what this will do.”
“I know what you did to me.”
“You do not know what I had to do.”
“You didn’t have to do anything.”
Vivian’s eyes flashed.
“You think I had a choice? You think people like Gabriel just wake up one morning and decide to belong to people like me? I had to make myself necessary.”
“By making him afraid of me?”
“By making him see you.”
Chloe felt the staircase against the back of her calves.
Vivian’s hands rose.
For one moment, Chloe thought Vivian might try to take the phone.
She did not.
She placed both hands against Chloe’s upper chest and shoulder line.
The contact was firm.
Too firm.
“Vivian,” Chloe said.
Vivian’s face was inches from hers now.
Her eyes looked wild.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
The push came before Chloe could brace.
Later, if anyone asked, Chloe would remember the sensation of Vivian’s palms through the thin fabric of her dress. The sudden pressure. The instant loss of balance. The floor falling away behind her.
She would remember Vivian’s face.
Not rage.
Decision.
Then the marble found her.
Now Gabriel’s hand cupped the side of Chloe’s head.
She could feel his thumb shaking near her temple.
The pain in her side had become a hard, pulsing thing. Her ankle throbbed inside one gold heel, twisted at an angle she did not want to examine. She kept her eyes on Gabriel because looking anywhere else made the house move.
He said her name again.
“Chloe.”
She blinked.
His face came back into focus.
“I’m here,” she whispered.
“Good.”
His voice broke slightly on the word.
He swallowed and looked toward the foyer below, as though he might call for someone, but the house was empty. The family dinner had not begun. The staff had been sent home early because Gabriel wanted one quiet evening before the gala. Vivian had suggested it, Chloe remembered suddenly.
No witnesses.
No one to hear.
No one except Gabriel.
He leaned closer.
“Can you move your fingers?”
Chloe looked at her hand.
May you like
The leather case was still there.
Her fingers had locked around it.
