Chapter 3 - The Wrath of the Bride
The Waldorf Astoria bridal suite looked like a war zone.
Chloe Mercer, still wearing her three-hundred-thousand-dollar wedding gown, was screaming as she hurled a crystal champagne flute at the wall. It shattered into a thousand glittering pieces.
“He left me at the altar! For her!” Chloe shrieked, her perfect makeup ruined by streaks of black mascara.
Julian stood in the center of the room, looking exhausted and frantic. “Chloe, stop being hysterical! Elena had a baby. My baby.”
Chloe froze, her chest heaving. She stared at Julian as if he had grown a second head. “A baby? She’s barren! Your doctors confirmed it!”
“The doctors were wrong,” Julian snapped, running a hand through his hair. “Or she lied. It doesn't matter. What matters is that the boy was born today. The day before my thirty-fifth birthday. Do you know what this means for the trust?”
Chloe’s eyes widened as the realization hit her. She wasn't just a scorned bride; she was a woman whose golden ticket to the Sterling empire was suddenly in jeopardy. If Julian didn't secure that child, the board could oust him. And if Julian lost control of the company, Chloe’s dreams of becoming the reigning queen of New York society were dead.
“She did this on purpose,” Chloe sneered, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper. “She planned this to trap you. We have to destroy her, Julian. We have to prove she’s an unfit mother.”
“How? She’s spotless.”
“Nobody is spotless,” Chloe said, walking toward him, her stiletto heels crunching on the broken glass. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her eyes cold and calculating. “We control the media. We have the best private investigators in the world. We will paint her as a mentally unstable, bitter ex-wife who hid a pregnancy out of pure malice. We will drag her through court until she runs out of money, and then you swoop in and take the boy.”
Julian looked down at his fiancé. He saw the ruthlessness in her eyes—the same ruthlessness that had drawn him to her in the first place.
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“Call the lawyers,” Julian commanded. “Tell them to file an emergency injunction for a paternity test and full custody. I want her served before she even leaves the hospital.”
Chloe smiled, a sharp, predatory grin. “Consider it done. That nobody is about to learn what happens when you mess with our empire.”
