Chapter 4
The opulent dining hall was suffocatingly quiet. The ivory candles burning in their brass candelabras seemed to cast harsh, judgmental shadows over the extravagant feast. Esme felt the heavy, terrifying gravity of the moment pressing down on her slender shoulders. The elegant fitted black maid dress suddenly felt too tight, restricting the frantic, shallow breaths she was taking.
She looked at the small cup in her hand, the poison designed to rip the life from her womb, and then she looked down at Maisie, whose brave little hands were still wrapped around her wrist. Finally, she lifted her gaze and met Gideon’s eyes, refusing to look away despite the absolute terror racing through her veins.
Tears gathered heavily along Esme’s lower eyelids, making her expressive eyes shine in the golden light. She steadied a trembling breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly against the pristine white apron.
"Yes," Esme answered, the single word escaping through a small tremor in her breath, but carrying a devastating, undeniable truth.
A collective gasp erupted from the velvet dining chairs nearby. Murmurs of shock and outrage rippled through the syndicate members.
"She admits it!" a cousin whispered loudly. "The boss has a bastard with the help!"
"Silence!" Gideon roared, his deep voice booming with an authority that instantly silenced the murmuring crowd. He turned his intense focus back to Esme, his sharp jawline setting into a mask of restrained fury. "Why did you hide this from me, Esme? Why are you standing here shaking like a leaf holding that cup?"
Esme blinked, a single tear escaping to trace a path down her fair, rosy cheek. She looked directly at the woman sitting beside Gideon in the luxurious emerald evening gown.
"Because Blair threatened Maisie," Esme confessed, her voice breaking with raw, unprotected emotion.
The words dropped like a devastating explosive charge onto the cream marble floor. The implication was horrific. The woman destined to be the queen of the syndicate had not only attempted to murder the boss's unborn child, but she had used the life of an innocent six-year-old girl as leverage to force the mother to do it herself.
"That is an outrageous lie!" Blair shouted, standing up from her chair, her diamond earrings swinging wildly. The polished public smile had completely vanished, replaced by a feral mask of desperation and cornered panic. "She is a lying whore trying to ruin our wedding, Gideon! I have never spoken a harsh word to that brat!"
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Gideon did not look at Blair. His artistic tattoos stood out starkly as he rested a heavy hand on the table, absorbing the magnitude of the betrayal. He had invited a monster into his home, and she had used his own wealth and power to terrorize the woman carrying his blood.
"You threatened to hurt my daughter if I didn't drink this toast," Esme sobbed, her graceful posture crumbling as she pulled Maisie closer to her side. "You gave me the cup before dinner. You told me it would fix the problem permanently."
