Chapter 3
The tension in the dining hall pulled taut, ready to snap and take casualties. Bianca’s ivory silk gown suddenly looked less like a garment of celebration and more like a shroud. She took a half-step backward, her eyes darting frantically toward the dozens of elite guests who were witnessing her rapid, catastrophic fall from grace.
"I didn't say she was lying, Silas," Bianca stammered, her voice losing all its smooth polish. "I'm saying the situation was chaotic. The glass shattered, Phoebe was running around, and I simply grabbed Laurel's arm to pull her out of the way. It was for her own safety!"
Silas did not blink. His cold, observant eyes remained locked onto the woman he had intended to marry. The family signet ring on his right hand gleamed in the candlelight as he casually adjusted his cuffs.
"Does pulling someone to safety require enough force to rupture the blood vessels beneath their skin?" Silas asked.
Bianca opened her mouth, but no words came out. She looked desperately at the faces of the syndicate captains and politicians seated at the long linen-covered table, searching for an ally. No one met her gaze. They all belonged to Silas Beaumont.
Silas slowly turned his head to survey the crowded room. The flickering ivory candles cast long, dancing shadows across his sharply defined jaw.
"Will you all leave my dining room immediately?" Silas asked the room at large.
It was phrased as a question, but it carried the absolute weight of a lethal command. Instantly, the scraping of cream velvet chairs against polished marble echoed through the hall. Men and women of immense wealth and power moved with quiet, terrified urgency, abandoning their untouched dinners and expensive wine. Within two minutes, the heavy double doors at the end of the hall clicked shut, leaving the grand room entirely empty save for the four of them.
"Silas, you are making a massive mistake," Bianca hissed, her fear morphing rapidly into defensive anger now that they were alone. "My family brought you the northern ports! We have a signed alliance! Are you really going to humiliate me in front of your capos over a clumsy maid?"
"Is your family's alliance worth the blood of the people under my roof?" Silas asked softly, taking one slow, deliberate step toward her.
"She is nothing!" Bianca shrieked, pointing a manicured, trembling finger at Laurel. "I am going to be your wife! I am the mother of this house now! You need me to solidify your territory!"
"Do I look like a man who needs a monster in my home?" Silas inquired, his tone dropping to a dangerous, gravelly register.
Laurel pulled Phoebe slightly behind her back, trying to shield the little girl from the sheer venom radiating from the ivory-clad woman.
May you like
"You're soft, Silas!" Bianca spat, tears of absolute rage welling in her eyes. "You let a grieving child dictate your household, and you let a servant make you look weak! My father will not stand for this disrespect!"
"Shall we see how much your father cares when I return you to him in pieces?" Silas asked, his face a mask of terrifying, arctic calm.
