The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating, and absolute. Chloe’s face turned a shade of crimson that clashed violently with her cream silk dress Thief . Beside her, Alexander looked like a man watching his own execution.
“A maid?” Chloe’s voice pitched high, vibrating with indignant rage. “Alexander, tell them! Tell them who I am!”
I didn’t wait for him to find his tongue. I stepped further into the foyer, my heels clicking rhythmically against the Italian marble—marble that had been paid for with my family’s legacy. I ran a gloved finger over a gold-leafed console table and turned to my mother-in-law, Eleanor, whose jaw was practically touching her chest.
“She seems a bit temperamental for domestic help, doesn’t she, Eleanor?” I said, my voice smooth as aged whiskey. “But Alexander told me he was looking for someone ‘dedicated’ to manage the new property. I assumed the silk dress was just part of a very expensive uniform.”
“Victoria, stop this,” Alexander finally croaked, stepping forward. His eyes were darting toward his father. Richard Pierce was a man of the old guard—reputation was his god, and scandal was his devil. Seeing his son caught in a $10 million trap was clearly not part of his Friday schedule.
“Stop what, darling?” I tilted my head. “The tour? We haven’t even seen the master suite yet. I hear the walk-in closet is large enough to house a dozen secrets.”
The Audit of a Betrayal
I walked past them, heading straight for the grand staircase. Chloe tried to block my path, her small hands balled into fists. Up close, she looked exactly like what she was: an expensive hobby that Alexander couldn’t afford.
“You can’t just barge in here!” she hissed. “This is my house!”
I stopped, inches from her face. I am five-foot-ten in these heels, and I’ve stared down hedge fund sharks who would make Chloe look like a goldfish. I let the silence stretch until she blinked.
“Your house?” I laughed softly. “Let’s talk about that. Because according to the wire transfer from the Sterling-Pierce joint account—an account that is 90% funded by my family’s trust—this house belongs to a shell company. And that shell company? It was dissolved an hour ago for fraudulent use of marital assets.”
Alexander’s face went from pale to ghostly. “You… what?”
“I have a very fast legal team, Alexander. You should know; you’ve been using them for your corporate filings for years.” I turned back to my in-laws. “Father, would you like to see the library? I’m sure it’s where Alexander planned to hide all the tax evasion paperwork he’s been generating to keep this little ‘project’ afloat.”
Richard Pierce finally spoke. His voice was a low rumble of thunder. “Alexander. Is this true?”
“Dad, it’s… it’s complicated. Chloe is a designer, she was helping me—”
“Helping you spend $10 million of Victoria’s money?” Eleanor snapped. She might have been a snob, but she wasn’t a fool. She knew where the Pierce family’s lifestyle came from. If I cut them off, their prestigious world would vanish in a puff of unpaid country club dues. She turned her venom on Chloe. “And you. You thought you could slide into a life built by a Sterling? You look like a cheap imitation of a socialite.”
