Chapter 4 - Betsy’s Pearl Clutch
Betsy had spent months preparing for this wedding.
Not because she loved Alyssa.
Because she loved the victory of replacing Grace.
Grace had never been polished enough for her.
Never obedient enough.
Never rich enough in the right way.
Never willing to pretend cruelty was tradition.
Alyssa, to Betsy, was easier.
Elegant.
Pregnant.
Publicly acceptable.
A woman who smiled when Betsy rearranged her future.
Now Betsy clutched her pearl handbag like it contained the remains of her control.
Her eyes flicked toward the guests.
Investors.
Relatives.
Friends.
People who had toasted the match five minutes ago.
Now they watched Connor’s face drain over a clinic envelope Grace had brought in with a newborn baby in her arm.
Betsy leaned close to Connor.
“Give that to me.”
Connor did not.
Grace saw Betsy’s fingers tighten.
For the first time, her former mother-in-law had been refused in public.
That alone almost made the night worth surviving.
Betsy looked at Grace with hatred.
“What do you want?”
Grace smiled faintly, tears still shining in her eyes.
“You keep asking that like I came to bargain.”
“Then why are you here?”
Grace looked down at Brinley.
The newborn’s tiny hand shifted against the lace.
Grace’s voice softened, but her words did not.
“Because my daughter was erased from a story she was born into.”
Connor’s face flinched.
Alyssa looked away.
Betsy’s mouth curled.
“That child has nothing to do with this wedding.”
Grace’s eyes lifted.
“She has everything to do with the lie that made it possible.”
Connor inhaled sharply.
Alyssa whispered, “Stop.”
The guests heard her.
Grace did too.
Stop.
Not because Grace was wrong.
Because Grace was close.
Betsy suddenly tried to snatch the envelope.
Connor jerked it away from her.
Everyone saw.
Betsy froze, humiliated.
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Connor stared at his own mother with the kind of shock that arrives when a man realizes everyone around him has been managing what he knows.
Read Chapter 5 👉 Because Betsy wanted the envelope hidden, and Connor finally noticed his mother feared the report almost as much as Alyssa did.
