Chapter 8 - What Richard ChoseRichard moved away from the table as though distance could soften what he had done.
“I had two daughters to consider.”
Jenna stared at him.
“One daughter.”
The words struck harder than shouting.
Felicity had become his stepdaughter when he married Marianne. Jenna had tried for years to treat her as family.
But Richard had not balanced two daughters.
He had repeatedly taken from one to elevate the other.
Richard’s voice grew defensive.
“Felicity had just lost her job. The gala offered networking opportunities.”
“So you gave her my invitation.”
“It had the family name.”
“It had my first name.”
Marianne stepped beside him.
“We thought the Montgomery family would respond better to Felicity.”
A gasp moved through the nearest tables.
Jenna’s face remained still.
“Why?”
Marianne hesitated.
Felicity answered for her.
“Because I know how to belong in rooms like this.”
Jenna looked around the ballroom.
Cream walls.
Gold molding.
Crystal glassware.
People who had laughed when instructed.
People who had become silent when a powerful man told them to stop.
“I belong in an emergency room,” Jenna said. “Where people care whether you can keep someone alive.”
Felicity’s jaw tightened.
“And look where that got you.”
Silas turned toward her.
“It brought her into this family’s life before you ever entered it.”
Adrian removed his hand from Felicity’s waist.
She noticed instantly.
“Adrian, please.”
He stepped away.
Richard tried to recover control.
“This wedding will not be destroyed over old correspondence.”
Silas’s expression became almost frighteningly calm.
“This is not about correspondence.”
He looked toward Jenna.
“It is about a woman whose work saved my son, whose opportunity was stolen, and who was brought here to be publicly ridiculed by the people who benefited from her silence.”
Jenna’s eyes burned.
She had spent years believing endurance made her strong.
May you like
Now she wondered whether silence had simply made cruelty convenient.
👉 Richard called it a family decision, but Adrian was about to ask who had financed Felicity’s rise using Jenna’s sacrifice.
