Chapter 6 - The Champagne Glass Trembles
Paisley’s champagne glass would not stop shaking.
At first, she tried to hide it by lowering her hand.
Then by switching it to the other hand.
Then by placing it on a nearby tray, only to miss the edge and force a server to catch it before it tipped.
The moment was small.
Everyone saw.
Phoebe saw most of all.
She did not hate Paisley the way she expected to.
Disgust, yes.
Anger, yes.
But beneath that was something colder: recognition.
Paisley had not created Spencer’s cruelty.
She had simply benefited from it.
She had stood beside him while he diminished Phoebe.
She had accepted the invitation that belonged to his wife.
She had worn gold to a gala built on money she did not realize came through Phoebe’s bloodline.
Paisley looked toward Raymond again.
“Mr. Harrell,” she said, voice trembling, “I didn’t know she was your daughter.”
Raymond’s eyes moved to her.
“My daughter’s value did not begin when you learned my name.”
Paisley went still.
The sentence was not loud.
It cut anyway.
Spencer stepped between them.
“That’s enough.”
Raymond looked at him now.
“No, Mr. Conway. That was enough years ago.”
Apex executives near the doorway exchanged glances.
Reporters sensed the shift and leaned in.
Security remained silent.
Phoebe’s expression remained controlled, but her eyes shone with emotion she refused to let fall.
Spencer saw it.
For one fleeting second, he seemed to remember the woman who had stood beside him before the company grew teeth.
Before the parties.
Before Paisley.
Before he mistook obedience for loyalty.
“Phoebe,” he said, softer now, “we can talk inside.”
She looked at the ballroom behind him.
“Inside is where you wanted me invisible.”
He had no answer.
Paisley took half a step away.
That movement was the first visible crack in his borrowed confidence.
Spencer noticed and panicked.
“Paisley.”
She did not look at him.
She was looking at Raymond’s security team closing the ballroom doors behind them.
Quietly.
Professionally.
May you like
As if the night had entered a phase Spencer had not authorized.
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Paisley apologized only for not knowing Phoebe’s father, and Raymond made everyone hear why that was not an apology at all.
