Chapter 8 - Spencer Loses the Room
A CEO can lose money privately.
He can lose employees quietly.
He can lose investor confidence behind closed doors and still walk into a gala smiling.
But losing the room happens all at once.
Spencer felt it.
The shift began near the investors.
One man who had greeted him warmly ten minutes earlier now looked past him toward Raymond.
A politician adjusted his cuff and stepped away from Spencer’s side of the entrance.
A reporter lifted a camera toward Phoebe instead of Paisley.
Apex executives exchanged looks that contained calculations, not sympathy.
Spencer tried to straighten.
He adjusted his bow tie.
The gesture made him look more desperate.
Phoebe watched without satisfaction.
This was not revenge the way movies made revenge look.
It did not feel clean.
It felt like finally pulling a blade from a wound and watching everyone notice the blood.
Spencer said quietly, “You are still my wife.”
Phoebe’s eyes did not move.
“That did not matter to you when you arrived with her.”
Paisley’s face flushed.
Spencer snapped, “Do not drag her into this.”
Phoebe looked at Paisley.
“She walked in beside you.”
Paisley swallowed.
Raymond’s gaze sharpened on Spencer.
“You defend the woman who helped humiliate my daughter faster than you apologized to my daughter.”
Spencer went pale.
The sentence was a business analysis wearing a father’s grief.
Accurate.
Unforgiving.
Apex’s chairman moved slightly closer, but stopped before speaking.
No one wanted to be the first to choose a side while Raymond Harrell was still looking.
Phoebe turned toward the ballroom.
“I’m going in.”
Spencer stepped as if to follow.
Security shifted.
Just one synchronized movement.
He stopped.
Raymond offered Phoebe his arm again.
She accepted.
Not because she needed support.
Because tonight, the world would see she had it.
Paisley stood alone beside Spencer.
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For the first time, her gold gown looked less like triumph and more like a warning label.
Read Chapter 9 👉 Because Spencer tried to claim Phoebe as his wife only after losing the room, and everyone saw the timing.
