Chapter 7
Dominic tried to regain control by lowering his voice.
That was an old tactic.
Make the public injury sound private.
“Vivienne,” he said, “not in front of Sophia.”
Vivienne’s expression hardened.
“You put her upstairs.”
He flinched.
The guests heard that too.
Sophia’s hand tightened around her mother’s fingers.
“Daddy?” she whispered.
Dominic looked at her.
For one second, something human crossed his face.
Then fear swallowed it.
He looked toward the investors.
Toward Chloe.
Toward Victor’s folder.
Toward the officers.
The order of his gaze told Vivienne everything.
Sophia was not first.
Still not first.
Victor saw it too.
His jaw tightened, but he remained silent.
Dominic swallowed.
“There are things adults understand that children don’t.”
Sophia’s eyes filled.
Vivienne stepped slightly in front of her.
“No. There are things children understand immediately because adults stop lying badly.”
A murmur passed through the ballroom.
Chloe backed closer to the guests, no longer trying to speak.
She had expected humiliation to belong to Vivienne.
Now she was standing inside it.
Dominic looked at Victor.
“You can’t just walk in and take over.”
Victor’s voice stayed calm.
“I didn’t walk in to take over.”
He lifted the folder slightly.
“I walked in to remind you what was already true.”
That sentence struck Dominic harder than any threat.
Because takeover suggested a new event.
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Already true meant he had been performing power inside someone else’s structure all along.
Read the full story 👉 Dominic tried to hide behind adult excuses, but Victor’s calm words revealed his control had always been borrowed.
