Chapter 5
Dominic descended another stair.
Slowly.
Carefully.
A man walking toward a wife he had publicly erased while trying to look like the injured party.
Vivienne recognized the performance.
He softened his face before reaching the lobby floor.
Not remorse.
Optics.
“Vivienne,” he said, voice low. “You’re scaring Sophia.”
Vivienne almost smiled.
There it was.
The first move.
Use the child’s distress to control the mother’s reaction, as if he had not created the scene that frightened her.
Sophia clutched the handmade necklace against her chest.
Vivienne kept one arm around her.
“No, Dominic. You did that when you let our daughter walk into this.”
His jaw tightened.
The executives heard.
That mattered.
Dominic glanced toward them, then lowered his voice.
“This is not the place.”
Vivienne looked around the lobby.
The chandeliers.
The flowers.
The champagne.
The woman upstairs presented as wife.
The boy on the staircase.
The secretary smirking behind black marble.
“It seems to be the place you chose.”
Vanessa finally stepped forward from the stairs.
She moved with confidence that had been rehearsed before Vivienne arrived.
“Dominic, don’t let her turn this into a scene.”
Vivienne’s gaze shifted to her.
Vanessa’s silver gown shimmered beneath the warm light. She was beautiful, controlled, and clearly accustomed to being treated as the future.
Sophia looked up at her and whispered, “Who is she?”
The question broke something in the room.
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
Vivienne crouched beside Sophia without taking her attention off the adults.
“She is someone Daddy should have explained before tonight.”
Sophia’s lip trembled.
“My necklace…”
She held it out slightly, then pulled it back.
That tiny movement hurt Vivienne more than Chloe’s insult.
The necklace had been made for a father.
Now Sophia did not know whether he deserved it.
Dominic took one step forward.
“Soph, sweetheart—”
Vivienne’s hand lifted.
He stopped.
It was the first time that night Dominic obeyed anything she did.
Behind Chloe, the elevator doors opened wider.
Several sharply dressed figures began stepping into the lobby.
No one named them.
No one announced documents.
No one revealed what Victor had started.
But Chloe turned and saw them.
May you like
Her face changed completely.
Read Chapter 6 👉 Because when the elevator opened behind Chloe, the people Dominic feared arrived without needing to say who sent them.
