"Don't tell me you can't even afford to pay!"

"What a shame that would be. Getting detained and hauled off to the police station for skipping out on a bill—isn't that exactly what you did to me once?"

Silvia pulled out a slender cigarette, placed it between her lips, and lit up. She blew the smoke directly in my face, her expression dripping with arrogance.

I couldn't stop myself. My hand shot up and slapped her hard across the face.

The table went flying. Chaos erupted.

Harry rushed to Silvia's side, then snapped at his bodyguards. Before I could react, they grabbed me and threw me to the ground.

"Celeste, that's enough!"

"Oh, so you can torment people all you want, but no one's allowed to fight back?"

I glared at Harry, my eyes burning. The Gilbert family's meteoric rise to the top of Cresthaven's wealth rankings in just three years? That was me. I'd leveraged every connection my family had to clear their path. Even the underground players who wanted to cause trouble for the Gilberts backed off—because of who I was.

Tonight, on my birthday, I'd planned to finally tell Harry the truth. That I wasn't some nobody. That I was the heir to the most powerful of Southport's four great families.

I was going to bring him home to meet my parents.

I never imagined his heart could change this fast.

I'd misjudged him. Overestimated his character.

"Harry, are you really going to make me walk out of here humiliated?"

Harry let out a cold laugh. "What else? You think I arranged all this just for show?"

Silvia, emboldened by the bodyguards, swung her fist into my face. "You worthless tramp. Here are your options: get arrested for not paying, or strip naked, hold this steak in your teeth, and crawl out of here on all fours like a dog."

She grinned. "Oh, and the difference? Option one, you keep your clothes. Option two, you lose your clothes and your dignity. So hurry up and pick—I'm getting impatient."

Dozens of eyes watched me like I was tonight's entertainment.

I clenched my fists until my knuckles went white, staring at Harry without a shred of emotion.

"Fine. If this is what you've chosen, then when the Gilbert family goes bankrupt, that's on you."

The moment the words left my mouth, Silvia burst out laughing.

"Ha! Did you hear that?"

"Does she think she's living in a romance novel? Playing the secret heiress?"

"She's clearly lost her mind."

Harry's eyes flashed with anger. He thought I was bluffing too.

He grabbed a plate of food and hurled it at me. "Stop talking nonsense. You're going to bankrupt the Gilberts? Who do you think you are?"

"Worry about your own problems first."

"Manager!"

The manager caught his cue and approached with security flanking him. His tone was cold but professional. "Ms. Henson, will you be paying in cash, or is someone coming to cover the bill?"

I scanned the room and spotted a woman I'd worked with before—a business contact I'd met while negotiating deals on behalf of the Gilberts.

I started walking toward her.

The second she saw me coming, she scrambled out of her seat and backed away.

"Celeste, stay back—I can't pay for you—"

"Relax. I'm not asking you to pay. I just need to borrow your phone."

"Please?"

"I'm calling a friend to bring money."

Silvia's laughter cut through the room. "Oh, this is rich! Who in all of Cresthaven would dare come bail you out?"

She waved dismissively. "Fine, let her make her little call. We'll give her thirty minutes. If nobody shows up with the cash by then—" She gestured at the overweight businessmen leering nearby. "—these gentlemen can strip her themselves. A woman who's been with the city's richest man must be worth sampling, right?"

Silvia turned to the group of overweight men who'd been eyeing me like starving dogs the whole time.

At her signal, the business partner handed me her phone.

The moment I got it, I called my friend and begged her to get money here within thirty minutes.

The minutes crawled by. Ten minutes left.

Silvia couldn't wait any longer. She stood up.

"God, I'm such an idiot. I actually believed this bitch? Like her pathetic little friend is going to show up with money?"

"Exactly! She's just stalling."

"Manager, have your guys break her arms and legs first. Nobody's stupid enough to cross the Gilbert family by helping her. Stop wasting time."

The manager and his security guards moved toward me, faces twisted with menace. I raised my hand to stop them.

"Hold on. I still have ten minutes."

"When those ten minutes are up, someone will be here with the money."

Silvia laughed. "Bullshit. When those ten minutes are up—hell, I'll give you an extra ten—if nobody shows up with cash, I'll get on all fours and crawl out of here like a dog with my tail between my legs."

My eyes lit up. "You said it. Remember that."

"Yeah, I said it. So what? Everyone here is my witness."

The room erupted. "Ha! This is too good. I'm not going home tonight."

"Who knew dinner would come with a show?"

The ten minutes were almost up. One of the fat men couldn't wait anymore and reached over to grope me.

"Don't touch me!" I slapped his hand away.

"Heh heh heh. Those curves, that body—I don't even need to touch to know it's good."

"Mr. Gilbert, why don't you just give her to me?"

Harry drained his wine in one smooth gulp, toying with the lighter in his hand.

"Why not? If she can't pay, you can do whatever you want with her."

"Ha! Then I'm going first."

Everyone was certain I couldn't pay. They stopped caring whether I wanted this or not and started closing in.

My voice went cold enough to kill, but those rich bastards didn't give a damn.

Silvia shot a look at Harry's bodyguards, smirking.

"Hold her down. Pin her so those pigs can have their fun."

"Yes, ma'am." The bodyguards surged toward me, surrounding me completely.

I looked at Harry. My heart turned to ice.

We were still married—on paper, at least. And he was letting other men put their hands on me. This was his face being trampled too.

But he didn't care. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not helping you."

"I just want Silvia to feel better."

With Harry's blessing, the pigs started hollering.

"Come with me, beautiful!"

"I've got money—I can pay your bill!"

"No, no, come with me. I've got more money than him, and I'm thinner too."

They ordered the bodyguards to hold me down while their hands tore at my clothes.

I fought back with everything I had. The men just laughed.

I memorized every single face. "You think this is funny? I'm about to make all of you the joke."

"And you."

Silvia spat at me. "Rip her dress off. Time's up. No more stalling—"

Before she could finish, the doors burst open.

Men in black suits poured into the room—professional, precise, brutal. They cut through the bodyguards surrounding me, taking them down one by one.

Right behind him came Caroline Kaufman, the most powerful banker in Cresthaven.

She strode in carrying a briefcase, her face set in an expression of absolute gravity.

"Miss Henson, I've brought the money. I trust I'm not late?"