"You're not a child anymore. How could you let your emotions cloud your judgment like this?"

"I used to brag about you, said you were more and more like me in my younger days, that one day you'd make a worthy heir to the Pruitt name. Then you pull a stunt like this? Do you have any idea how that makes me look?"

My father had me sent to the family chapel to kneel in penance. Family disciplinary rites.

The outcome was exactly what you'd expect.

The partnership between the Pruitt family and the Gilberts was restored.

My anger meant nothing. Less than nothing.

And now Ferdinand was certain that marrying him was still my best option.

That was why he was so confident I'd cave.

He watched me for a long time, his gaze flat and unhurried. Then a faint sigh slipped from his lips.

"Georgette, don't be difficult. Think it over, then sign the agreement."

"Can't we just go back to the way things were?"

His phone rang. He froze for a second, then answered without hesitation.

"Mabel, don't be scared. I'll come stay with you tonight..."

His footsteps carried him away, light and eager.

The sound faded until there was nothing left.

I lifted my eyes slowly and caught my own reflection in the glass across the room. Gaunt. Hollow. A bitter laugh escaped me.

Mabel James. A mere intern.

She'd turned a perfectly good birthday dinner into a disaster.

And now my marriage. My entire life.

She'd sent it all spiraling out of control.

After Ferdinand left, he didn't come back. Not for an entire week.

I heard that within three days, he'd spent thirty million dollars buying Mabel a brand-new mansion, keeping her tucked away in luxury like a hidden treasure.

"Ms. Pruitt, Mr. Gilbert actually came to our office and warned us directly. He said you'd better not fire Mabel James, or he'd personally intervene. Should we still go ahead with the termination we discussed yesterday?"

My assistant looked at me, uneasy.

I closed my eyes. "Leave me."

The document in my hand crumpled into a useless ball. I tossed it into the trash.

I just couldn't accept that six years of love had been wasted. That someone had stolen what was mine right out from under me.

I'd been exceptional my whole life. In every arena, I'd never lost to anyone.

So how had I lost to some nobody intern?

If I called off the engagement, it would inevitably deal a serious blow to both families' business interests.

I wasn't ready to give up that easily.

The agreement Ferdinand had sent over remained unsigned.

I sent him a message. Let's find a time to sit down and talk.

He replied quickly.

I happen to have business at your office around noon today. We can meet there.

As noon approached, I was waiting for Ferdinand when a commotion erupted outside my office.

"What's going on?"

My assistant rushed in, flustered.

"It's that intern, Mabel James. She's claiming she got food poisoning from seafood, and she's demanding that you take responsibility, Ms. Pruitt."

"But the company lunch we ordered didn't even have seafood..."

I frowned and started toward the door, but Ferdinand was already pushing his way in.

He saw Mabel slumped against a coworker's shoulder, sobbing.

"It was Ms. Pruitt. She knew I was allergic to seafood and she still forced me to eat that company lunch..."

Ferdinand's expression darkened until it looked like a storm about to break.

"Georgette, what the hell is going on?"

I looked at the lunch container on the table. I'd never seen it before. My brow furrowed.

"This has nothing to do with me."

Before I could finish, Mabel threw herself into Ferdinand's arms, crying.

"Ms. Pruitt must have found out about that night between us. She's trying to destroy me! I feel so sick, I can barely breathe..."

Ferdinand's expression changed instantly. He scooped Mabel into his arms and shouted, "Call an ambulance. Now!"

When they came out of the hospital, his face was still dark as a storm.

He walked right past me. Brushed my shoulder without so much as a glance. From start to finish, he never once looked at me.

"Ferdinand!"

I called after him, my eyes burning red.

He stopped mid-stride and turned, giving me a single cold look.

"Georgette, I haven't even had the chance to settle the score with you yet, and here you come waltzing in on your own."

I stood frozen. The indifference in his eyes, the detachment, made him feel like a stranger.

"It wasn't me—"

I tried to explain on instinct, but he cut me off.

"You're still going to deny it?"

His expression turned glacial.

"Georgette, you're ruthless in business. You know how the world works. When you do something wrong, you face the consequences."

The moment the words left his mouth, the bodyguards around us closed in.

The blood drained from my face.

"Ferdinand, can you use your head for one second? Why would I ever order seafood for a company lunch?"

But he wasn't listening.

"Because you couldn't fire Mabel. Because you're jealous that she's pregnant. So you came up with this disgusting scheme to torment her."

"You nearly killed her. You think there shouldn't be consequences?"

Ferdinand stepped forward himself and pressed his hand down on the back of my head.

He forced me to my knees. To apologize to Mabel.

"Mabel may only be an intern, but she has her dignity."

"Whether or not you ever become Mrs. Gilbert, the first thing you need to learn is basic human decency."

"So. Apologize."

Humiliation flooded through me, wave after wave, endless and suffocating.

I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted iron.

"Ferdinand, in your dreams."

"Isn't this what you've always wanted? To break off the engagement? Fine. I'll grant you that wish."

I tilted my chin up to look at him.

Ferdinand seized my jaw in one hand. "Even without your permission, whatever I want to do, I'll do."

He had his men throw me into a walk-in freezer. Called it a two-hour "reflection period."

"Mabel is carrying a child. This is only a warning."

"She works at your company. She may just be an intern, but I want you to understand exactly what she means to me."

"I expect nothing like today to ever happen again."

When I finally stumbled out of that freezer, my entire body was shaking. My teeth chattered so violently I couldn't clench them still.

Ferdinand had sent my driver and my car away.

I pulled out my phone with trembling fingers to call a ride. A new Instagram story from Mabel popped up on my screen.

"Thank you to our Mr. Gilbert for the homemade lunch box he made with his own hands. Being his little wifey is the best..."

"And our little baby in Mommy's tummy should remember to thank Daddy too!"

My grip tightened around the phone until my knuckles cracked.

Ferdinand hadn't agreed outright to break off the engagement.

But I'd swallowed enough. I refused to be the only one choking on this humiliation.

They'd used this to make me sick.

I was going to make them just as sick.

So when Ferdinand found me that night, I was wearing a slinky little slip dress, swaying on the dance floor, surrounded by a handful of pretty young male models.

His face went black as thunder.

He stormed over and yanked me off the floor.

"Georgette, are you drunk? Let me sober you up."

He grabbed a glass from the nearest table and threw the contents in my face.

But I just laughed. Wild, reckless, unrestrained. I grabbed him by the collar and leaned in close, deliberately goading him.

"Weren't you the one who said it? We can keep the engagement in name only. So what's the harm in me ordering a few pretty boys?"

Ferdinand's expression was nothing short of murderous.

"Good for you."

"Why don't you just stay with your little boy toy forever?"

He slammed the door so hard the frame rattled. I watched his back disappear down the hallway, and a hollow ache spread through my chest. But I forced the feeling down.

It's fine. Just get through this. It'll all be over soon.

That evening, I went back to the office, planning to sort through the latest financial reports.

The door was kicked open without warning.

"I thought you were out with those pretty young models because you'd finally moved on." He stepped inside, his voice dripping with contempt. "Turns out you were here waiting for me all along."

"Georgette, did you really think you could get away with using these disgusting tactics against Mabel?"

I froze, completely blindsided. I pulled free of his grip.

"Ferdinand, what the hell are you talking about?"

He sneered and flung a photograph onto my desk.

"A group of men cornered Mabel this afternoon. If my people hadn't shown up when they did, she would've lost more than her dignity. She might have lost the baby."

"Tell me this wasn't you."

I shook my head, bewildered. "That wasn't me—"

"Enough!"

Ferdinand's eyes burned with fury as he glared down at me.

"Those men already confessed. They said you paid them. How long were you planning to keep lying to me?"

He closed the distance between us, his cold smile never wavering, and gripped my chin, forcing my face up.

"Georgette, I never would have imagined it. You used to be so innocent. So kind. What happened to you?"

"If you hadn't drugged Mabel."

"If you hadn't sent her into that private room full of men."

"I never would have crossed paths with her."

"So really, you brought all of this on yourself."

The blood drained from my face. I stared up at him, stunned. "What are you saying? What... I drugged her?"

"Is that what Mabel told you?"

So that was it. That explained everything. The coldness, the hostility, the way he'd looked at me like I was something rotten. All this time, he believed that at the birthday party, I had been the one who drugged Mabel.

That was why he'd treated me with such cruelty.

Ferdinand had been quietly hating me this entire time.

And the whole thing was absurd.

"You still won't admit it?"

"If I hadn't stepped in to clean up your mess, I wouldn't have had to personally act as the antidote and save Mabel myself."

"Come to think of it, I should thank you for playing matchmaker. You're the reason she and I ever met."

"So go ahead. Live with that guilt. Spend the rest of your life knowing what it feels like to lose everything."

He shoved me backward and strode out without a second glance.

I stumbled and hit the cold floor hard.

I watched him leave, turning his last words over and over in my mind, unable to make sense of them.

The next morning, my assistant called in a panic before I'd even finished getting ready.

"Ms. Pruitt, we have a serious problem!"

"Confidential files from your division have been leaked. We don't know by whom. The losses are catastrophic. Your father is furious. He wants this handled immediately."

"What?!"

Ferdinand. His name was the first thing that flashed through my mind.

Since the engagement, our two families had shared information freely as part of the business partnership. Things that were classified to anyone outside the company were things I'd never hidden from him.

I never thought he'd go this far. Not even for Mabel.

But if spending a lifetime with a man like that was the alternative, I'd rather take the loss. Tens of millions. Even a hundred million.

It would be worth every penny.