"Chloe, what's wrong?" June asked, her voice laced with a forced concern that couldn't quite mask her unease. Chloe's smile was unnerving. "Are you listening to me?"
Chloe stood up, her movements fluid and deliberate, a stark contrast to the hesitant, almost apologetic way she used to carry herself.
"I was just thinking, June," Chloe said, her voice smooth as glass. "You've always given me such... devoted advice."
Before June could process the biting sarcasm in her tone, Chloe's hand whipped through the air.
CRACK.
The sound of the slap was sharp and loud in the quiet, opulent suite. June stumbled back a step, her hand flying to her cheek, her eyes wide with sheer, unadulterated shock.
"You... you hit me?" she sputtered, her brain struggling to catch up. The weak, pliable Chloe she had known her whole life had just struck her.
"Did I?" Chloe feigned surprise, examining her own hand as if it had acted of its own accord. "My hand must have slipped. I'm just so terribly stressed about the wedding, you see."
The stinging sensation in her palm was a grounding force. It was real. This was all real. And it felt deeply, primally satisfying.
June's shock quickly curdled into rage. The mask of the concerned sister fell away, revealing the venomous creature beneath. "How dare you! After everything I'm doing to help you!"
"Help me?" Chloe let out a laugh, a cold, humorless sound that made the hairs on June's arms stand up. "Help me ruin my own reputation? Help me disgrace the Powell and Montgomery families? Is that your idea of help, June?"
Just as June opened her mouth to shriek, the suite door swung open.
Arthur Powell, the stern patriarch of the family, stood in the doorway, his face a thundercloud of impatience. "What is all this shouting about? The ceremony starts in an hour!"
The change in June was instantaneous. Her face crumpled, and she burst into theatrical sobs, rushing to her grandfather's side like a wronged child.
"Grandpa, Chloe's gone mad!" she cried, pointing a trembling finger at Chloe. "She wants to call off the wedding! And when I tried to reason with her, she... she hit me!"
Arthur Powell's furious gaze landed on Chloe, who stood calmly by the bed, her expression unreadable. Before he could unleash his legendary temper on her, Chloe's own face crumpled. She mirrored June's act, but with a subtlety and depth of pain that June's performance lacked. After all, she'd had six years to study the master.
"Grandpa," Chloe's voice trembled, thick with unshed tears. "That's not what happened."
She took a shaky breath, looking up at him with wide, wounded eyes. "I was just saying how nervous I was to marry Mr. Montgomery... and June... she started insisting I run away."
She expertly twisted June's own words into a weapon. "She said Mr. Montgomery was a monster and that I should abandon the wedding for another man. She even said she'd help me escape."
"I told her that was insane," Chloe continued, a single, perfect tear tracing a path down her cheek. "I told her I would never, ever disgrace our family like that. And that's when she got angry. She grabbed my arm, and I... I got scared. I just pushed her away. I didn't mean to slap her so hard."
Arthur's expression shifted. His anger at Chloe flickered, replaced by a sharp, cold suspicion directed at June.
June saw the tables turning and panicked. "She's lying! Grandpa, you know I would never say such things!"
But Chloe's performance was flawless. Her story was one of a daughter's loyalty and duty under pressure. June's (real) plan, when laid bare, sounded like reckless, selfish sabotage. To a man like Arthur Powell, obsessed with family honor and reputation, there was no question which version was more believable.
"Is this true, June?" Arthur asked, his voice dangerously low. "Did you encourage your sister to jilt the groom on her wedding day?"
June was trapped. Admitting it would be admitting to treason against the family. Denying it was useless; Chloe's story was more plausible, and her own hesitation was damning.
Arthur saw the flicker of guilt in her eyes and his face hardened. He knew his granddaughter's jealous nature all too well.
"You foolish, shortsighted girl!" he bellowed, his rage now redirected entirely at June. "Do you have any idea what a scandal that would cause? Get out of my sight! Now!"
June stared, horrified, as her grandfather sided with Chloe for the first time in her life. Humiliated and furious, she fled the room, her sobs now genuine.
Arthur turned back to Chloe, his expression softening almost imperceptibly. "Get ready," he commanded gruffly. "Do not disappoint me."
He turned and left, closing the door behind him.
Chloe stood alone in the silent room. The first battle was won. She let out a slow breath, the adrenaline beginning to fade. But as she turned, her eyes landed on the pristine white dress bag hanging on the wardrobe.
A jolt of cold dread went through her. She remembered.
Inside that bag was not a wedding dress. It was an instrument of humiliation. The hideous, scandalous black gown that June and her mother had prepared for her, designed to make her the laughingstock of New York.
