4: 4
Crystal chandeliers blazed across the ballroom. I walked in dressed to the nines, in the couture gown my husband had chosen for me himself.
Adrian came toward me with Geraldine on his arm, his eyes full of smug mockery.
He leaned in and dropped his voice, certain of himself.
“Bernice, I knew you could never really let me go. What is this, you throw on a fancy dress and pretend not to know me, then come chasing after me anyway?”
I stepped back from him at once, my brows drawing together.
“Adrian, I'm here for the gala. Don't flatter yourself.”
Geraldine clearly didn't believe me. She stepped up and demanded,
“Bernice, how exactly did you sneak in here? This is a top-tier gala. Everyone in this room is a social elite!”
When I said nothing, she took it as proof she'd guessed right, and grew even more pleased with herself.
“Adrian only just barely got two tickets because he landed a five-million-dollar contract overseas this time. What are you, that you think you belong here?”
The guests around us stopped their conversations, curious eyes turning toward us all at once.
“That girl's dressed so richly, and she carries herself well. How could she have snuck in?”
“The James boy, handling his private business at an occasion like this. Completely out of line.”
Adrian frowned, stepped forward, and grabbed my arm in warning.
“Bernice, stop it! This isn't some little girls' playhouse game. Get out before the guards show up, before you spoil the mood for the big names inside!”
I pulled my arm free, didn't spare him a glance, and walked straight to the buffet table, where I picked up a pastry and took a bite.
Humiliated and furious, Adrian charged forward and seized my wrist to drag me out of the room.
“You just have to embarrass yourself right now, don't you? Get out!”
Geraldine saw it and instantly pointed at me, shouting,
“Everybody, look! A thief slipped into the gala! Somebody call security and throw her out, before she spoils Mr. Farley's mood!”
A few guests couldn't help speaking up. “That girl doesn't look like the type to do something like that.”
Others watched coldly, thinking Adrian and Geraldine had made a disgraceful scene.
The well-trained guards, however, didn't move an inch.
Seeing them stay put, Geraldine actually stepped up herself, reaching out to help Adrian pin me down for good.
I frowned slightly and calmly raised a hand, signaling the guards not to act.
Just as they were about to drag me out of the gala by force, the ballroom doors were thrown open.
Every guest fell silent in that instant. The man who'd come was the host of the gala, Saul Farley.
He strode in, and when he saw the state I was in, his gaze swept viciously across the room.
“Just now... who said my wife was a thief?”
