Hayes came home an hour later. He walked into a funeral.
Felicity was wailing on the sofa. Leo was crying because his iPad had been confiscated by Sterling as "collateral" (a petty move by the butler, but effective).
Hayes saw the empty spot on the wall. He saw Sterling writing in a notebook.
"What is going on?" Hayes demanded. "My card was declined at the gas station. Do you know how humiliating that is?"
Sterling closed his notebook. "Your mistress's son destroyed the Santos painting, sir. The accounts are frozen until the twelve million is recouped."
Hayes turned pale. "Twelve million?" He looked at Felicity.
Felicity pointed at Eliana. "She let him do it! She wanted him to do it! She hates Leo!"
Hayes looked at Eliana.
Eliana stood by the window. "I warned him, Hayes. I told him it was valuable. Felicity told him to 'see if it was special.'"
Hayes looked back at Felicity. "Is that true?"
"I didn't know it was worth millions!" Felicity screamed. "It was ugly!"
Hayes rubbed his face with both hands. He looked aged, defeated.
"Sterling, can't we... work something out? The board..."
"The board is furious," Sterling said. "The Santos family will be insulted. This is a diplomatic disaster."
Sterling signaled his men. They carried the ruined painting out in a specialized case.
Hayes sat down next to Felicity. He put his head in his hands.
"I promised to buy Felicity a ring today," Hayes mumbled. "A pink diamond."
Felicity sniffed. "You can't buy it?"
Hayes shook his head. "I can't buy a coffee right now, Felicity. Sterling locked everything. I have zero access to cash."
Felicity pulled away from him. "So we're poor?"
Hayes flinched. "Not poor. Just... liquidity constrained."
He looked up and saw Eliana walking toward the stairs.
"Eliana!" Hayes called out.
She stopped. "Yes?"
"You... you have your own money, right? The allowance I gave you over the years? You didn't spend it all on clothes?"
Eliana turned. She looked at him with mild amusement.
"You want to borrow money from me?"
Hayes stood up, straightening his jacket, trying to regain some dignity. "Not borrow. Just... handle the household expenses for a while. And maybe... help with the ring. It's for Felicity. To cheer her up after this trauma."
Eliana stared at him. The audacity was breathtaking. It was almost admirable in its purity.
He wanted his wife to pay for his mistress's engagement ring.
"I'm sorry, Hayes," Eliana said smoothly. "But I spent it all."
"On what?" Hayes demanded.
"On being Mrs. Vargas," she said. "It's an expensive job."
She turned and walked up the stairs.
Inside her room, she locked the door. She went to her closet and moved a false panel in the back.
There, safe in a velvet tube, was the real Song Dynasty painting.
She had swapped it out three days ago. The one Leo destroyed was a high-end replica she had commissioned from an art student in Brooklyn for five hundred dollars. The real painting was technically a gift from the Matriarch to the Vargas family, a formal dowry item. But Eliana knew the truth. Her brother, Elnar, had manipulated the dowry list before he was exiled. He had ensured this specific scroll-the one they used to admire together in the library as children-was sent to her. It was the only piece of home she truly cared about, and she would never let that monster child touch it.
Her phone buzzed.
It was a text from an unlisted number.
Friday. The Winter Gala. Attendance is mandatory. The Matriarch expects you.
Eliana dropped the phone on the bed. Her hands started to tremble.
The Santos Gala.
It wasn't a party. It was a court session. And if the Matriarch was calling her back... it meant they sensed weakness.
She looked at the packed suitcases hidden under her bed.
She had to leave. But not before Friday. If she missed the Gala, the Santos guards would come for her. She had to go, show her face, prove she was still a "loyal daughter," and then vanish.
