“The first one?”
With hands clamped down on his shoulders, Ralph was still staring at me, hard.
“Lena Henson, what the hell did you do?”
I didn't answer.
Because Nina had suddenly dropped to her knees.
She went down fast, but kept her belly carefully shielded.
“Miss Henson, I'm begging you, let Ralph go.”
“He just lost his head for a moment.”
“If you have to hate someone, hate me.”
“I'll get rid of the baby, I'll leave Bayport, and I'll never show up in front of you again. All right?”
Ralph growled “Nina, what are you saying!”
Nina only cried harder.
“I can't just stand here and watch her destroy you.”
“I know Miss Henson hates me, but the baby really is yours.”
The moment she said it, the guests started murmuring again.
“Say what you want, a pregnant woman is still a pitiful thing.”
“Isn't Lena Henson being a bit cruel?”
“The man's the one who did wrong. What did the baby do?”
Listening to all of it, I nearly laughed out loud.
This world really was something.
When a woman gets her wedding stolen out from under her, they say she doesn't know her place.
When the mistress kneels down and sobs a couple of times, suddenly the baby is innocent.
Dean started to speak.
I gave his hand a squeeze.
“Let me handle this.”
I walked over to Nina.
She looked up at me, tears hanging on her face, but there wasn't the slightest panic in her eyes.
“Miss Henson……”
“Drop the act.”
I crouched down, my gaze settling on her belly.
“That baby in there. Is it really Ralph's?”
Nina's face froze.
Ralph snapped “Lena Henson, you'd even slander an unborn child?”
“Slander?”
I took out my phone and opened a recording.
Nina's voice came through almost at once.
“As long as I show the baby on the wedding day, the Delgados will have to acknowledge it.”
“That idiot Ralph is the easiest one to fool.”
“He says I look like his dead first love. I squeeze out a couple of tears and he'd hand me his life.”
Another man laughed, low and dirty.
“And the baby?”
“The baby's yours, obviously.”
“Once I've got the Mrs. Delgado spot, I'll find a way to kick Ralph out.”
The recording ended.
The banquet hall went terrifyingly quiet.
Ralph looked like every bone had been pulled out of him.
Nina's face went white, not a trace of color left in it.
“No. That wasn't me.”
“It's fake.”
She scrambled up and lunged to grab my phone, and Dean's bodyguard blocked her.
I looked at Ralph.
“Hear it clearly?”
“Your true love.”
“Your baby.”
“For her, you wanted me to hand over my own wedding.”
Ralph's lips trembled.
“Nina, say something.”
“Tell me it's fake.”
But Nina's face changed all at once.
She reeled in her tears, turned, and pointed at him.
“Ralph, quit playing the victim.”
“If you hadn't told me Lena Henson was easy to push around, would I have come here to make a scene?”
“You said she couldn't leave you, said her parents were in your hands, said she wouldn't dare fight back.”
“Now that it's all blown up, you want to shove everything onto me?”
Ralph's eyes went bloodshot.
“You lied to me?”
Nina let out a shrill laugh.
“So what if I did?”
“Didn't you lie to her too?”
“We're all filthy. Who's any nobler than who?”
Martha was so furious she clutched her chest.
“Drag this woman out of here!”
Nina thrashed and screamed “Your Delgado family isn't clean either!”
“Ralph siphoned off the Henson money, and every one of you knew!”
That line went in like a knife, straight into the Delgados' lungs.
The officers turned to Ralph.
“Mr. Delgado, please cooperate with the investigation.”
But Ralph seemed to go mad, wrenching free all at once and throwing himself at me.
“Lena Henson, I'll kill you!”
Dean yanked me back behind him.
The next second, the bodyguards had Ralph pinned flat to the floor.
His face pressed into the red carpet, wretched as a dog.
I stood over him, looking down.
“Ralph.”
“Weren't you the one who cared most about keeping face?”
“Today, I'll give you all the face you could ever want.”
