Chapter 346
Liam slowly lowered his arm. He turned his head and looked down at Nadine, who was still trembling on her hands and knees on the carpet.
His eyes were filled with cold, clinical disgust.
“To falsely accuse a masterpiece of forgery for your own petty, vindictive agenda is a crime against history,” Liam spat, his words hitting Nadine like physical blows. “I will personally make sure that every auction house, every gallery, and every private collector in the world knows your name. You are blacklisted. You will never work in this industry again.”
Nadine stopped breathing.
The word blacklisted echoed in her ears. Her face turned the color of wet ash. Her fingers dug so violently into the expensive hotel carpet that two of her acrylic nails snapped off, but she didn’t feel the pain. Her entire life — her career, her social climbing — was instantly incinerated.
Her mind snapped. The sheer terror of losing everything pushed her into a corner of pure, feral desperation.
Nadine scrambled to her feet. Her hair was a mess. She wildly scanned the crowd until her crazed eyes locked onto the white silk dress hiding behind the floral arrangement.
Nadine pointed a shaking, accusatory finger directly at Charla.
“It was her!” Nadine screamed, her voice tearing through the silent ballroom. “Charla English told me to do it! She set me up! She wanted to humiliate Cailin!”
The crowd gasped. Hundreds of eyes instantly shifted like searchlights, pinning Charla against the wall with heavy suspicion and aristocratic judgment.
Charla’s heart skipped a beat, but her survival instincts were terrifyingly sharp.
In a fraction of a second, her face contorted into a mask of pure, devastating shock. Her lower lip began to quiver perfectly. Tears instantly welled in her large eyes and spilled over her lashes.
Charla pressed both hands against her chest, right over her heart, looking like a wounded dove.
“Nadine… how could you?” Charla cried out, her voice breaking with exactly the right amount of betrayal. “I only warned you to be careful because I was worried about the family’s reputation! I never, ever told you to make such a horrible, baseless accusation!”
She took a step forward, her wide, pleading eyes sweeping the crowd. “She is just trying to drag an innocent friend down with her because she got caught. It is sick!”
Nadine’s entire body shook with violent rage. The sheer audacity of Charla’s lie made her see red.
“You lying bitch!” Nadine shrieked. She lunged forward, hands outstretched, fully intending to rip Charla’s perfect blonde hair out by the roots.
Before she could take three steps, two massive hotel security guards in black suits intercepted her. They grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back. Nadine thrashed wildly, kicking her legs, screaming obscenities at Charla.
Hilliard stood watching the pathetic display. His jaw was locked tight. He was utterly exhausted by the toxic, screaming women that seemed to constantly orbit his life.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers once. The sound was sharp, like a gunshot.
The head of his personal security detail stepped forward instantly.
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