Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The Engagement Party Disturbance

Lila’s POV

The engagement party. I shouldn’t have come.

But Aunt Eleanor—no, Mom—had choked up on the phone. “Lila, please, just do this one thing for your mother. After Caleb gets married, Penelope will be the lady of the house. I won’t be able to call you home whenever I want anymore.”

She didn’t know that Caleb and I had dated. No one knew. Those three months were our secret, hidden in the corners of the study, by his door late at night, and under the guise of “helping Auntie in the greenhouse” on weekends. I thought it was the beginning of our love story, but it was just his final act of charity before his marriage alliance.

So, I came.

I wore the deep-gray velvet dress Zoe helped me pick out, but not the “Tear of the Moon God.” It was too conspicuous, and I didn’t want to look like some clown flaunting her spoils at the Goodrich family’s celebration.

The ballroom was a glittering spectacle of gold, its champagne tower reflecting countless fake smiles. Penelope, in a custom wedding gown, stood by the head table like an ice sculpture encrusted with diamonds. When she saw me, her lips curved into a smile, but her gaze was cold enough to kill.

“Well, well, if it isn’t our family’s ’little shadow’?” She approached me, champagne flute in hand, her voice just loud enough for the surrounding tables to hear. “Following Caleb wherever he goes, not even willing to pour out the water he leaves behind. And what now? You latch onto some old man from the Hale family and dare to come here dressed like that, all high and mighty?”

I clutched my handbag, my nails digging into my palm.

’Ignore her, Lila. You’re Mrs. Hale now, not the meek adopted daughter they can push around.’

But her next words struck me right in the heart.

“I heard you two secretly dated for three months?” She leaned in close to my ear, her perfume cloyingly sweet. “Caleb told me. He said you don’t even know how to kiss, that you’re like a block of wood. He was just taking pity on you, forcing himself to wait until you graduated to break things off.”

My blood ran cold.

Those three months… they were the brightest light in my life.

The first time he held my hand, my palms were sweating.

And he’d actually shared our private moments with her as a joke?

I snapped my head up and looked toward Caleb, who was chatting with guests a short distance away. He was impeccably dressed in his suit, his smile perfectly polite, the engagement ring on his fourth finger flashing with a piercing light. He clearly saw Penelope humiliating me, yet he only furrowed his brow for a moment before turning back to laugh and talk with the man.

In that moment, I finally understood.

In his eyes, I had never been a “lover.” I was just a little mouse the Goodrich family had raised.

My humiliation wasn’t even worth interrupting a business conversation for.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” Penelope lifted her chin smugly. “I suppose that makes sense. A person who lives on handouts has no right to be defiant. Did you really think taking the Hale name would wash the lowliness from your blood?”

Her words were like daggers, carving away at the fifteen years I had loved him.

I wanted to run, but my feet felt nailed to the floor.

The stares from all around were like needles, making my whole body burn with shame.

I remembered being ten years old, standing in the Goodrich foyer as Uncle Arthur knelt, patting my head and saying, “This is your home now.” But at night, I would dream of my parents’ car accident, waking to a tear-soaked pillow, too afraid to make a sound.

Because I wasn’t a “real Goodrich.”

And now, even being “Mrs. Hale” felt fake.

“At least,” I heard my own voice tremble, but I forced my chin up, “I have a home to return to. But you, Penelope, you’re marrying Caleb’s ambition, not his heart. You’re so eager to put me down when you don’t even know if you have a place in his heart at all.”

Her expression changed instantly, a flicker of panic in her eyes—clearly, Caleb wasn’t entirely devoted to her, either.

The next second, she raised her hand.

SLAP!

A sharp slap landed across my face. A fiery sting spread across my cheek, and my ears rang. I staggered back a step and bumped into a waiter, sending a champagne flute crashing to the floor. The sound of it shattering drew the eyes of the entire room.

“How dare you talk to me like that!” she shrieked, her features twisting with rage. “An adopted girl has the nerve to mock me?!”

I clutched my cheek, tears welling in my eyes, but I bit my lip hard to keep them from falling.

’Don’t cry. Lila, you can’t show weakness in front of them again.’

But just then, I saw Caleb finally walking over.

My heart skipped a beat—was he finally going to speak up for me?

He stood between Penelope and me, but he turned to her first, his tone placating. “Penelope, calm down. It’s your special day. Don’t make a scene over someone else.”

“Someone else.”

To him, I was just “someone else.” The word hurt more than the slap.

He didn’t even spare me a glance, just said to the head steward, “Escort Mrs. Hale out. She seems… unsuited to the atmosphere.”

A chill went through me.

So in his eyes, I wasn’t even “Lila” anymore. Just a nuisance to be “sent away.”

I turned to leave, but my legs were too weak to take a step. Ten years of affection, three months of intimacy, all reduced to “someone else.” I suddenly found it laughable—how stupid I’d been, how naive.

Just as the tears were about to fall, the doors to the ballroom were pushed open from the outside.

A gust of cold wind swept in, making the crystal chandeliers flicker.

Jasper stood in the doorway. He wore a black bespoke suit, his tie pin a silver wolf’s head. His gaze swept across the room and landed on my red, swollen cheek. Instantly, his eyes grew as dark as the sea before a storm.

He strode forward, the sound of his leather shoes on the marble floor like a drumbeat that set everyone’s heart racing.

Everyone automatically parted to make a path for him.

Even Caleb instinctively took a half-step back.

Jasper didn’t look at anyone else. He walked straight to me, took off his suit jacket, and gently draped it over my shoulders. The familiar scent of cedar and leather immediately enveloped me, like a barrier against all the malice in the room.

Then, he raised his hand.

I thought he was going to touch my face, to check my injury.

But he didn’t.

He simply used his thumb to ever so gently wipe away the single tear that had finally escaped the corner of my eye.

The gesture was so light, as if he were afraid of breaking something fragile.

The entire room was silent.

“Who laid a hand on her?” His voice wasn’t loud, yet it seemed to make the temperature in the entire hall plummet.

Penelope’s face went deathly pale, and she instinctively hid behind Caleb.

Caleb took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Jasper, this is all a misunderstanding. Lila, she…”

“I asked who laid a hand on her,” Jasper cut him off, his gaze never wavering.

Caleb’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He said nothing.

Jasper turned to Penelope, his gaze as sharp as a knife. “Miss Vanderbilt, I’ll give you two choices. One: you apologize to my wife, right now, in front of everyone. Or two: by tomorrow morning, every single Vanderbilt Group project on the East Coast will be shut down.”

Penelope’s lips trembled, and tears streamed from her eyes. “I… I didn’t mean to… She insulted me first…”

“Apologize.” Jasper bit out the single word.

Caleb turned to me, his face pleading. “Lila, can’t you just forgive Penelope?”

Jasper, too, quietly awaited my answer.

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