“No.”
The answer came instantly.
He seemed confused.
“Then what do you want?”
She looked around at the ballroom, at the guests, at the host, at the scattered phones still capturing every second.
“I wanted to see what kind of people treated this estate like their private kingdom.”
Alex’s expression tightened.
She continued.
“Tonight answered that quickly.”
That was the first moment the full consequence of her ownership seemed to reach him.
Until then, he had treated the revelation as a social embarrassment.
Now he understood that she was not merely a guest he had insulted.
She held standing in the place where he had acted untouchable.
Half the estate belonged to her.
His behavior had occurred under her own roof as much as anyone else’s.
Alex glanced toward the host.
“You don’t get to throw me out because of one joke.”
The host did not answer.
The woman in red did.
“I haven’t thrown you out.”
Alex blinked.
Again, she refused to give him the dramatic confrontation he wanted.
She did not scream for security.
She did not demand applause.
She did not announce some theatrical punishment.
She simply stood there holding the folder that proved she could not be dismissed as the insignificant servant he had imagined.
That restraint was becoming unbearable for him.
“Then say what you want,” he snapped.
She looked at the champagne glass he had set down.
Then at the empty tray she had carried earlier, now resting near the service entrance.
“I want you to remember that ten minutes ago, you thought a gray uniform gave you permission to humiliate someone.”
Alex said nothing.
“The dress changed,” she continued.
“My ownership didn’t.
My dignity didn’t.
The only thing that changed was what you knew.”
The ballroom was silent enough to hear the soft music continuing from the speakers.
The woman in silver looked at Alex differently now.
Not embarrassed for him.
Embarrassed to be beside him.
He noticed.
“This is insane,” he muttered.
She shook her head.
“No.
What’s insane is that you’re still arguing.”
Alex gave her a hard stare.
“Whose side are you on?”
The woman in silver looked toward the woman in red, then back at him.
“Apparently I just discovered there needed to be sides.”
She walked away.
This time Alex did not reach for her.
The crowd opened to let her pass.
His earlier promise—”I’ll dump her and marry you tonight”—suddenly sounded less like a joke and more like evidence of how casually he treated everyone around him.
The woman in red lowered the folder to her side.
Alex’s eyes followed it.
“What happens now?”
