Chapter 5

By 3:00 PM, I was trending at number one: #PsychoHousekeeper.

Sebastian’s PR machine was ruthlessly efficient. To the public, I was no longer the silent architect of the Veil Estate; I was a deranged, obsessive servant who had suffered a psychotic break, hallucinating a love story that never existed.

The phone in my study buzzed incessantly with threats from the Hart family elders, demanding I check myself into a psychiatric ward before I ruined their stock prices.

Julian stood by the heavy oak doors, his presence cold and precise. He threw a tablet onto my desk.

"They’re painting you as a lunatic to invalidate your authority over the estate," he said, his voice as dry as old parchment. "Release the marriage certificate, Clara. Expose the eight-year marriage. End this farce right now."

I looked at the screaming headlines and shook my head. "I can't."

Julian frowned, his jaw tightening. "Are you still protecting him?"

"I am protecting myself," I replied, my voice steady and freezing. "Look at the narrative he’s building. If I drop the marriage certificate now, while the world thinks I'm dangerously insane, what do you think he’ll do?"

Julian paused, his sharp mind catching up.

"He’ll claim I forced him into it," I continued, staring into the dark window. "He’ll say he married his 'unstable housekeeper' out of pity, or that I coerced him. Worse, if public opinion successfully brands me as mentally incompetent, he could petition the court to become my legal conservator. He’d get the Veil Estate back legally, without my consent."

He wasn't just trying to dump me. He was systematically erasing my sanity and my legal standing, planning to lock me in an asylum so he could bleed my empire dry.

Julian stepped forward, looking at me not as a heartbroken woman, but as a terrifying equal on this battlefield. Our alliance wasn't built on pity; it was a cold, calculated alignment of predators.

Suddenly, my laptop chimed. It was an automated email from St. Jude’s Academy—the elite private school I had personally donated millions to just to secure Lily a spot.

Notification: Emergency Contact 1 - Clara Veil [REMOVED].

Notification: Emergency Contact 1 - Celeste Rowan [ADDED].

Attached to the bottom was a brief text message from Lily’s number regarding tomorrow's highly publicized School Family Day:

'Don't come tomorrow. Mommy is coming. You'll just embarrass us.'

Sebastian had successfully cut me off from the only person I had poured my soul into. He was using my 14-year-old daughter as bait.

"The media is already camping outside the school," Julian said, checking his phone. "They know you used to attend every year. They’re waiting for the 'deranged stalker' to show up, harass the child, and cause a scene. Sebastian has police on standby to drag you away on live television."

"They want a madwoman," Julian said. "The cameras, the police, even Lily’s message—it’s all a trap."

I looked at the invitation to Sebastian’s charity gala and slowly closed the laptop.

"Then let them have their show."

Julian studied my face. "What are you planning?"

I picked up my phone.

"Get me the complete guest list."

My daughter had erased me as her mother.

My husband wanted the world to erase me as a sane woman.

By tomorrow night, one of us would be publicly destroyed.

And it wouldn’t be me.