Chapter 2
A collective gasp rippled through the hall. Several timid socialites had already covered their eyes.
I turned to Jackson with a menacing gaze. "Jackson, tomorrow's front-page headline across the city will read: 'True Daughter's Blood Spilled at Mansion Hosting Labrousse Groupe's Engagement Party.'
"Isn't the Labrousse Groupe planning to go public soon? If this scandal involving a death gets out, do you still want your stock to go public next Monday? Do you think you'll pass the SEC's scrutiny?"
Jackson froze as if struck by lightning.
He clutched his chest, took two steps back, and pointed a trembling finger at me.
"You...you wretched creature! How could our family have given birth to such a shameless lunatic!"
Shameless? To him, his own daughter's life could never matter as much as the Labrousse Groupe's stock price.
I laughed so hard that tears began streaming down my face.
My head was pounding so hard my veins felt like they were about to burst.
Just then, the male protagonist of today's engagement party, my ex-fiancé, Ivandro Galliott, finally recovered from his shock.
He took off his bespoke suit jacket and draped it over Josette, who was crying her eyes out.
Then he turned to me with a condescending gaze that was filled with pity and disgust.
"Naevia, are you done causing trouble yet?" Ivandro chided impatiently with a frown.
"Stop using such extreme methods to get my attention. Self-harm? Coercion? Do you think this will make me change my mind?"
I looked icily at the face I had blindly loved for ten years.
"I admit, our engagement was arranged by our families, but the one I love is Josette." Ivandro then sighed. His expression was a sickening mix of deep affection and helpless resignation.
"You can't force love. Even if you ruin the engagement party, even if you die right here, I won't give you a second glance. Can't you be a little kinder and a little more dignified, just like Josette?"
Kinder? More dignified? Get his attention?
I felt a wave of nausea wash over me. I was so disgusted that I almost vomited on the spot.
"Ivandro…" I casually threw the shard of glass I had been holding to my neck onto the ground with a loud crash.
I reached into my soaking wet pocket and pulled out my old phone.
"You're right. Today is your big day. Of course, I should give you a presentable gift."
In the center of the hall, a huge projection screen had been lowered to play the engagement video.
My phone was already connected to the hall's audiovisual system via Bluetooth.
Next, I pressed play.
The screen, which had been playing Ivandro and Josette's beautiful wedding photos, suddenly emitted a piercing static sound.
Then it went black. After that, it flickered back to life to show a dimly lit security camera footage.
The timestamp showed that the footage was from three days ago.
The location was outside the private hospital room where I was hospitalized.
On the screen, Ivandro, dressed in a suit and tie, pinned the demure Josette against the wall as the two kissed so passionately that they couldn't seem to tear themselves apart.
From the high-end speakers, one could hear Josette's contrived, coquettish voice.
"Ivan… Naevia seems really ill. Will she be able to take it if we get engaged now? What if she gets so angry she dies?"
On the screen, Ivandro gave a scornful laugh.
That voice, brimming with calculative malice, was now amplified tenfold by the state-of-the-art sound system.
It reverberated through every corner of the hall.
"It would be best if she died of anger.
"That old hag from the Labrousse family is biased. She put all 15% of her shares into Naevia's trust fund. Even that old bastard Jackson can't touch that money.
"We'll wait until she dies of illness, or we stage some accident to drive her insane and send her straight to a loony bin.
"At that point, her parents will become the legal guardians. Then all that money and everything from the Labrousse family will be yours.
"Josette, bear with it. That small town uncultured tramp won't live much longer."
Gasp! The whole dining hall erupted in an uproar.
The guests, who had been laughing at me just moments before, suddenly looked aghast.
A wave of whispers swept through the room like a tidal wave.
"Oh my god… So the Galliott family was after that trust fund!" one muttered.
"They're preying on a family in distress! So they want to drive the real daughter crazy and send her to a mental hospital?" another exclaimed.
"That impostor is so ruthless. She feigns sisterly affection, but behind her sister's back, she's hoping her sister dies?" a third chimed in.
"Jackson and his wife are truly the epitome of stupidity. They've been duped, yet here they are, happily spending their money on an engagement party for someone else!" someone else lamented.
These whispers cut into Jackson and Laura's dignity like a barrage of razor blades.
Jackson's face, which was a livid red, turned deathly pale in an instant.
He had always believed that the Galliott family valued Josette's talent.
And he thought the marriage between the two families was a union of equals that would take the Labrousse family's business to new heights.