Chapter 2: The Silence of the Ballroom
The walk back to the ballroom was the longest of Liam’s life. He didn't care about the silent guests, the stunned silence of the string quartet, or the gasp that rippled through the room as he appeared not with a bride, but with a crying child in his arms.
Victoria followed him, her face a mask of fury. She stopped in the center of the aisle, her train sweeping behind her, looking back at the confused crowd. She still thought this was a tantrum. She still thought she held the cards.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Liam said, his voice booming through the venue's sound system as he grabbed the microphone from the startled officiant. "There will be no wedding today."
A murmur erupted. Victoria’s mother stood up, her face turning crimson. "Liam! Do you have any idea how much this wedding cost? You can’t humiliate my daughter like this!"
"Humiliation?" Liam laughed, a bitter, sharp sound. He turned to look at Victoria, who was now trembling with rage. "You wanted this day to be about you, Victoria. You wanted the status, the ring, and the merger of our assets. But you forgot the one thing that was never yours to touch: my daughter."
He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of the key investors and family friends. "Victoria decided that my daughter was an inconvenience. She locked her in a utility closet like a piece of luggage because she didn't want a child distracting from her photo op."
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The room went deathly still. Victoria’s entitled sneer vanished, replaced by a look of genuine panic. She realized, in that second, that her social capital hadn't just dipped—it had been incinerated.
"You’re finished," Victoria hissed, lunging for him, but Liam turned his back on her, walking toward the exit. He didn't look back, even as she screamed, "You'll regret this! You’ll lose everything!"
