Chapter 244
Audrey’s POV
I tossed the broken wine bottle aside, my voice cold. “This is what hurting you actually looks like.”
The ballroom went dead silent. Under the bright chandeliers, everyone froze, staring at us.
Thalia looked down at the red wine dripping from her hair onto her dress. For a second, she just stood there, processing what had happened.
Then she screamed before looking around, suddenly aware of all the eyes on her. Her shock quickly turned to rage.
“Audrey Sinclair, I’ll make you pay for this!” she yelled, lunging at me with her hands out.
I stepped back easily, avoiding her. “What’s wrong? Angry now?”
“You think you’re humiliated?” I asked, my voice steady. “I just broke one bottle over your head and you’re this upset? Have you forgotten how you and your mother treated me for three years?”
I made sure everyone could hear me. “Three years ago, when I first married Blake and he was still a vegetative patient, I attended my first Parker family dinner. You broke three bottles over my head, called me a gold–digger and country bumpkin not fit for the Parker mansion.”
I stared her down. “Remember that?”
Confusion crossed her face as she tried to recall what I was
talking about.
I found it darkly funny. The victim remembered every detail of the humiliation – how the bottles struck, where they hit – while the person who did it had forgotten the whole thing.
Back then, I had just married Blake and wasn’t welcome in the Parker family. At that dinner, William was sick and absent, while Blake was still unconscious in the hospital. That night, with Rebecca directing her, Thalia broke bottle after bottle over my head, trying to force me to divorce Blake and leave the family for good.
Thalia narrowed her eyes, seeming to remember. “Oh, that. You were stubborn that day.”
“I broke three wine bottles, slapped you twice, and you still wouldn’t back down,” she said with disgust. “You kept saying you’d never leave my brother, never divorce him.” She smiled mockingly. “Yet in the end, you still divorced him, didn’t you?”
My expression hardened. “Why I divorced Blake – don’t you all know?”
I laughed coldly. “You bring up how determined I was just to mock how it ended up being a joke, right?”
“Well, I’ll tell you this – my persistence was worthless. I should never have expected anything from Blake. I shouldn’t have had fantasies about the quality of you Parkers. I was blind to have wanted to marry Blake and join your family!”
My words echoed through the ballroom.
Everyone went quiet again. Thalia’s mocking smile froze as shock filled her eyes. The crowd stared at me in stunned silence.
Thalia’s POV
Whispers started rippling through the crowd around us.
“How dare she speak about the Parkers that way?”
“If she feared them, she wouldn’t have broken that bottle on Thalia’s head…”
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Chapter 244
“Maybe they really wronged her. Why else cause this scene at their engagement?”
Each comment hit me like a hammer. As the Parker heiress, I’d never faced such public humiliation.
I bit my lip, watching as Audrey turned to leave with Astrid and Rachel. My hands clenched into fists, nails digging into my palms.
Laurel stepped beside me, touching my arm. “Let it go. Don’t fight with her anymore.”
She lowered her voice. “You know how William dotes on her.”
Leaning closer to my ear, she whispered, “The old man even wants Audrey to inherit his assets…”
“In William’s eyes, she might be more important than you, his actual granddaughter…”
“Don’t get into more conflicts… William will be here tonight. If he sees you fighting with Audrey, he’ll say you’re being unreasonable.”
How could I stay calm after that? Laurel’s words were stoking my anger. William’s favoritism toward Audrey had always bothered me.
Already furious, Laurel’s comments were like gasoline on fire.
Under her continuous prodding, something in me snapped.
I grabbed a dinner knife from the table and charged at Audrey from behind. The blade caught the light as I ran.
Just Audrey Sinclair! my mind screamed. Three years ago, I smashed three bottles on her head when she was still family! Now she’s nothing to us. Why should I let her get away with this? I’m Thalia Parker! Even if I killed her, what would happen? Her life is worthless – how dare she act so smug?
I caught up to her, raising the knife high. The crowd gasped as I swung the knife at her head –
“Audrey Sinclair, go die!” I shrieked, my voice wild with rage.
Audrey’s POV
The gasps and Thalia’s shout finally alerted me. I turned, but too slowly.
A silver blade flashed in front of my eyes. I tried to move, but it was too late. With no options left, I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain.
Thalia’s lost it completely! I thought. All I did was pay her back the same way she humiliated me years ago. Now she’s trying to kill me!
With my eyes shut tight, I didn’t feel the expected pain. Instead, I heard Laurel cry out: “Blake darling!”
Something wet hit my nose. The sharp smell of blood filled my nostrils.
I opened my eyes in shock.
A strong hand had caught the knife blade in mid–air. The sharp edge had cut deep into his palm, and blood dripped from between his fingers onto my face.
I recognized Blake’s hand instantly. My heart seemed to stop.
Where had he come from? How had he suddenly appeared to block Thalia’s knife?
Our eyes met. A strange moment passed between us.
Blood from his hand had splattered my face, but Blake actually smiled.
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Chapter 244
Blake darling Laurel ran over and grabbed his arm. “Your hand? Are you okay?”
That broke our connection. Blake looked away from me.
He yanked the knife from Thalia’s hand and tossed it to the floor. It hit the marble with a sharp clang, leaving a small pool of blood.
Thalia stared at Blake’s bleeding palm, the deep cut exposing bone. Her face went white and she dropped to the floor.
‘Oh God,” she mumbled. “What did I just do…”
‘Blake!” Rebecca shoved through the crowd. “What were you thinking?”
She snatched his bleeding hand. “Thalia only went after this woman because she attacked first! Audrey deserved what was coming to her.”
She kept fussing over his wound. “Your hands are far too valuable to waste on someone like her.”
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Then she turned on me, pure hatred in her eyes. “This is your fault! If you hadn’t shown up, Thalia wouldn’t have snapped and Blake wouldn’t be hurt!”
Blake pulled away from his mother with a frown. “Mom, enough. Thalia crossed a line.”
Then he looked back at me, his voice softer. “You okay?”
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