CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 4 - THE HUMILIATION
At the ballroom, Celeste pulled Sabrina into a side hallway near the coatroom.
Victor followed, smiling for guests until the door closed.
Then his mask dropped.
“You have no right to be here,” he said.
Sabrina looked at her daughter. “I came because you invited me.”
Celeste looked away.
Victor laughed once. “Your assistant invited you by mistake. We removed your name from the list.”
Sabrina’s fingers tightened around her clutch.
Celeste whispered, “Dad said you might try to take attention away from the launch.”
“I am not here for attention.”
“Then why are you dressed like this?”
That hurt more than Victor’s cruelty.
Sabrina looked down at her burgundy dress, her gold earrings, the bracelet Celeste had given her for Mother’s Day when she was twelve.
“I dressed like your mother,” Sabrina said.
Celeste’s eyes flashed. “My mother doesn’t show up after years of silence and act like she built my life.”
Victor stepped closer. “Careful, Sabrina.”
There it was again.
The old word.
Careful.
The word he used when he wanted her smaller.
Sabrina looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “I was careful for twenty years.”
Victor’s smile faded.
Celeste folded her arms. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Sabrina opened her clutch and touched the edge of the photograph.
But she did not take it out.
Not there.
Not in a hallway where Victor could spin the truth before it had air.
So Sabrina only said, “Watch my livestream tonight.”
Celeste scoffed. “Mom, nobody watches your little videos.”
May you like
Sabrina smiled sadly.
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
