Eleanor stepped back, her face pale as a sheet. To the audience, it looked like the matriarch was simply too overcome with shock to act.

But Franco wasn't stopped by secrets. He stormed up the stairs, his heavy footsteps thudding on the wooden stage. He grabbed Kalea's wrist-the one holding the microphone-and squeezed. Hard.

"You are finished," he growled, his voice low enough that the mic didn't pick it up, but the menace was palpable. "You just cost this family millions. I will ruin you."

Kalea tried to yank her arm back, but his grip was like iron. Pain shot up her shoulder.

Suddenly, a thud from the floor below drew everyone's attention.

Jennie had collapsed. She lay on the marble floor, eyes closed, one hand dramatically draped over her forehead.

"She's fainted!" someone shouted.

"Get a doctor!"

Franco released Kalea instantly, shoving her aside with enough force that she stumbled and nearly fell off the edge of the stage. He didn't look back. He jumped down and ran to Jennie, scooping her up in his arms.

"Jennie! Jennie, can you hear me?" His voice was filled with a tenderness Kalea had never heard.

The crowd murmured. The narrative shifted instantly. Kalea was the aggressor. The jealous, crazy woman who had bullied a poor girl into unconsciousness.

Haleigh took the microphone from Kalea's numb hand.

"I am so sorry, everyone," Haleigh said, tears glistening in her eyes. "My sister... she had a breakdown this morning. She shouldn't have been released from the hospital. Please, forgive her."

Kalea stood there, rubbing her bruised wrist. She watched Haleigh play the victim. She watched Franco cradle his mistress.

She felt strangely light. The anger had burned itself out, leaving only ash.

She lifted her hands. Slowly, deliberately, she put the emerald earrings on. First the left. Then the right. The cold stones brushed against her neck.

She walked down the stairs. The crowd parted again, but this time with looks of disgust.

She walked straight to where Franco was kneeling on the floor with Jennie. Jennie's eyelids fluttered. She opened them, looking up at Franco with wide, fearful doe eyes.

Kalea stood over them.

Franco looked up. "Get away from her, you psycho."

Kalea looked down at him. She touched the earring on her left ear.

"Take care of her, Franco," she said, her voice calm and clear. "She seems fragile. Much more fragile than your contracts."

She turned around. She didn't look at Eleanor. She didn't look at Haleigh.

She walked toward the towering pyramid of champagne glasses near the back of the room. She needed a drink. She needed to wash the taste of their hypocrisy out of her mouth.

Eleanor was watching her from the stage, her eyes burning with a hatred that promised retribution. But Kalea's hand was trembling uncontrollably now. The adrenaline was fading, and the crash was coming.

The champagne tower was a masterpiece of engineering-hundreds of crystal coupes stacked in a perfect pyramid, golden liquid shimmering under the lights.

Kalea stood in front of it. She could see her distorted reflection in the glass. A woman in a blue dress wearing green earrings, looking like she was made of broken shards.

Haleigh's laugh floated through the air. The crisis was being managed. The party would go on.

Eleanor appeared at Kalea's elbow. She gripped Kalea's arm with bruising force.

"You will go to the guest room," Eleanor whispered, her voice shaking with suppressed rage. "You will wait there until the party is over. And then, you will apologize to Jennie."

Kalea turned her head slowly. "What?"

"You heard me," Eleanor said. "Franco is furious. The merger is at risk. You will apologize, you will say it was a misunderstanding caused by your medication, and you will give the earrings back."

"Give them back?" Kalea repeated. "To the mistress?"

"To keep the peace!" Eleanor hissed. "Do you have any idea what is at stake? You are selfish. You have always been selfish."

Something inside Kalea snapped. It wasn't a loud snap. It was the quiet sound of a tether finally breaking.

"Am I your daughter?" Kalea asked softly. "Or am I just a poker chip?"

Eleanor's eyes were cold. "You are an Alexander. You do what is required."

Kalea smiled. Tears welled in her eyes, but the smile stayed fixed.

"Okay," she said.

She reached out. With one finger, she pushed the bottom glass of the tower.

"No!" Eleanor gasped.

It happened in slow motion. The glass tipped. The balance shifted.

CRASH!

The sound was deafening. An explosion of crystal and wine. The tower collapsed in a cascading wave of destruction. Shards of glass flew everywhere. Champagne sprayed like a geyser, soaking Eleanor's couture gown and drenching Kalea from head to toe.

The room went dead silent again. This time, there was no murmuring. Just shock.

Kalea stood in the wreckage. A shard of glass had sliced her palm. Blood mixed with the champagne dripping from her fingertips.

"You love her more!" Kalea screamed, her voice cracking, pointing a bloody finger at Eleanor. "You love the perfect, stolen daughter you shaped from clay more than the one who shares your blood! The one you broke!"

The words, though not the ones everyone might have expected, still hit the room like a bomb.

Haleigh dropped her drink. Her face went gray.

Franco let go of Jennie and stormed toward Kalea. "That is enough! You have lost your mind!"

He grabbed Kalea by the shoulders and shook her. "Stop this! Now!"

Kalea looked at him. Her eyes were empty holes.

"Choose," she said.

"What?" Franco yelled.

"Choose," she said, louder. She pointed at Jennie, who was cowering near a waiter. Then she pointed at herself. "The contract. Or her. Right now."

Franco looked around. He saw the board members watching. He saw the press taking photos. He saw Kalea, bleeding, wet, screaming like a madwoman. She was a liability. She was a disaster.

He let go of her. He took a step back.

He turned and walked toward Jennie. He took off his tuxedo jacket and draped it over Jennie's shoulders, shielding her from the cameras.

The message was clear. He chose the mistress.

The crowd let out a collective breath. The humiliation was complete.

Kalea didn't cry. She felt a strange, terrifying lightness. The worst had happened. She was free.

She turned and walked toward the French doors leading to the terrace and the pool.

"Where are you going?" Eleanor shouted.

Kalea didn't answer. She just kept walking.

The night air was freezing against her wet skin. Kalea walked onto the patio, her heels clicking on the stone. The wind whipped her dress around her legs.

Behind her, she heard the commotion. The cleanup crew. The shouts.

She walked to the edge of the infinity pool. The water was lit from below, glowing an eerie turquoise. It looked peaceful.

"Sister!"

Haleigh came running out onto the terrace. She was followed by three of her "friends"-socialites who lived for drama.

Haleigh stopped a safe distance away. She was breathing hard. She reached into her clutch and pulled out a pair of earrings.

"Look!" Haleigh shouted, making sure her friends heard. "I have the real earrings right here! Jennie just found a cheap replica! You got upset over a misunderstanding!"

It was a brilliant lie. Gaslighting at its finest.

Kalea turned slowly. She touched the heavy emeralds in her ears.

"If those are real," Kalea said, her voice carrying over the wind, "then what are these?"

Haleigh froze. She hadn't realized Kalea was wearing the ones from the floor.

Reporters had followed them out. Cameras flashed, blinding in the darkness.

Kalea walked toward Haleigh. Jennie and Franco appeared in the doorway.

Kalea pointed at Jennie. "Homewrecker," she said. The word hung in the air.

Jennie shrank back into Franco's chest.

"Security!" Franco roared. "Get her out of here!"

Kalea ignored him. She stepped closer to Haleigh. "You're lying, Haleigh. Just like you lie about where you go on weekends. Just like you lie about who you sleep with."

Haleigh's eyes darted frantically to the side, toward the shadows of the pergola.

Kalea looked.

Standing there, smoking a cigarette, was Aidan Alexander. Her brother. The heir.

He watched Haleigh with a look that was too intense, too possessive for a brother. He didn't move to help. He just watched.

Kalea felt sick. The corruption in this family went down to the bone.

Eleanor ran out. "Kalea! Stop it!"

Kalea backed up to the edge of the pool. Her heels teetered on the coping.

She reached up and unclasped the earrings. She held them over the water.

"They're dirty," she said. "I don't want them."

She made a motion to throw them.

"NO!" Eleanor and Haleigh screamed in unison. "Those are worth millions!"

Kalea stopped her hand mid-throw. She looked at their terrified faces. They cared more about the stones than her life.

She laughed. She clipped the earrings back onto her ears.

"Kidding," she said. "Grandma left them to me. You don't deserve to touch them."

Franco charged. He had lost his patience. He was coming to physically drag her away.