The banging continued, each impact heavier than the last. "Ms. Tanner, are you in there?"

Every head in the room snapped toward the doors. Hope surged through me. They were Calder's people, the ones he had stationed in Crestport. They had come.

I wrenched myself free from the bodyguards and screamed toward the doors until my voice cracked. "I'm in here!"

Relief flooded through me, and I screamed again with everything I had. "I'm here! Save Iver! Hurry, save him!"

Portia's expression shifted, then settled into something even more contemptuous. "So, your sugar daddy actually showed some spine and came? How touching."

She smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt and let out a cold laugh. "A pack of gutter rats who wouldn't dare show their faces in broad daylight, and they think they can storm a Beaumont party? They must have a death wish."

She snatched up her radio, her voice dropping low. "Security team, riot squad, I want everyone mobilized. Beat those thugs within an inch of their lives. Break their legs. Initiate full lockdown. Seal every electromagnetic door in this building. I don't want so much as a fly getting through tonight."

The metal security shutters around the banquet hall slammed down on her command, cutting off every sound from outside. Heavy steel chains locked the mahogany doors into place. The muffled sounds of fighting and battering beyond the entrance grew fainter and fainter until they were almost gone.

The hope that had just sparked inside me was crushed in an instant.

"No! Open the doors! Open them!" I threw myself at the entrance like a woman possessed, pounding my fists against the shutters. The skin over my knuckles tore and bled, but I could not feel any of it. "Iver can't wait! Open the doors!"

Portia came up behind me, grabbed me by the collar, and flung me to the ground. "Go ahead, keep screaming."

She stood over me, savoring every inch of my despair. "You see that? That's your backup? A little underwhelming, wouldn't you say? When Portia Beaumont doesn't want someone getting in, not even the President himself could make it through those doors."

She pointed at Iver, who lay on the ground barely conscious.

"He's dying, isn't he? And it's all your fault. If you'd just admitted you were the other woman from the start, if you'd gotten on your knees and confessed, he wouldn't be suffering like this. Now the doors are sealed, and kneeling won't save him either."

Tears spilled down my face as I stared at Iver's lips, which had turned a dark shade of purple. I had never hated anyone this much in my entire life. Even when the catty socialites back in Kingsgate used to take their little jabs at me, I had always laughed it off.

I had four siblings shielding me. I never needed to fight. I never needed to compete. All I had to do was be happy and play the part of the carefree little princess. Yet now, the most important person in my world was dying right in front of me, and there was nothing I could do.

"Portia Beaumont."

I locked my eyes on hers, my voice raw and wrecked. "If anything happens to him today, I will drag your entire family down with him."

Portia threw her head back and laughed. "Oh no, I'm so scared."

Just then, the butler hurried in. His composure had slipped, and he leaned close to Portia's ear, whispering something in a rush.

Portia's eyes went wide. "Ronan is here?"

The name sent a flicker of hope through me. If he stepped forward and cleared things up, if he confirmed that he did not know me and that the woman in the photograph was not me, the whole misunderstanding would collapse.

Iver could get to the hospital.

"Ronan!" Portia rushed to greet him, her eyes already glistening. "Look what this woman did. She had the nerve to show up at my banquet and cause a scene. She even brought some idiot along just to humiliate me."

Ronan Whitford's gaze swept across the room and came to rest on me.

I forced myself to my feet and pointed at the photograph on the screen. "Mr. Whitford, tell her that I don't know you. I've never met you in my life. That woman in the photo isn't me."

Ronan pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His gaze moved back and forth between me and the photograph on the screen. All he had to do was say he did not know me, and this entire farce would end.

He said nothing. His gaze dropped, deliberately avoiding mine. When he lifted his head again, his face had rearranged itself into an expression of deep regret. "Ms. Tanner."

He let out a sigh. His voice was smooth and measured, but something cruel ran beneath it. "I've told you before. There's nothing between us. There never can be. Why do you keep coming after me? You followed me all the way to my wife's banquet just to make a scene?"

The blood drained from my face. My entire body went cold. My voice shook. "What did you just say? Have you lost your mind? I've never even met you!"

Ronan did not look at me again. He turned away and took Portia's hand in his.

"Portia, I'm sorry. She's been pursuing me for a while now, and I was too soft-hearted to shut her down completely. I should've ended it sooner. I swear, you're the only one I care about. I'll take care of this. Please don't be upset."

Portia's face twisted into something ugly. "You whore!"

She spun around and drove her foot straight into my stomach. I had no time to brace myself. The kick sent me flying, and I hit the ground hard. The pain tore through my entire body and left me curled up on the floor.

"What do you have to say for yourself now?" Portia screamed, every shred of composure gone. "My own husband just confirmed it! And you still have the nerve to deny it?"

I clutched my stomach, cold sweat pouring down my face. I looked at Ronan and the way his eyes refused to meet mine. I finally understood. He knew I was not the woman in that photograph. Of course, he did.

He was protecting the woman he actually loved, and he had thrown me out as a scapegoat without a second thought.

"Ronan Whitford... you'll rot for this." I kept my eyes fixed on him, unblinking.

A flicker of guilt passed through his gaze, but he smoothed it over with indifference just as quickly.

"Get her up." Portia's voice was ice. "Make her kneel."

Several bodyguards rushed forward, forced me to the ground, and pinned me on my knees facing the screen.

Portia pointed at Iver, who lay motionless on the floor. "Drag him to that display platform."

The platform had been set up to showcase levitating jewelry, and it generated an extremely powerful electromagnetic field.

"No!" My eyes went wide, and I thrashed against the bodyguards holding me down. "He has an implanted defibrillator in his chest! A strong magnetic field will send his heart into cardiac arrest! Please! Leave him alone!"

Portia ignored every word. The bodyguards dragged Iver to the edge of the platform. The moment he got close, the monitoring patch on his chest emitted a shrill, continuous alarm. His body seized violently, and his eyes rolled back.

"Iver!" The scream tore out of me so hard that my voice broke on impact.

Portia walked over and raised her hand. The slap cracked across my face. My cheek swelled instantly, and I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth.

Portia rubbed her wrist and looked down at me with venom in her eyes. "That one was to teach you your place."

She raised her hand again. The second slap landed just as hard. "And that one was for being a shameless tramp."

The alarm from Iver's monitoring patch grew sharper and more urgent. I watched the life drain from his face, and something inside me collapsed. I bit down on my lip until it bled and kept my eyes locked on hers.

"You'd better pray you finish me off tonight. Because if you don't, you will wish you had never been born."

Portia laughed. "Is that supposed to scare me? I don't know about regret, but I'll make sure you regret ever playing the other woman. Let's see how many men you can seduce without this pretty face."

She took a knife from one of the bodyguards. The blade caught the light, cold and sharp, and she brought it toward my cheek.

The edge was a breath away from breaking skin when I closed my eyes.

The crash that followed shook the entire hall. The security shutter had been ripped clean open.

"Touch my sister and it'll be the last thing you ever do."