Chapter 5
A second later, the screen went black.
I didn’t check the messages.
Didn’t even care.
e.0
As the plane climbed high into the sky, turbulence hit hard.]
We were slicing through clouds, leaving behind a city I’d once called home.]
With no phone to distract me, boredom hit fast.[]
I curled up in my seat and tried to sleep.
But it wasn’t a short flight.
When I woke up, we weren’t even halfway there.[]
I grabbed a newspaper from the seat pocket, just to kill time.[]
And right there on the front page–Carter Kingsley’s face.
I shut it without a second thought.]
The paper was fresh off the press, filled with coverage of the Kingsley brunch.
Every year before this one, I had been in those photos too.
My
first year planning it had been a disaster–I made the gossip columns for all the wrong reasons.
People mocked me for being “trailer trash in a mansion.“]
Eleanor was so embarrassed, she punished me by locking me in the estate’s chapel for a week.[
Yes, in modern–day America, a grown woman locked in a family chapel to atone for public shame.[]
I’d come from an educated background, well–read and well–raised.[]
It was humiliating.
But when I saw the way the tabloids tore into me, maybe hiding away didn’t seem so bad.
I even gaslit myself into believing Eleanor was doing me a favor.]]
Keeping me away from the public eye, sparing me the pain.[]
But I was pregnant then.
After three days kneeling on stone floors, I started bleeding.
It was the housekeeper–worried I’d die–who finally called an ambulance.[]
That’s how I ended up giving birth to Ethan.]
During recovery, I sank into a brutal postpartum depression.]
Those headlines never left my mind–they circled like vultures.[]
I’d hear Eleanor chatting with her country club friends.]
“Sienna?”
“That girl’s gonna be the death of me.“[]
“If her horoscope hadn’t said she’d stabilize our financial line, I’d have kicked her out long ago.”
I used to think she was being polite.[]
I’d convinced myself that her coldness was just tough love.
But she never respected me.[]
To her, my only purpose was to wear the title of Mrs. Kingsley like a placeholder.[]
Chapter
I remember crying and telling Carter, “Please, don’t make me plan next year’s brunch.“]
“I’m not cut out for this,”
He pried my fingers off his arm one by one and shoved me to the floo
“If you can’t even handle that, what the hell am I keeping you around for?“]
I can still hear his voice, clear as day.
Eventually, I got better at hosting
The brunches improved.]
But the media still mocked my background–because Eleanor fed them the stories.[]
To them, I would never be enough.]
I’d always wear the crown of unworthiness.]
Only a few fringe websites ever mentioned how hard I’d worked.[]
And whenever they did, the articles were pulled within hours.[]
of course–also Eleanor’s doing.
Even as Mrs. Kingsley, she made sure no one believed I belonged.[]
So when Vivienne–an outsider–hosted the brunch today, everyone welcomed her with open arms.
The press treated her like royalty.[]
Just like the guests who ignored me all those years.[]
Nobody even asked where Carter’s still–legally–wed wife had disappeared to.
But then–in the corner of the newspaper, I found a tiny column.[]
It was filled with sympathy for me.[]
A scathing critique of the Kingsley family’s corruption.[]
I actually laughed.]]
Whoever wrote that was gonna get fired.]]
And yet somehow, I felt bad for them.
“They’re brave, I’ll give them that,” I muttered.[]
“You’re right,” a voice said beside me.]
I looked up, startled.]
The man sitting next to me was tall, with sharp Western features and striking green eyes.[]
But there was something in his expression–something that hinted at mixed heritage.[]
He tapped the newspaper, right on that little column.]
So, Mrs. Kingsley… what’s your take?“[]
s.)
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Chapter 6
