Alessia looked at Miriam, then back at him.
“This isn’t because I’m angry.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s because I finally believe what you’ve been showing me.”
Garrett’s face hardened.
Before Alessia could say anything else, he stepped forward suddenly, attempting to move past her toward Miriam.
Whether he intended to confront her mother or simply intimidate both women, Alessia never found out.
She moved instinctively.
Her hand pressed firmly against his shoulder as she redirected his momentum away from Miriam. Garrett, already moving too quickly, stumbled several steps sideways.
His heel struck the low stone edge of the decorative fountain.
For one suspended second, his arms windmilled.
Then he fell backward into the shallow water.
A collective gasp swept through the ballroom.
Water splashed over the edge, darkening the front of his tuxedo and scattering across the marble.
Garrett surfaced almost immediately, stunned.
No one laughed.
That somehow made it worse.
Alessia stood several feet away, breathing hard, while Miriam stared at her daughter with one hand pressed over her mouth.
Garrett pushed himself upright.
Water streamed from his hair and jacket.
His expression shifted from shock to humiliation and finally to fury.
“You—”
Alessia raised one hand.
“Stop.”
Garrett climbed out of the fountain.
The sound of his wet shoes against the marble echoed across the room.
Evelyn rushed toward him.
“Garrett!”
“I’m fine.”
He shoved her hand away without looking at her.
His eyes remained fixed on Alessia.
A few guests stepped backward as he advanced.
Miriam moved toward her daughter, but Alessia quietly extended an arm behind her, signaling her mother to stay where she was.
Garrett stopped two steps away.
“You think that was funny?”
“No.”
“You pushed me.”
“You rushed past me toward my mother.”
His nostrils flared.
“You have no idea what you’ve just done.”
Alessia’s voice remained calm. “I know exactly what I’ve done.”
That calm seemed to infuriate him more than shouting would have.
Garrett lunged forward again, trying to seize her upper arm.
Alessia twisted away, caught his wrist, and used his forward momentum to turn him off balance. The movement was fast and controlled, learned from years of self-defense training she had rarely thought about since college.
Garrett stumbled.
His knee hit the marble first, followed by one hand.
The ballroom reacted with another stunned murmur.
Alessia immediately released him and stepped back.
She did not strike him.
She did not chase him.
She simply stood between Garrett and her mother.
The image was impossible to misunderstand.
Garrett looked up from the floor.
His wet hair hung across his forehead, his expensive jacket dripped onto the marble, and the confidence he had worn all evening was gone.
What replaced it was disbelief.
He had never imagined Alessia refusing him so completely.
Evelyn pointed at her.
“You attacked my son!”
“No,” Miriam said.
Her voice was quiet, but everyone heard it.
Evelyn turned sharply.
Miriam stood straighter.
“He came toward her.”
Evelyn stared at her. “Stay out of this.”
Miriam took one deliberate step forward.
“I spent years staying out of things because I thought that was the respectful thing to do.”
Alessia looked at her mother.
Miriam’s hands still trembled, but her voice did not.
“I watched my daughter become quieter after she married your son. I watched her apologize for things she never used to apologize for. And I told myself it wasn’t my place.”
Garrett pushed himself to his feet.
