Alessia met his eyes.
“Maybe.”
That answer surprised him.
She continued before he could speak.
“Maybe tomorrow I’ll cry. Maybe next month I’ll question whether I should have tried harder. Maybe divorce will be messy and painful and embarrassing.”
Her voice remained steady.
“But none of that will make what you did acceptable.”
Garrett’s jaw tightened.
Alessia stepped aside, leaving a clear path toward the exit.
“Go.”
He remained where he was.
Evelyn moved closer to him.
“Garrett, we’re leaving.”
He ignored her.
His gaze stayed on Alessia.
Minutes earlier, he had expected her to obey him because she always eventually chose peace over confrontation.
Now she stood in front of an open doorway, waiting for him to decide whether he would leave willingly or force everyone in the room to watch him refuse.
Garrett understood the choice.
So did everyone else.
He took one step toward the door.
Then stopped.
The entire ballroom seemed to inhale at once.
Garrett looked back at Alessia.
“You want me to crawl?”
Alessia’s expression did not change.
The words she had thrown at him earlier had been born from anger, a mirror of the humiliation he had inflicted on her mother.
She did not need to see him literally crawl.
She needed him to understand that the power he had taken for granted was gone.
“I want you out.”
Garrett stared at her for several seconds.
Then he walked.
His soaked shoes left dark prints across the marble.
Each step sounded louder than the last.
When he passed Miriam, he slowed slightly.
Alessia watched him carefully.
Miriam lifted her chin.
Garrett seemed as though he might say something.
Instead, he kept moving.
Evelyn followed, pausing beside Alessia.
“You’re destroying your family.”
Alessia looked at her.
“No.”
Her voice was almost gentle.
“I’m finally refusing to let your son destroy mine.”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
Then she turned and followed Garrett out.
The doors remained open behind them.
No one in the ballroom spoke.
Alessia stood completely still, staring into the empty entrance hall.
Only then did the adrenaline begin to leave her body.
Her hands started shaking.
Miriam noticed immediately.
She approached and wrapped both arms around her daughter.
