Tears immediately filled her eyes.
More than two hundred guests stood frozen.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
The cameras captured everything.
Vanessa looked around triumphantly.
"There."
She smiled coldly.
"Now everyone can see exactly what kind of woman—"
She stopped speaking.
Something glittered beneath the torn fabric.
A silver necklace.
Hanging from it...
A blue sapphire surrounded by twelve tiny diamonds.
An elderly board member suddenly stood.
His face turned pale.
"No..."
Another executive whispered,
"It can't be."
Vanessa frowned.
"What?"
The old man pointed toward the necklace.
"The Sterling Heirloom."
The room exploded with shocked whispers.
Impossible.
That necklace had belonged only to one person.
Sophia Bennett.
The woman who had supposedly died eleven years earlier.
Adrian slowly removed his tuxedo jacket and wrapped it around Emily's trembling shoulders.
His hands were gentle.
Protective.
Fatherly.
He turned toward Vanessa.
His voice was quiet.
But every person in the ballroom heard it.
"You wanted to know who she is."
Vanessa nodded uncertainly.
Adrian looked at Emily with unmistakable love.
Then back at the crowd.
"This young woman..."
He paused.
"...is not my mistress."