Chloe swallowed.
Julian looked as if the floor had opened beneath him. “You never told me.”
Clarissa’s smile was faint, but there was no warmth in it. “You never asked who I was. You only asked what I could make disappear.”
Arthur turned toward the crowd. “Three years ago, Clarissa chose to marry without my blessing. She believed love should be enough. She asked me not to interfere, and because I loved her, I obeyed.”
His voice hardened.
“Tonight, I stopped obeying.”
Julian took one step forward. “Clarissa, listen to me.”
She lifted one hand.
He stopped.
It was the first time in their marriage that Julian Cross obeyed her silence.
Clarissa looked around the ballroom—at the investors who once dismissed her, at the women who whispered about her absence, at the men who praised Julian’s image while ignoring the woman he hid at home.
Then her gaze returned to Julian.
