03. THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

The ballroom fell silent as Damien Blackwood stepped onto the stage.

A spotlight followed him, illuminating the man whose name carried more power than most people in the room could imagine. He stood behind the podium, adjusting his cufflinks before offering the guests a practiced smile.

Clara remained near the edge of the ballroom.

She had spent the past several minutes trying to steady her breathing. Scarlett’s announcement still echoed in her mind.

I’m pregnant.

Clara had no idea whether it was true. She only knew that Damien had not denied it.

And that was enough to make her feel as though the floor beneath her feet had begun to crumble.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Damien began, his voice carrying easily through the ballroom. “Thank you for joining us tonight.”

The guests turned toward him. Cameras flashed.

Clara lowered her gaze, hoping the speech would end soon.

Then Damien’s expression changed.

“There is one more matter I would like to address.”

A large screen behind him flickered to life.

Clara looked up.

At first, she didn’t understand what she was seeing.

Then the image sharpened.

It was a video.

A bedroom.

A man’s face.

Her own face.

A gasp escaped her lips.

The footage showed Clara in bed with Derek.

The room erupted in whispers.

“No…”

Clara took a step backward.

The video continued playing. The angle was distant, but the resemblance between Damien and Derek was unmistakable. To the guests watching, it looked as though Clara had been caught in an affair with her husband’s twin brother.

The cameras turned toward her.

One flash.

Then another.

Clara’s hands began to shake.

She looked at Damien, unable to understand how he could do this. How he could take something that had been done to her and turn it into a public accusation.

Damien’s voice cut through the murmurs.

“As many of you know, Clara Bennett is my wife.”

He paused, allowing the guests to look at her.

“Unfortunately, I have recently discovered that my wife has been seducing my twin brother, Derek.”

A wave of shocked whispers spread through the ballroom.

Clara shook her head.

“No. That’s not true.”

But her voice was swallowed by the crowd.

Damien continued.

“I will not tolerate this betrayal. I have decided to end our marriage.”

The words struck her like a physical blow.

He was divorcing her.

In front of everyone.

With the video playing behind him.

Clara’s eyes filled with tears. She tried to move, but her legs felt unsteady. The faces around her blurred as she struggled to breathe.

Damien stepped down from the podium.

The crowd parted for him.

He stopped in front of Clara, close enough that no one else could hear his next words.

“Clara,” he whispered, his expression almost amused. “You were a tool from the start.”

She stared at him.

The words were quiet.

But they destroyed something inside her.

“You planned this,” she whispered. “You planned all of it.”

Damien’s smile barely moved.

“You loved your way into this trap, Clara.”

Her lips trembled.

“I gave you all my love.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks.

“I gave you everything.”

Damien tilted his head.

“Love which one?”

Clara flinched.

“Me or Derek?”

The question was delivered with such casual cruelty that she could barely process it.

Derek appeared beside them.

He had been standing near the stage, watching the scene unfold. His face was pale, and his eyes were fixed on Clara.

“Damien, stop this.”

But Damien ignored him.

The reporters crowded closer. Cameras flashed relentlessly.

Clara looked at Derek.

“You knew this was going to happen?”

Derek shook his head.

“No. Clara, I didn’t know he would—”

“You were part of it!”

Her voice rose above the noise.

Then she turned back to Damien.

“You’re cheating on me with Scarlett, too!”

Damien laughed.

A short, cold sound.

“Do you have proof?”

Clara opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

She had seen them together. She had heard the way Damien spoke about Scarlett. But she had no evidence that could stand against the man who controlled the room.

Damien’s smile widened.

“That’s what I thought.”

Derek moved closer to Clara.

He reached out his hand.

“Clara, please. Let me explain.”

She slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch me!”

Derek froze.

“You’re just like him,” she cried. “You’re both bastards!”

His face tightened.

“You were willing to sleep with me because Damien told you to. You knew I believed you were my husband!”

The words came out broken and furious.

“I was nothing but a toy to you both!”

Derek’s hand fell to his side.

Clara’s voice cracked.

“Are you satisfied now?”

The reporters continued taking pictures.

The flashes made her feel exposed, as though every private moment of her life had been stripped away and placed beneath the ballroom’s chandeliers.

Then Scarlett approached.

She held a glass of wine in one hand, her expression filled with false sympathy.

“Oh, poor Clara.”

Clara turned toward her.

Scarlett looked her up and down.

“You look like you could use a little more help appearing miserable.”

Before Clara could react, Scarlett tipped the glass.

Red wine spilled across Clara’s face and down the front of her dress.

A collective gasp rose from the crowd.

Scarlett lowered the empty glass.

“So pathetic.”

Clara stood frozen.

The wine dripped from her chin. Her dress clung to her body, and the room seemed to spin around her.

She could hear people whispering.

She could hear cameras clicking.

But she couldn’t make herself move.

Scarlett leaned closer.

“Poor thing,” she said again. “You’re pregnant, and neither Damien nor Derek wants to acknowledge the baby.”

Clara’s hand flew to her abdomen.

“Don’t.”

Damien stepped beside Scarlett.

His gaze dropped briefly to Clara’s stomach.

“Pregnancy was extra fun,” he said coldly. “After tonight, I’ll have you get rid of it.”

Clara’s face drained of color.

For a moment, she could not breathe.

She had expected Damien to reject her. She had expected him to humiliate her.

But she had never imagined he would speak about their child as though it were something disposable.

Her fingers curled against her stomach.

“No.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed.

“What did you say?”

Clara stepped toward him.

“You don’t get to decide that.”

Scarlett moved between them.

“Why?” she asked, her voice dripping with mock concern. “Do you think you’re the victim here?”

Clara looked at her.

“Everyone has already seen the video. They know you seduced Derek. No one even knows who the father of your baby is.”

Scarlett’s smile sharpened.

Then she slapped Clara.

The sound cracked through the ballroom.

Clara’s head turned with the force of it.

For one terrible second, the room went silent.

Scarlett leaned toward her.

“You’re nothing but a pathetic loser.”

Clara slowly turned her face back.

Her cheek burned.

But beneath the pain, something else began to rise.

Not the helpless confusion she had felt in Damien’s study.

Not the desperate hope she had carried into this marriage.

Anger.

A deep, trembling anger that had been building with every lie, every humiliation, every moment she had been made to believe she was the problem.

“You know nothing,” Clara said.

Scarlett’s expression hardened.

Clara looked at Damien.

“They used their faces to deceive me!”

Her voice shook, but she continued.

“I thought I was sleeping with my husband. I didn’t know it was Derek. They planned this together!”

The guests murmured.

Clara’s eyes filled with tears again.

“Damien wants to destroy me. He wants to destroy my baby!”

She looked around the ballroom, searching for even one person who might believe her.

But all she saw were curious faces and raised cameras.

No one stepped forward.

No one spoke.

Clara backed away.

Then she turned and ran.

Her heels struck the marble floor as she pushed through the crowd. The ballroom doors swung open, and she stumbled into the cold night air.

Behind her, Scarlett scoffed.

“She’s insane.”

Clara stopped just beyond the entrance.

Her chest heaved. Tears blurred the lights of the city.

She turned back toward the ballroom, toward the people who had taken her love and turned it into a weapon.

“I will never forgive any of you!”

Then Clara ran into the night.