The moment Hester saw the panic on my face, she wrenched free and raked the remaining pieces off the table. They hit the marble in a cascade of breaking glass and splintering wood.
"No money, no power, and all you can scrape together for a dowry is this junk?" She curled her lip. "You think you can intimidate me?"
"Finish the ceremony, or I'll have someone finish it for you!"
On her signal, two men grabbed the wine glass—the one the rooster had already drunk from—and forced it toward my mouth.
I shoved them back with everything I had, trembling with a rage I could barely contain.
I had grown up inside a classified government research facility. Never in my life had anyone subjected me to this kind of degradation.
Enough was enough. I raised my hand, ready to slap Hester across the face.
A voice roared from behind me.
"Touch her and see what happens!"
My fingers curled into a fist. I stopped myself. Barely.
Scott glared at me, then strode past without a second glance. He went straight to Hester, who was clutching her wrist with a wounded expression. He cradled her hand in both of his, brow furrowed, voice impossibly gentle.
"Hester, are you okay?"
Her eyes turned red on cue. She pointed at me, voice quivering with rehearsed distress.
"Mr. Delgado, she bullied me! She tried to hit me—look, she hurt my wrist!"
I stood rooted to the spot. Something inside my chest sank, slow and heavy.
He hadn't come for me.
Scott turned his head. The look he gave me held no trace of guilt. Only undisguised contempt.
"Elise, who the hell gave you permission to lay a hand on Hester?"
Scott Delgado was handsome—strikingly so—and undeniably capable. But he was blind. Completely, willfully blind.
Watching him lash out without bothering to ask a single question, the fury inside me became impossible to swallow.
I tore the red cord from my wrist and threw it down.
"She's the one who destroyed my dowry. She's the one who humiliated me. And you two have the nerve to turn this around on me?"
"Scott, in case you've forgotten—you are my fiancé. She is your secretary."
Scott looked at me as if I'd told a joke. A cold, mirthless smile twisted his mouth.
"Fiancé?"
"Elise, you must have done your homework by now. You know exactly who I am. And you know exactly who you are." His voice turned to ice. "Do you honestly think you deserve to marry me?"