Chapter 6 - The Sovereign Frequence
I walked over to the security line slowly, the click of my high heels echoing softly against the marble floor. The entire ballroom fell silent, watching the interaction with bated breath.
I stopped two feet away from them. I didn't look at them with anger, or hatred, or even satisfaction. I looked at them with the complete, devastating indifference of a stranger.
"You aren't my sister, Chloe," I said softly, my voice perfectly steady. "A sister doesn't steal her mother's memory. And you aren't a fiancé, Ryan. You were just a lesson I had to learn."
"Julianne, please—" Ryan begged, dropping to his knees on the polished floor.
"Security, escort them out of the building," I said, turning my back on them without another word. "And make sure they are trespassed from every Moretti property in the state."
As the guards dragged them out into the rainy night, completely erased from the world they had tried to steal from me, I walked back to where Vincent was waiting.
He looked down at me, his dark eyes crinkling with a rare, soft warmth. "You handled that with perfect precision, Julianne."
"I learned from the best," I smiled, looking up at him.
Vincent offered his arm, and I slipped my hand securely into the bend of it. He leaned down, his voice dropping into that familiar, powerful whisper. "Six months ago, you asked a complete stranger to kiss you in the middle of this room to make a boy jealous."
"I remember," I murmured, my heart giving a sudden, thrilling flutter.
"I told you I never said no," Vincent whispered, his eyes locking onto mine with absolute devotion.
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Right there, under the glittering crystal chandeliers of the Grand Monarch Hotel, in front of the most powerful people in the city, Vincent leaned down and pressed his lips to mine—a deep, slow, and authoritative kiss that sealed our partnership, our future, and our love.
The applause that followed was deafening. The girl who had been left behind in the service hallway was gone forever. I was Julianne Sterling, the architect of my own empire, and I was finally standing exactly where I belonged.
