Chapter 21 - JULIAN’S FIANCÉE WALKS INNatalie Vale did not disappear after ending engagement.
She rebuilt loudly.
Returned to work.
Moved apartments.
Cut hair shorter.
Accepted partnership at law firm.
Cambria hated seeing it.
Because Natalie, like Arielle, refused to remain wounded opponent.
At a charity luncheon six months after Eloise’s birth, Cambria encountered both women unexpectedly.
Arielle and Natalie were seated together.
Cambria arrived with Julian separately because co-parenting schedule overlapped event? Maybe not. Better she attended with aunt Margot; Julian not.
Room went quiet subtly.
No confrontation expected.
Cambria approached anyway.
“Interesting.”
Natalie looked up.
“What?”
“You two became friends.”
Arielle smiled.
“We discovered we have similar taste in lawyers.”
Natalie laughed.
Cambria did not.
She looked at Arielle.
“You enjoy this?”
“Which part?”
“Watching my life fall apart.”
Arielle’s expression softened almost imperceptibly.
“No.”
That surprised Cambria.
“I think what you did was cruel.”
“I think what Dorian and Julian did was cruel.”
“I think you all hurt people.”
“But I don’t need your life destroyed to make mine better.”
Cambria’s eyes filled.
Natalie added:
“That’s the difference you still don’t understand.”
Cambria snapped:
“You both got to walk away clean.”
Natalie stared.
“Clean?”
“My wedding was canceled.”
“I lost years.”
“I had to get tested for infections because my fiancé lied about sex.”
Arielle’s face tightened too.
Cambria looked down.
Natalie continued:
“Arielle was hit publicly by husband because of your performance.”
“Then watched private fertility struggles become gossip.”
“You did not leave us clean.”
“We cleaned ourselves up afterward.”
That sentence landed.
Cambria sat unexpectedly.
Margot looked worried.
Arielle could have left.
Stayed.
Cambria whispered:
“I didn’t think it would get this bad.”
Arielle answered:
“You thought I would scream.”
“Dorian would comfort you.”
“We would fight.”
“He would leave.”
“Yes.”
Cambria nodded.
The plan.
“So fall was deliberate?”
Silence.
Natalie looked.
Arielle did not need confession legally.
Video enough.
But emotionally—
Cambria whispered:
“Yes.”
First direct admission to Arielle.
“I knew he was coming.”
“I thought if he saw me down…”
“He’d choose you.”
“Yes.”
“And he did.”
Cambria looked ashamed.
“For a second.”
Arielle touched cheek unconsciously.
“Long enough.”
Cambria cried.
“I didn’t tell him to hit you.”
“No.”
Arielle nodded.
“That part belongs to Dorian.”
Important.
Cambria did not own his violence.
Dorian did.
Cambria continued:
“I wanted him to yell at you.”
“Defend me.”
“Take me out.”
“Then I planned to tell him about pregnancy.”
Arielle froze.
So pregnancy known before gala.
“Yes.”
“I already knew.”
“Did you know likely Julian?”
Cambria looked down.
“Yes.”
Natalie inhaled sharply.
There.
She knew.
“I hoped doctor was wrong.”
“Why Dorian?” Arielle asked.
Cambria’s answer barely audible.
“Because with Dorian…”
“I’d never be second again.”
Arielle understood.
Cambria’s life had been comparison.
Her mother compared.
Society compared.
Arielle won award.
Other women married richer.
Cambria’s inheritance shrank.
Being Dorian Westbrook’s partner represented arrival.
Being mother of his child permanent entry.
This did not excuse.
But motive finally clear.
Natalie asked:
“And Julian?”
Cambria cried.
“He made me feel wanted when Dorian kept rejecting me.”
A chain.
Each betrayal feeding next insecurity.
Natalie stood.
“I hope you get help.”
Not sarcastic.
Then left.
Arielle stayed one more minute.
Cambria asked:
“Do you hate me?”
Arielle considered.
“No.”
Cambria seemed more hurt than if yes.
“Why?”
“Because hate would keep you too close.”
Arielle stood.
Cambria whispered:
“Is Dorian getting you back?”
Arielle looked at her.
“That is still none of your business.”
Then walked away.
That answer mattered.
Cambria no longer got to know.
No longer audience.
May you like
No longer rival.
She was outside marriage entirely.
Related Stories
