Chapter 54

Chapter 54:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

For the first time since marrying into the Brooks dynasty, a faint flicker of gratitude rose in Cathryn’s chest toward her husband. Love was irrelevant now; what mattered was the power of the surname he bore, and the weight it carried in a room like this.

A derisive smirk curved Jordyn’s mouth. “The last two times, you just got lucky,” she said, her voice low but cutting. “My mother and I underestimated you. That won’t happen again.” She leaned in, the smile on her lips a blade wrapped in silk. “The Moore family may have taken a hit, but once Douglas splits the auction proceeds with the Moores, they’re not going under.”

Cathryn’s gaze cooled, her eyes darkening like storm clouds. She didn’t bother to answer.

She knew it. Of course Douglas had no intention of handing a cent to charity. The auction was a smokescreen—an elegant, glittering front for lining his own pockets. It reeked of fraud, and everyone in their circle knew it, though no one dared say it out loud.

Jordyn had been spoiled since birth, raised by Richard and Zoe to believe rules were for other people. Entitlement clung to her like expensive perfume; she’d never learned restraint, much less the boundaries of the law.