Chapter 7
The restaurant glittered with gold light and polished crystal. Lucas had gone out of his way to prepare an elegant vegetarian meal in my honor, as if that could wash his sins clean.
He raised a glass and said with a smile, “Thank you for your warning today. If you hadn’t spoken, maybe that cyclist would have done much worse. I still don’t know your name.”
I smiled faintly. “Spring.”
That single smile left half the table staring at me as if they had forgotten how to breathe.
I had barely picked up my chopsticks when the restaurant doors slammed open.
Vivian Clarke stormed in with a line of bodyguards behind her.
She moved like a storm cloud straight toward me and swung her hand as if to slap me, but Lucas grabbed her wrist.
“Vivian, stop. This is Master Spring.”
“Master?” she snapped. “She’s a fraud in a costume. A woman in robes trying to seduce rich men.”
She pointed at me, eyes blazing. “If she’s some holy woman, why does she still have hair? Shave her head right here. Let everyone online see what happens to women who pretend to be saints while stealing other women’s men.”
Then she turned on Lucas.
“If you stop me, the engagement is over. And let’s see how long the Lawsons stay standing without the Clarke family.”
The entire room went still.
No one wanted to offend the Clarkes. Vivian’s reputation for cruelty was already well known in elite circles, especially toward women she thought were beneath her.
Lucas tried to calm her. “This is different. Don’t make a scene.”
“I’m making a scene?” Vivian’s eyes filled with tears, but the fury behind them only sharpened. “You never stopped me before. Now suddenly you care because of her?”
She pointed at me again. “Break her legs. Throw her somewhere she’ll never crawl out of.”
The people in the room went pale.
Even Lucas, after a brief hesitation, slowly stepped aside.
“Fine,” he said quietly. “Do whatever you want. I’ll deal with the consequences.”
Inside, I laughed.
Consequences?
Neither of them had any idea what those looked like.