💔 PART 2
The ballroom fell silent.
Every crystal chandelier reflected the glittering jade hairpin resting proudly on Ethan's suit.
He smiled, raising a glass of champagne as if he owned the world.
Beside him, Vanessa wrapped her arm around his waist and laughed loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Can you believe she cried over this ugly old thing?" she mocked. "I almost threw it in the trash."
The guests chuckled.
No one noticed me standing near the entrance.
I wore a simple black dress.
No makeup.
No jewelry.
Nothing except the red silk bracelet tied around my wrist.
To them, I looked exactly like the abandoned wife they expected to see.
Broken.
Humiliated.
Powerless.
Ethan finally spotted me.
His smile widened.
"So you actually came," he sneered. "I thought you'd be too embarrassed to show your face."
Vanessa smirked.
"Maybe she's here to beg."
Several people laughed.
Ethan walked toward me and held up the jade hairpin between two fingers.
"You want this back?"
Before I could answer, he deliberately dropped it onto the marble floor.
The ancient jade struck the stone with a sharp crack.
Gasps echoed across the ballroom.
He placed his polished shoe on top of it.
Crunch.
The priceless hairpin shattered into several pieces.
"There," he said coldly.
"Now it's finally worth what it always was."
Vanessa clapped her hands.
"A perfect ending."
I looked down at the broken fragments.
For six years...
I had protected that heirloom more carefully than my own life.
Not because of its value.
But because breaking it meant only one thing.
The Henderson Family had been dishonored.
And according to the family's oldest rule...
Anyone responsible would lose everything.
Slowly...
I untied the faded red bracelet from my wrist.
It slipped onto the floor.
The smile disappeared from the face of an elderly man standing across the room.
His champagne glass trembled.
Then another billionaire noticed.
Then another.
Within seconds...
The whispers spread through the ballroom like wildfire.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
"She removed the Red Oath Bracelet..."
"The heir has returned."
Ethan frowned.
"What are they talking about?"
No one answered him.
Every powerful guest who had ignored me moments before suddenly stood up.
One after another.
Their eyes were fixed on me.
Not with pity.
With fear.
At that exact moment...
The grand ballroom doors burst open.
Rows of black-suited security officers entered first.
Behind them walked silver-haired elders carrying the ancient crest of the Henderson Family.
The entire room froze.
An old man stepped forward, bowed deeply before me, and spoke words that made Ethan's face drain of all color.
"Young Mistress..."
"We have come to take you home."
