Gilded Revenge: The Ex-Wife's Billion-Dollar Empire novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Pressure Point

The county hospital's annual gala was held in the ballroom of the Throckmorton Grand.

Lucinda arrived in a gold dress the lawyer's daughter had picked out, with the Ferrars driver three steps behind her.

Every table fell silent as she crossed the room.

She had spent four years of her nursing career on the spinal rehabilitation floor of this hospital.

Nobody here had recognized her then.

They recognized her now.

"Miss Throckmorton," said the hospital director, rushing over with both hands out. "We are honored. We had no idea you had any connection to us."

"I trained on your seventh floor."

"Of course. Of course you did."

She took the microphone at the podium when it was her turn.

"Thank you for having me," she said. "I'll be brief. Three years ago a man could not lift his head from a pillow. Eight months ago, in a bedroom with no rehabilitation unit, he stood on his own."

At a table near the front, Alden Ferrars looked up.

He had come alone, in a black suit, with the cane hooked over the back of his chair.

"Tonight I'm making a gift to the seventh floor," Lucinda said. "Four million, three hundred and eighty thousand dollars. It was paid to me this week for work I did in the dark, and I would like it to light the room."

The ballroom applauded.

It was a real, loud, rolling applause.

At his table, Alden did not clap.

He sat very still with his hands flat on the cloth.

She did not stay to see what he did next.

She handed the microphone back to the director and walked out through the side doors into the long corridor behind the stage.

It was empty and quiet, lined with framed photographs of old donors.

She had taken a few steps when someone caught her wrist.

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