Phoenix Of Ruin: My Second Life Comes With A Better Man novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Heir of Aldrich

The Aldrich Founders' Gala filled the atrium of Aldrich Holdings with six hundred guests and a stage.

Leigh stood at the edge of it in a silver dress, with her mother's cracked bracelet on her wrist.

She had mended the clasp herself.

Across the floor, Jonas Hartwell stood alone beside a pillar in his gray coat, and he had not looked away from her once.

She remembered his thumb on her wrist.

She told herself to stop remembering it in a room full of people.

At eight, the doors opened and Blaine walked in.

Talia was on his arm, in white again, with her chin lifted.

Blaine's jaw had gone from purple to yellow.

He walked straight across the floor to Leigh and lowered his voice.

"Enjoy the music," he said. "By midnight you will be on your knees in front of her."

"Is that the bet you think you're winning?" Leigh said.

"Howard hasn't named you. He's only talked."

Talia smiled at her over his shoulder, small and sweet.

"I'll be gentle with you, Leigh," she said. "I promise."

Leigh smiled back.

"Save it for the stage," she said.

At nine, Howard Aldrich climbed the steps with his cane and took the microphone.

The room went quiet.

"I have run this family for fifty years," he said. "Tonight I name who runs it after me."

Behind him, a clerk carried out a leather folder and set it on a stand.

"My granddaughter Leigh left this house for five years," Howard said. "She came back with her head up. She is my only heir, and tonight she holds my voting shares and my name."

The room stood up and applauded.

Conroy whistled through his fingers, and her second brother beat the table.

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