"You don't want a partner, Adrian. You want to own me. To brag that it was you... Adrian Blackwell... who claimed Catherine Blackwood."
"You are an incompetent, overindulged heir who has spent his entire life mistaking privilege for talent."
The words didn't land like blows.
They landed like truth.
Adrian's breath stopped. Not from shock, but from the sudden, violent need to reject what he'd just heard... to rewrite it, to make it something other than what it was.
Incompetent.
Overindulged.
Mistaking privilege for talent.
His chest constricted. The room felt smaller, the air thinner, as if the walls themselves were closing in to bear witness to his humiliation.
'No. She doesn't mean it. She can't mean it.'
His gaze snapped toward Victoria.
As if she could confirm or deny what was happening. As if her reaction would tell him whether this was actually occurring or some nightmare his mind had conjured.
Victoria sat perfectly still in her chair near the wall.
