Chapter 7: Whispers in High Society**
By summer, the illusion Victoria Ashford had tried so desperately to maintain began to crumble. New York’s elite social circles thrive on gossip, and whispers of Julian’s complete disinheritance had leaked to major business journals.
At the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala, Victoria sat at her premier table in her signature emerald velvet, but the atmosphere around her had turned icy. High-profile philanthropists who once begged for her company now spoke in polite murmurs and kept their distance.
“Is it true, Victoria?” asked Eleanor Vance, a prominent banking heiress whose family had done business with the Ashfords for three generations. “Did Julian really leave the board to work construction? People are saying you threw his wife out on the night of your own grandson’s christening party.”
Victoria’s knuckles turned white around her champagne glass. “Julian is simply finding himself, Eleanor. He made an unwise marriage, and sometimes young men need to learn the realities of life.”
“Or perhaps,” Eleanor replied with a cutting, pleasant smile, “he simply found something more valuable than your approval. My daughter saw Clara’s new children’s book featured in the *Times* this morning. It’s climbing the bestseller charts.”
Victoria choked back her fury. That night, returning to her sixty-room mansion where every corridor echoed with cold silence, she logged onto her laptop in the dark library. There on the front page of the literary review was Clara’s smiling face holding Leo, with the headline: *“From Silent Tears to National Voice: Clara Ashford’s Triumph of the Heart.”*
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The rage in Victoria’s chest ignited into desperation.
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