My Best Friend Bought Me a Cursed Life Chapter 08

My Best Friend Bought Me a Cursed Life Chapter 08 The Gala

The gala was held at the Kingsbridge Grand Hotel. Crystal chandeliers, champagne flutes clinking, old money oozing from ev gilded corner.

I leaned on Julian’s arm as we swept in, my floor–length black gown turning every head in the room.

The former Cecilia Astor–timid, broken–was gone. In her place stood a woman who exuded the quiet certainty of someone owned the room.

Then the lights went out.

The massive screen at the front of the ballroom flickered. Instead of the charity video, surveillance footage played.

In the video, I was in the chemical plant with scalpels in hand. Sebastian was bleeding on the floor. Richard was begging.

And my voice: “Better than being your cash cow forever.”

Gasps. Whispers.

“Oh my God.”

“That’s Cecilia Astor!”

“She tried to kill her own family!”

The lights came back on.

Victor Hawke jabbed a shaking finger at me, his face purpling with rage. “I told you! I TOLD YOU! She’s a monster!”

Julian’s eyes darted from the screen to me, his face drained of/color. “Cecilia… is that real?”

I kept my breathing steady, no flicker of panic in my eyes.

I knew who was behind this. Bella. And she had an accomplice.

In the shadowed back of the room, a man in a crisp waiter’s uniform was edging toward the exit, his head ducked and shoulders hunched.

Sebastian Astor.

Bella had found him. Ghost and gambler, working together to destroy me on the one night that mattered.

“The video is real,” I said into the silence. I strode to the stage and snatched the microphone. “But it’s missing context.

I pulled out my phone and tapped it to connect to the screen.

“Here’s the full audio recording of that night. Including the part where Richard and Sebastian Astor hired thugs to kidnap me and beat me into handing over my money.”

The audio played. Richard’s voice was greedy and cold Sebastian’s whining. The thugs threats.

The room erupted in chaos.

“Wait… she was defending herself?”

“Her own father tried to kidnap her?”

“What kind of family ARE these people?”

I turned to Sebastian, who stood frozen by the exit. “Running already, dear brother?”

Security tackled him before he could move.

“I’m Julian Hawke’s brother–in–law!” Sebastian screamed. “You can’t touch me!”

Julian walked over, looked down at him, and said quietly, “You’re nobody. Call the police.”

Sebastian was dragged out.

The gala resumed, but everyone’s eyes were on me now. Not with suspicion. With respect.

Bella’s trap had backfired.