Chapter 1 - THE CRIMSON DISASTER
The grand ballroom of the Manhattan Luxe Hotel was a sea of glittering diamonds.
Every corner of the massive room reflected the blinding light of crystal chandeliers.
Expensive tuxedos cut from the finest Italian wool moved gracefully through the crowd.
Flowing champagne filled thousands of delicate flutes held by manicured hands.
It was the annual Autumn Gala.
This was the exact place where New York City’s top one percent gathered to flaunt their immense wealth.
They smiled falsely at one another.
They traded secrets that could ruin entire empires in a single breath.
Chloe adjusted her heavy silver tray with numb fingers.
Her hands were trembling slightly from sheer exhaustion.
She had been working a double shift for the past fourteen hours.
Her feet were aching terribly inside her cheap, worn-out flats.
On her tray sat six crystal chalices.
Each one was filled with expensive, deep-red vintage wine.
The liquid looked almost like dark velvet under the amber lights.
All she needed to do was finish this final hour.
If she could just survive sixty more minutes, she could finally go home to her tiny apartment.
Suddenly, a loud burst of laughter echoed nearby.
The sound was sharp and arrogant.
Victoria Vance, the most beautiful yet notoriously cruel socialite in the city, spun around blindly.
She was gesturing wildly to her wealthy friends.
She was wearing a pristine, custom-made pure white silk gown.
The fabric swept the floor like a winter cloud.
It was rumored to cost more than a normal person earned in a lifetime.
Before Chloe could react or step aside, Victoria stepped backward right into her path.
The collision was violent and sudden.
Chloe gasped as her foot slipped on the polished marble floor.
The heavy silver tray flipped completely out of her hands.
Time seemed to slow down to a painful crawl.
The six crystal glasses shattered in mid-air with a deafening crack.
A torrent of dark red wine erupted like blood.
The liquid splashed instantly across the front of Victoria’s flawless white gown.
It soaked the pristine fabric from the chest down.
But the disaster didn't stop there.
A large, sharp shard of the broken crystal flew upward.
The jagged edge grazed Victoria’s collarbone with terrifying speed.
It sliced through her pale skin effortlessly.
The wound left a deep, three-inch gash across her flesh.
Within seconds, bright red blood began to ooze from the cut.
The blood mixed with the crimson wine on her ruined dress.
Victoria let out a piercing, ear-splitting shriek.
The sound silenced the entire ballroom instantly.
The classical music stopped in the middle of a note.
Hundreds of elite guests turned to stare at the scene.
"Look at what you did, you clumsy bitch!" Victoria screamed.
Her face was contorting with absolute rage.
She clutched her bleeding collarbone tightly.
"I-I'm so sorry, ma'am! It was an accident!" Chloe cried out.
Tears blurred her vision as she dropped to her knees on the glass-covered floor.
She desperately tried to clean the mess with her bare hands.
Her own knees cut deeply into the sharp shards on the ground.
"Accident?!" Victoria roared in a burst of explosive fury.
She grabbed a heavy pitcher of ice water from a nearby table.
She hurled the freezing liquid directly into Chloe's face.
Chloe gasped, blinded by the icy water and struggling for air.
Before she could recover, Victoria stepped forward.
She delivered a resounding, brutal slap across Chloe's left cheek.
SNAP!
The force of the slap sent Chloe crashing sideways onto the hard marble floor.
Her hands landed heavily on the shattered glass beneath her.
Blood immediately began to pour from Chloe's palms.
"You are nothing but a filthy, worthless rat!" Victoria spat.
She looked down at Chloe with pure disgust.
The crowd whispered and pointed at the weeping girl.
"You ruined my million-dollar dress!"
"You assaulted me!"
"You will rot in jail for this, you peasant!" Victoria screamed.
Chloe lay on the floor, completely drenched in ice water.
She was bleeding from her hands and knees.
Her cheek was burning and swelling rapidly.
She felt utterly humiliated before the most powerful people in America.
She closed her eyes, wishing the ground would swallow her whole.
She was completely unaware that at the back of the room, a powerful older man was staring at her.
His eyes were wide with absolute shock.
He had just recognized a familiar, crescent-shaped birthmark on her exposed shoulder.
The older man was Arthur Harrington, the billionaire patriarch of the Harrington empire.
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He dropped his own glass, which shattered unnoticed on the carpet.
He realized that the girl bleeding on the floor was his long-lost granddaughter.
