Diana had seen them.


    Theodore and Serena–parading arm in arm down Broadway, whispering,ughing, unting their intimacy,


    Then they slipped into the townhouse on East Street.


    He never came out.


    The rumors were true. Theodore had kept a mistress.


    From her letter I learned what I hadn’t before: Serena wasn’t some passing fancy.


    She’d grown up alongside Theodore and Captain Thomas, the two of them shielding her from the cruelties of the world.


    Both had loved her.


    Once, Theodore even bought out an entire firework disy during a holiday, lighting up the New York sky for hours to dere his devotion.


    The whole city knew he loved her.


    But Serena chose Thomas.


    That night, beneath the fireworks, she epted his proposal.


    Still, Theodore never stopped.


    He defended her honor with fists, nearly killed himself testing her medicine when she was poisoned, risked everything for her–yet she wed


    Thomas.


    Society said Theodore had moved on. That he’d finally grown up.


    But now I saw the truth: he hadn’t let go. He’d simply waited.


    And when Thomas disappeared at the front six months ago?


    What was Theodore thinking then?


    Regretting me?


    Resenting Thomas for leaving Serena alone?


    I couldn’t bear it any longer. I needed to face him, force the truth into the light.


    By dusk he still hadn’t returned.


    I prepared to leave the mansion myself–only to be stopped by Mrs. Cornelia at the door.


    She traded nces with the housekeeper, sent a servant out the back.


    I let out a bitterugh. “What are you doing, Mother?<b>” </b>


    Her face stiffened, her voice gentled.


    “You are Mrs. Rockefellow. No one can take your ce.”


    “Wait at home. Theodore will exin when he returns.”


    Iughed, sharp and hollow.


    “Exin to me or to her?”


    “1. Scarlett Vanderbilt, have been nothing but dutiful.”


    “I’ve run this household, honored this family, respected every tradition.”


    “And yet all of you conspired to keep me in the dark–hid from me that my husband keeps a mistress, sneaks away to her bed!”


    Cornelia’s mask cracked, her expression turning cold.


    “Vanderbilt,” she hissed.


    “I admired yourposure, your sense of propriety. Remember your ce.”


    I stepped forward, soldiers moving to block me.


    My eyes locked on hers, steady and fierce.


    “I do remember my ce.”


    “Don’t forget–it was you who begged me to marry into this family.”


    “It was Theodore Rockefellow who chased me, desperate, until I agreed.”


    “I am not some meek little wife who swallows her shame in silence.”


    “Not when it’s him who betrayed me.”


    Cornelia faltered, pale as a beaten rooster.


    Chapter <b>3 </b><fn1b37> ???? ????s? ???????s ?? Find_Novel(.</fn1b37>