Chapter 614
Chapter 613:
The comments about Jocelyn’s photograph vanished within seconds, buried under an avalanche of collective outrage and gleeful disbelief. VanderbiltAffair shot to the top of the trending list. The hypocrisy was too rich to ignore — the perfect socialite, the woman who had sneered at Jocelyn’s “clever work,” was married to a man sleeping with the help.
Across town, in her Upper East Side mansion, Chelsea Vanderbilt sat on her velvet sofa scrolling through comments on the old Jocelyn post, a satisfied smirk still on her face.
Her phone buzzed. Then again. And again — a frantic, relentless symphony of notifications.
She frowned and opened a text from a friend. It was a screenshot and a single word: “OMG p>
Chelsea tapped the image.
𝖱е𝖺𝗱 𝘸𝗶t𝘩𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘪n𝗍е𝗋𝗿𝘂p𝘵іоn𝘀 𝗈𝘯 ѕ.𝖼o𝘮
The smirk died. The color drained from her face, leaving it a sickly, ashen grey. The phone slipped from her fingers and bounced off the Persian rug.
The landline shrieked. She didn’t move. It rang again. She picked it up with a trembling hand.
“Chelsea!” her mother-in-law screamed, the sound like nails dragged across glass. “What is the meaning of this? You’ve ruined us! You’ve ruined the Vanderbilt name p>
Chelsea couldn’t speak. Her throat was sealed shut. She stared at the phone on the floor — at the image of her husband’s face contorted in passion with a girl half her age.
Heavy footsteps thundered down the stairs. Her husband burst into the room, his face purple with rage, his own phone clenched in his hand.
“Did you do this?” he roared, lunging at her. He grabbed her shoulders, his fingers digging in. “You crazy bitch! Did you touch my phone?” He shook her hard, her head snapping back. “You ruined me! You ruined the family p>
“Me?” Chelsea shrieked back, the shock curdling instantly into hysterical fury. “You were sleeping with a child! In our hotels p>
“Why did you have to go after her?” he shouted, throwing her aside. She stumbled into a table, sending a vase crashing to the floor. “Why did you poke the bear? You just had to be the star of the show — and now look! They’ve destroyed me! This is all your fault for starting a war you couldn’t win p>
They stood in the wreckage of their living room, screaming at each other, every mask of high society stripped away to reveal the ugly, selfish creatures beneath.
Back in the penthouse, Jocelyn watched the chaos unfold on her screen. She didn’t feel triumphant. She felt hollow.
She looked up at Gaston. He was watching her, his expression unreadable.
“It’s done,” he said simply.
“It’s cruel,” Jocelyn whispered.
“It’s necessary,” Gaston replied. He pulled her close, wrapping both arms around her. “She tried to destroy your family. I destroyed hers first. That is the only rule that matters in this world, Jocelyn. You protect your own p>