Chapter 54
Countless tweets flooded the platform.
[I was completely wrong about you. I sincerely apologize!]
(Isabella Montgomery, are you by any chance in need of a sister? I volunteer!)
(I could be your stepmother, just saying.)
[Forget being family. I'll carry your bags anywhere. No salary needed. Just throw me a diamond you don’t want.]
Isabella lounged lazily on her sofa, utterly unbothered. She scanned the financial section of the newspaper. A large bottle of Coke sat on the coffee table before her, a long straw reaching her lips.
“Your Twitter is blowing up. They’re all begging for a response,” Julian Hawthorne noted. “Thinking of posting anything?”
“Twitter? Right, that.” Isabella took a long sip. She picked up her phone and typed a quick tweet.
Curious, Julian checked her profile. His expression instantly froze. A single line of text sat starkly on her page: –(Alexander Whitmore, have you eaten sh*t yet?)
‘Have you eaten sh*t yet...’
Instead of capitalizing on the moment to build goodwill, she posted...this?! Her obsession with making Alexander eat sh*t was truly something else. But this was Isabella. Expecting anything conventional was a mistake.
Julian swiftly changed the subject. “William Kensington called earlier. He wants you to come home. Your thoughts?”
“Why would I miss such entertaining drama?” A smirk played on Isabella’s lips.
Over at Montgomery Manor, the family was assembled in the grand living room.
Senior William Kensington slammed his hands on the ornate table. “Sophia Kensington! How could you?!”
“You are a Kensington! Have you no shame, throwing yourself at Diamond Prince Harrison Winslow? You’ve disgraced this entire family! All of Westchester is laughing at us!”
“Grandfather, this is Isabella’s fault! She set me up! If she owns the Gray Diamond Empire, why keep it a secret? Why let me host that press conference?!” Sophia stood her ground, defiance in her eyes.
“How dare you!” William’s fury erupted. He grabbed a teacup and hurled it directly at her head. “Did you ask her before publishing that photo? You posted it! You tried to seduce the Prince and pinned it on her! You deserve every bit of this humiliation! She’d be justified if she wanted you dead!”
“Ah!” Sophia cried out. The shattered porcelain had cut her forehead. Blood trickled down.
She pressed a hand to the wound, her anger boiling over. “Grandfather, have you lost your mind? Isabella is adopted! I am your real granddaughter! Why do you always take her side?!”
“Take her side? You feel no remorse?!” William roared, turning to the butler. “Reginald! Prepare the family punishment.”
The Kensington family punishment was thirty lashes. The whip was barbed. It tore the skin, leaving permanent scars.
Penelope Sinclair—Sophia’s mother—rushed forward, shielding her daughter. “Father, please! She’s young and foolish! I will discipline her! Victoria, say something! Your grandfather listens to you. Do you want to see your cousin whipped?”
Victoria Kensington cherished her kind image, but this was serious. She wanted no part of it.
Yet Penelope had dragged her in.
She had no choice but to step forward. “Sophia, just apologize to Grandfather. You were in the wrong this time.”
“I was wrong? All of you blame me! But do you see how vicious Isabella is? We saw her today! We told her about the press conference! She said nothing! She didn’t stop us! She planned this to destroy me!”
“And after all these years we raised her! She hid the diamond mine from us! She didn’t give a single penny to this family! She kept everything for herself!”
“Why defend someone so heartless and ungrateful? She’s just an adopted stray! She doesn’t deserve your sympathy!” Sophia raged, her voice shaking.
The others in the room frowned slightly. But the diamond mine profits concerned them far more than the scandal.
Isabella was adopted by the Kensingtons. Surely the diamond mine rightfully belonged to the family?