After breakfast, Victoria was calmly reading the morning paper when she stumbled upon an article on page six:
"Hampton's most famous Matriarch makes a scene on the Palace Salon." Repeating the words aloud, she got up infuriated. The article talked about how the Queen of the Hamptons completely humiliated herself, acting drunk and annoying all the guests at the party.
Immediately, she got in her car and drove to the Palace Hotel. It was time to find out what happened.
Flashes from the previous afternoon passed in front of Victoria's eyes as she walked through the salon where the party had taken place. Faces laughing, dresses flowing in the wind, black and grey suits everywhere. She winked and they vanished. Now, the place seamed strangely unfamiliar with the lack of décor and people. By the bar, she spotted the man who served had served her the first glass of wine. She approached him, asking if he remembered her.
After making some questions, she realized there wasn't much she could get from him.
-Why are you asking about the party, ma'am? Wait… Are you that lady from the newspaper?
Her face blushed as she turned around to exit.
-Hold on! Maybe you should ask the blonde who was with you! You two seemed close, so I guess she can remind you what happened.
-Blonde? What blonde?
-You really don't recall? You weren't even drunk yet when she came to you. Sorry, but I didn't catch her name.
Pissed off, Victoria turned on her heels without thanking the man before she left to go home. Her head still hurt too much for her to go after answers that day.
A week had passed since the night Victoria came home drunk. They hadn't talked to each other at all. She was too busy trying to figure out what had happened and avoiding asking him, afraid she'd had slept with him again. He'd been in and out of Lydia's apartment in New York, keeping himself too busy to think about his broken heart.
On that morning, his mistress gave him a suggestion he hadn't had the courage to say out loud, but had thought about it for the whole week. Now, confident with his relationship with her, he considered it the right decision to make. Still, it wasn't a painless one to make.
Victoria jumped on her chair as Conrad walked in the living room.
-We need to talk.
Barely giving her the time to respond, he spoke, the words coming out much louder than he had planned. He didn't want to say it that way, but it was too late.
-I want a divorce! –she froze, staring at him with wide eyes.
-W…why? – she spoke without thinking.
-You treated me like trash, didn't give a damn about my love for you and took advantage of me. So, it's pretty simple what I want, Victoria. – he said, the divorce papers fell on the table-splat.
-You are completely overreacting, Conrad. - she rose from her seat. - Is this because of the night I got drunk? Is it because I don't remember what happened? – her voice was high with surprise. Her heart beat faster, like it was going to burst out of her chest, but she tried smiling, in an attempt to look as if she was finding his attitude funny.
-That was the last drop! –he lifted his finger up, pointing to her face. Rage burned him inside.
-Please, Conrad… -she put her hands up, in a sign of surrender. She started walking in his direction. - Where is this coming from? You and I both know we are better together than apart. We have too many enemies who will come after our family if we separate…
-You see? This is what I'm talking about! I'm the last person you care about! You don't give a crap about our relationship. – she looked down, knowing, deep down, he was wrong, but she couldn't let him know and, mostly, not even herself. She had to maintain him away to protect her heart. The problem was that a divorce was too far and had other implications for the family. –Besides, I met someone.
-What? – She stopped walking, completely astonished. She raised her voice. – Who, Conrad? –a sting of jealousy took over her heart, consuming her and she couldn't control it. – Who… is she? – she yelled, unaware of how much she was revealing to him about how she felt. He turned his face and raised his eyebrows, looking surprised.
-Suddenly, you care?
Victoria couldn't respond, conflicted. Her silence infuriated him to a point where he thought he could break everything in the room. He walked up to her, standing inches from her face.
-Sign these papers now. –he said in a low tone.
She swallowed the knot in her throat and raised her eyes to his.
-No.
-Victoria! – He screamed, grabbing her by the arms. -Sign them now!
She started hitting and pushing him.
-Who is she? – he let her go and turned around to leave. –You don't have the right to do this! – tears filled her eyes and she couldn't hold them.
He stopped, turned around and walked up to her, holding her face in his hands. Both breathing heavily.
-I loved you so much… -she closed her eyes, a tear rolled down her cheek. His forehead touched hers. Their lips almost touching. –But I'm done chasing you if you don't want me.
A civil war raged inside her mind. This could be her last chance to ever have him, but, also, her last opportunity to untie herself from him for good.
-Conrad – she whispered. – What happened that night? What can't I remember?
-You don't want to know. – his voice cracked, as he felt tears fill his eyes too. He needed to let her go and this was breaking him.
-Please, I need to know. – she held his face, caressing his cheeks.
He wiped the tears from her cheeks and stared straight to her brown eyes.
-You came in – he hesitated, but continued. - you said that you loved me and we almost slept together. – Victoria was speechless. Her cheeks blushed and she felt ashamed. The truth was out there. She did loved him, after all.
-Wait… you said almost slept together… That means… - he took a step back.
-I said no. I didn't want you to tell me it was all a mistake again and make me feel like the least loved man on Earth.
-Oh god… - she couldn't face him. Her face burned with shame. A similar feeling of remorse weighed on her heart and she recalled the morning she woke up crying without knowing why. So this was the reason she felt a mysterious sorrow since that day.
Her valuable secret had been exposed on the worst circumstance possible and she'd been rejected. It only took one night, one moment of complete loss of control to lead her right to his arms.
-Conrad, I'm so sorry. –she took a step closer, but he turned to the door.
-Don't be. Now, please, just sign the papers. –with a bang, the wooden door closed behind him.
"Come back, please!" she thought, but couldn't open her mouth to say it. No, Victoria Grayson wouldn't be defeated like this. She ran after him, banging the door on the wall as she opened it furiously.
-Conrad!
Standing at the center of the hall, he looked back at her, with an expression of pain.
-You didn't tell me her name. –Conrad regretted telling her he was with someone else. Answering her question was the worst thing he could do to her. "Good" he thought, it wouldn't feel bad to hurt her back after all she made him go through.
-It's Lydia. – he exited, living Victoria dumbfounded.
Blonde. The blonde that was with you. "It was her!" covering her mouth with her hand, she realized Lydia was responsible for what happened to her on the day of the party. "She must've put something in my drink!" Her gut screamed it was Lydia's fault.
It couldn't make more sense than this: she returned to the Hamptons, back from the dead, seeking revenge against Victoria, because she came back to the Manor, while making her remain in the shadows without money and status.
Victoria would be damned if she let little Ms. Davis destroy her family again. Now, she just needed evidence.
