The Perfect Wife's Perfect Revenge

Chapter 8

Violet casually pulled Gwyneth into her embrace. Gwyneth stared at Victoria, her eyes filled with a cold, unfamiliar disgust that cut deeper than words.

"Mommy, I'm with Violet and Daddy now, and the three of us are so happy together. Why do you always have to bother Violet and bully her? I really wish Violet were my real mommy-she's so much kinder and sweeter than you are."

Standing beside Violet, McNeil caught a glimpse of the wedding dress, and for a moment-just a fleeting moment-he felt a pang of guilt and pity for Victoria.

But when he glanced up and saw the stubborn, unyielding look on Victoria's face, his own expression hardened.

In his memory, Victoria had always been gentle and gracious. All these years of marriage, he'd never once heard her raise her voice or lose her composure with anyone.

And Violet only had a year to live. Why did Victoria have to be so harsh?

"Apologize."

The word hung in the air, stunning even Yasmine into silence.

Was he really telling

swayed, and Yasmine reached out just in

"She wore my mother's necklace without asking, put on my wedding dress, and now both my husband and daughter have taken her side. McNeil, do you really think

printed right there on the marriage certificate. How absurd, she thought, to ask a wife to apologize to the woman

"Violet didn't take your mother's necklace, and as for the wedding

that, he gently lifted Violet into his

masterpiece

icy shower. The brilliance stabbed at Victoria's eyes, each glimmer like a fresh blade slashing

I'm so sorry, Victoria. I didn't mean to ruin it." Violet's eyes brimmed with tears, wide and frantic, like a frightened fawn. She looked at Victoria but clung

the diamonds littering the floor, cold

thundered in Victoria's

the central heating, yet her heart felt frozen, as if she were standing alone in an

a year's sketches and dreams, months of painstaking work, tens of thousands of diamonds hand-sewn by master artisans-all for the moment she'd imagined: wearing that dress,