The party had ended in a jagged, uncomfortable silence after Eric had punched the heir to the Blackwood family into the polished floorboards. The music had died, and the guests had gone home, unhappy and buzzing with the kind of scandal that would be the talk of the city by morning. Chloe, exhausted from her mother’s constant chastisement of both her uncle and her best friend to her grandfather, finally found a moment to breathe. She headed upstairs, her mind racing; she needed to speak to Autumn. She needed her side of the story because she refused to believe the whispers. Autumn didn't seduce men like Christian Blackwood; in fact, Autumn had hated men of that caliber for as long as Chloe could remember, despite what the other socialites said about her being a calculating social climber.
