The Frozen Cellar

Chapter 2 The Rules You Shoved Down My Throat

Julian kept hold of my arm until we reached the formal dining room. My father sat at the head of the table with Chloe on his right. Everyone else had already taken a place.

They looked up together. Pity from one side of the table, disapproval from the other. Someone had planned the seating as carefully as the speech.

“Sit,” my father said, pointing to the chair opposite Chloe.

Julian took the seat beside mine. Silverware clicked against porcelain while we waited for my father to begin.

My father dabbed his mouth with a linen napkin. “As you’ve all heard, Seraphina has been emotional.”

He folded the napkin beside his plate. “I have frozen her non-essential accounts and secondary credit cards until she conducts herself with the dignity expected of a Vance.”

The relatives murmured on cue. Several people stared at their plates, while others glanced at me and quickly looked away. Public shame was the real punishment. The accounts were only the excuse.

I lifted my water glass and checked the burner phone hidden in my dress through the fabric. Cutting me out of their financial network saved me a step.

My father turned to Chloe. “To avoid confusion in the market, Chloe will be the sole featured designer for the Vance brand at the upcoming Paris Jewelers’ Exposition.”

He raised his glass to her. “She represents this family’s future.”

Chloe lowered her eyes. Her hand went to Midnight Bloom, making sure everyone at the table noticed it.

I drank my water.

After dinner, I excused myself and walked onto the stone terrace. No one stopped me. They had already started discussing Chloe’s Paris wardrobe before the doors closed behind me.

Cool air reached the cut of my dress. The city spread below the railing, and glass doors muffled the family’s conversation.

I took out the encrypted burner phone and finished severing the accounts that still tied me to the Vances.

*Vance-affiliated email accounts: DELETED.*

*Local medical and dental records: DELETED.*

*Social club memberships tied to the family: DELETED.*

A contact in Paris sent the message I had been waiting for.

*Lease confirmed. Studio keys are waiting. Welcome to your new life, S.V.*

I read it twice. By the time I put the phone away, my first real smile of the day had appeared.

Glass cracked behind me.

The antique crystal cabinet in the grand hall shuddered against the wall. Its floor-to-ceiling glass held generations of fragile, priceless pieces.

A fissure ran from the upper hinge to the center panel. Wood groaned, metal tore loose, and the entire frame tipped toward the terrace doors with every artifact still inside.

Chloe stood a few steps to my left. Julian was between us, equally close to both.

He went for her.

He turned Chloe into his chest and covered her head as the cabinet hit the floor. Glass and splintered mahogany burst across the terrace.

I raised my arm over my face. A long shard cut deep into my forearm and knocked me back against the railing. Pain flashed from wrist to elbow before the blood came.

It ran through my sleeve and dripped from my elbow onto the pale stone. Across the wreckage, Julian checked Chloe’s face and hands for scratches.

Julian kept both arms around Chloe.

“She did it!” Chloe pointed at me from his chest. “She pushed it. I saw her!”