Chapter 5: The Final Breaking Point
The breaking point arrived during the summer retreat. Sebastian had insisted on a family portrait—a massive, public unveiling that would be featured in every major magazine in the country. It was the moment Isabella had been dreading for a year.
As they stood in the garden, the photographers instructed them to pose. Isabella held the heir, her fingers digging into his clothing to keep him steady, to mask the tremor in his limbs.
"Smile, Isabella," Sebastian hissed, his hand gripping her waist so hard it bruised.
She smiled. It was a perfect, practiced expression that reached her lips but stopped short of her eyes.
"Look at the camera," the photographer directed.
Isabella looked. She saw the flash, a blinding burst of white light that seemed to strip away the pretense of the last year. She looked at Sebastian, who was staring at the heir with an expression of pure, unadulterated coldness, and she realized, for the first time, that he didn't care about the child. He only cared about the image. And she, in her obsession with the image, had become just another accessory.
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The heir let out a sudden, involuntary sound—a gasp of discomfort as his muscles seized. The cameras clicked.
Isabella looked at the image on the photographer's screen. The flaw was captured. The heir’s face was twisted in a grimace; his posture was awkward. It was there, for all the world to see, a tiny, undeniable crack in the Vance perfection.
