Mrs. Turner stormed in and slapped me across the face. “You disgrace! You’ve humiliated our whole family!”
Reeling from the blow, I stumbled back. Before I could find my footing, men in black suits grabbed me and dragged me into the Turner family’s ancestral hall.
“Kneel!” Mrs. Turner barked.
I struggled, but my knees were forced down hard onto the freezing tiles.
She pulled out her phone, her voice sharp and unforgiving. “Lucas! Your wife’s scandal is all over the news! Everyone’s laughing at us!”
On the other end, Lucas’s voice was tense. “Mom? Weren’t you and Dad in Australia? Why—”
“What? We can’t come home now?” she sneered. “You see what kind of woman you married?”
“You’re too soft! She cheats on you, and you still defend her? Are you going to let her drag this family through the mud?”
I raised my head and screamed at the screen, “Lucas! Say something! It’s not true—this is your—!”
“Nina,” he interrupted, his voice low and hoarse, “Just bear with it for now. I’ll make it up to you later.”
The midsummer ancestral hall was like an oven. I knelt there on burning tiles, sweat mingling with the blood still seeping from my forehead.