Shock turned to anger almost instantly.
“What is wrong with you?!” she snapped. “You’re insane! You should’ve stayed in prison!”
Scarlett didn’t react.
“Whether I belong there isn’t your concern,” she said evenly.
Her gaze sharpened.
“I broke his legs because he broke my brother’s.”
A beat.
“You knew that.”
Brielle didn’t hesitate.
“He deserved it.”
The temperature in the room dropped.
Scarlett’s expression hardened.
“Deserved it?”
Her voice was quiet.
Controlled.
“He worked himself to exhaustion for you,” she said. “Gave you everything he had.”
Her eyes locked onto Brielle’s.
“And that’s what you call deserving it?”
Brielle let out a short, dismissive laugh.
“He had nothing,” she said coldly. “No money. No future. Did he really think that was enough?”
Scarlett let out a quiet laugh.
Her gaze lingered on Brielle for a moment.
Pretty, sure.
But compared to Louie?
Not even close.
That wasn’t bias.
It was fact.
She didn’t deserve him.
“What’s so funny?” Brielle snapped. “Am I wrong?”
She lifted her chin, smug.
“A guy who can’t even make three grand a month thinks he can marry me?”
“My fianc?’s different. He’s got money. He runs his own company. He actually knows how to treat me.”
“If I want a designer bag, I get one. Your brother? He’d have to kill himself just to afford it.”
Every word dripped with contempt.
Scarlett drew in a slow breath, holding her temper in check.
Her eyes flicked briefly to the women huddled in the corner-
Then back to Brielle.
“You see this?” she said evenly. “You’re engaged to him, and he’s still hooking up with other women.”
“What’s that got to do with you?” Brielle shot back. “I don’t care. I want him.”
But that wasn’t true.
Not completely.
No one was that indifferent.
She just chose not to look too closely.
Money.
Status.
The life she wanted.
Scarlett’s gaze hardened.
“Good,” she said quietly.
“Then stick with that choice.”
There was a weight behind her voice now.
A promise.
“You’re going to regret it.”
“Everything you said. Everything you chose.”
At first, she’d only planned to teach Brielle a lesson.
Now?
That felt like a waste.
No-
She wanted something else.
Something lasting.
Not pain.
Regret.
The kind that stayed with you.
The kind that didn’t fade.
“Let’s go,” she said, turning to Howard.
She walked out without another glance.
Behind her, Brielle’s voice cut through the room-
“Stop right there, Scarlett! You think you can just walk away after this? I’m calling the police! I’ll send you back to prison!”
Scarlett didn’t slow down.
Didn’t even turn.
She was already gone.
Howard lingered for half a second, glancing back at Brielle.
Amused.
Calling the police?
That was cute.
If she thought that would work-
She had no idea who she was dealing with.
As they walked out-
Scarlett suddenly slowed, then stopped.
She turned to Howard, something clicking into place.
“I just remembered… didn’t the head of state give me a company here in the capital?”
Howard blinked, caught off guard. “Yeah. An entertainment company-SH Entertainment. It’s one of the biggest in the city. Actually, one of the biggest in the country.”
He frowned slightly. “Why?”
She hadn’t even wanted it back then. If anything, it had been pushed on her.
Scarlett repeated the name under her breath. “SH Entertainment…”
Then she looked at him.
“Transfer it.”
Howard didn’t follow. “Transfer… what?”
“All of it,” she said calmly. “Put everything under Louie’s name.”
He stopped walking.
“Wait-seriously?”
The disbelief was obvious.
“That’s not just a company,” he said, staring at her. “That’s the top entertainment firm in the capital. People fight for a piece of that. And you’re just… giving it away?”
Scarlett barely reacted.
“It’s just a company,” she said. “It doesn’t even come close to what he’s lost.”
To her, money had never meant much.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.