Chapter 10 - THE NEW EMPRESSThe flashbulbs outside the Ashford estate were blinding, turning the dark morning sky into a strobe of relentless white light.
News vans lined the sprawling wrought-iron gates for miles. Reporters shouted over each other, screaming questions about the federal raid, the underground security bunker, the miraculous return of Margaret Ashford, and the multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal rocking Wall Street.
Inside the grand foyer, the mansion was finally quiet.
The federal marshals had led Eleanor and Uncle Richard away in handcuffs, their expensive tailored suits looking suddenly pathetic against the cold steel of the police cruisers. Henry Ashford had been confined to his private library under heavy federal guard, his empire crumbling around him like a house of cards.
Julian stood near the grand staircase, looking completely hollowed out. The billionaire heir, the golden boy of Manhattan, was suddenly a man stripped of everything that defined him.
“Ava,” Julian whispered, his voice cracking as I walked toward the front doors with my luggage in hand. “Are you leaving?”
I stopped, turning back to look at him one last time.
“There’s a new rule in Ashford House, Julian,” I said softly, the cold wind from the open front doors rustling my hair.
“What rule?” he asked, a desperate, hollow shell of a man.
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“Rule Number One,” I smiled, adjusting my coat. “We don't play by your mother’s rules anymore.”
I turned and walked out the heavy oak doors, stepping past the flashing cameras and into the bright, open morning light—not as a captive billionaire’s wife, but as the woman who finally burned the cage to the ground.
