Chapter Thirty One The Reception
The ballroom of the Pierre Hotel was transformed into a landscape of silver and white. Thousands of crystals hung from the ceiling like frozen rain. The air was thick with the scent of lilies and the expensive perfume of five hundred guests who moved like schools of colorful fish across the marble floor. Alexander kept his hand firmly on the small of my back as he led me from table to table. My feet ached inside my silk heels and the weight of the diamonds around my neck felt like a physical burden. Every smile I gave was a lie painted on my face for the cameras that never stopped clicking.
Alexander looked at me with a pride that made my skin crawl. He introduced me as his beautiful bride to senators and oil tycoons as if I were a prize he had won at an
