If I’d hidden Tara as a mistress and the tabloids found out, it would have still been a scandal, the Louvre would still have fired Tara, and she’d have to live with a scarlet letter on her chest. But there is an alternative to that. I can’t wait to see Simone’s face when I tell her about it.
I lean back as if she hasn’t spoken. “Everyone has a price, don’t you agree?”
She snorts.
“You crave headlines.” I smile widely at her. “You live for them. You adore people knowing you. You need the applause as oxygen. That’syourprice,chérie.”
Simone gives me a look that could curdle milk.
“I was wondering what would happen if I freeze funds and access associated with your position in the de Valois Foundation. Remove you from the palaces and properties that have been at your disposal. Insist that you not be allowed to use my last name any longer.”
I see panic ignite in her eyes.
The thing she dreads most is humiliation, being stripped of the machine that has furnished her life. But then she regroups, and a dry, cutting chuckle slips past her lips. “Like you’d do that. I’m the mother of your son, Gustave. And what would people say?”
I rise from the settee and walk the small distance between us. “I don’t give a flying fuck what people say.”
Not anymore.
“Your parents will never let that happen.”
“My parents don’t control the de Valois empire.Ido.”
Simone finishes her champagne.
“Chéri?*, can you pour me some?” She raises her glass to me, arrogant and haughty.
I do as she asks. I’ve always been fair with Simone because she’s Aubert’s mother. But she’s gone too far.
She takes a sip of the wine and smiles. “Tell me, Gustave, how did you get Clérisseau to tell you my secret?”
“I told him that he’d get first bite at the next major de Valois announcement.”
She narrows her eyes for a moment and then smiles. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“What doyouthink I’m saying?” I ask, curious.
“Well, you’re talking about us getting back together, right?”
The woman is delusional!
“No, the next announcement from the de Valois family will be about my engagement to Tara Gayarre.”
The silence that falls is jagged.
“You wouldn’t—” she begins, flinging the sentence like a warning.
“Oh, yes. There will be a new Comtesse de Valois. You will not sit on committees. She will. You will be turned away from the salons you’ve been buying into for so long because they will favor her and not you. The dresses will still fit, the diamonds will still shine, but they will not be worn to the right events anymore.”
Her hand—the one wearing the seven-carat ring—trembles. “No one will accept her in society.”
“Do I need to remind you how much power I have?” I tell her laconically. I set my champagne glass on the ridiculously ornate salon table. “Do you know why I asked for champagne?”
She narrows her eyes at me.
“I’m celebrating going to Los Angeles with myson to see my future wife.” I lean down, my face close to hers. “You can no longer rely on me for your air. You wanted power by proxy. I’m removing the proxy.”
She claws for maneuvering. “If you do this, you will destroy your family’s name and reputation.”
