Chapter 21 – Scandal’s Echoes and a Tangled Past
I stood in the gathering crowd on the sidewalk outside the Hilton, watching officers escort my father into a police cruiser. His hands were cuffed behind his back, his face a mask of rage and humiliation as camera flashes illuminated him in his disheveled state. Eleanor followed minutes later in separate handcuffs, still screaming obscenities at both Harrison and the young secretary who was led out last, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Looks like daddy dearest is going to spend the night in lockup, Victoria whispered beside me, a hint of satisfaction in her tone.
My emotions were a tangled mess. On one hand, seeing Harrison Ashworth–the man who had destroyed my mother and treated me like an unwanted obligation for most of my life–being publicly humiliated felt like poetic Justice. On the other, the spectacle left me feeling hollow.
“My mother would have hated this circus,” I murmured.
Victoria squeezed my shoulder. “Your mother deserved better than him. This is just karma finally catching up.”
“I know,” I sighed. “I just wish… I wish she could have seen him face consequences while she was still alive.
The crowd began to disperse as the police cars pulled away. I turned to Victoria, suddenly exhausted. “Take me home?”
She nodded, and we walked back to her car in silence.
That night, I dreamed of my mother–her gentle smile, the scent of her perfume, the jade bracelet always adorning her wrist. In my dream, she was polishing the bracelet, telling me its history as she had so many times before. “This has been in our family for five generations, Hazel. Someday it will be yours to pass down.” But when she tried to hand it to me, the bracelet turned to dust between our fingers.
I woke up with tears streaming down my face.
My phone rang before I’d even had my first cup of coffee the next morning. Julian’s name flashed on the screen, and I briefly considered ignoring it before deciding I might as well get
whatever this was over with.
“What do you want?” I answered flatly.
“What the hell have you done?” Julian’s voice was tight with barely controlled anger.
“You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve done quite a few things lately. I kept my tone deliberately casual as I poured coffee into my mug.
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“Your father was arrested last night for soliciting prostitution! It’s all over social media. The police are considering adding assault charges against both him and Eleanor. Did you set this up?”
I took a slow sip of coffee. “Why would you think I had anything to do with it?”
“Because I know you, Hazel,” Julian snapped. “This has your fingerprints all over it.”
“Maybe he should have thought about consequences before cheating on his wife. Again.” I paused. “Or before striking his daughter across the face when she asked for what rightfully. belongs to her.”
There was a moment of silence on the line. “He hit you?”
“Don’t pretend to care now,” I said coldly. “My point is, Harrison made his own bed.”
Julian sighed heavily. “This is serious, Hazel. They’re talking about potentially adding rape
charges based on the secretary’s age and employment status. His lawyer called me this morning.”
“And that concerns me how?”
“Because you’re his daughter! Because whatever he’s done, he’s still your father!”
I laughed bitterly. “That’s rich coming from you. When has blood ever mattered to you people? When has family ever been sacred? Not when you abandoned me for my stepsister. Not when my father abandoned my mother for Eleanor. You all pick and choose when family matters based on what’s convenient for you.”
“This isn’t about us,” Julian insisted. “This is about a man’s life being destroyed.”
“No, this is about you seeing the same thing happening to Harrison that’s happening to your own father, I retorted. “Two men who spent decades thinking they were untouchable, finally facing consequences. I won’t shed tears for either of them.”
Julian was quiet for a moment. “You’ve changed, Hazel.”
“Yes, I have,” I agreed. “I stopped being everyone’s doormat.”
“Is this about money?” he asked suddenly. “Victoria mentioned you needed cash urgently. Is that why you went to see your father?”
The abrupt change of subject caught me off guard. “That’s none of your business.
“If you need help, I could-”
“I don’t want your help, I cut him off. “I don’t want anything from you except for you to sign the divorce papers and stay out of my life.”
“Hazel, I still care about you. If you’re in trouble-”
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“The only trouble in my life has been you and your family” I snapped. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a business to run.”
I hung up before he could respond, my hands trembling slightly. How dare he pretend to care now? After everything he’d done?
The rest of my day passed in a haze of work and distraction. I threw myself into designs for a new collection, trying to push thoughts of both Harrison and Julian from my mind. But as evening fell, my phone rang again–this time It was Victoria.
“Julian went to see your grandmother today” she said without preamble.
1 froze. “What?”
“Auntie Wang called me. She said Julian showed up at the nursing home this afternoon, all charming smiles and concern. He told her you were in financial trouble and that he was worried about you.”
My blood ran cold, then hot with fury. “He did what?”
“She got very upset, Victoria continued. “The nurses had to give her something to calm her down. She kept saying she wished she could help you but that she had nothing left after your grandfather died:
I pressed my free hand against my forehead, rage building inside me. “That manipulative bastard.”
“I thought you should know.
“Thank you,” I said tersely, “I’ll deal with this.”
1 hung up and immediately dialed Julian’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“How dare you visit my grandmother?” I hissed without greeting him.
“Hazel, 1-”
“She’s eighty–seven years old and in fragile health! What were you thinking, upsetting her like
that?”
“I was concerned about you, Julian defended himself. “She deserved to know if her granddaughter was in trouble.”
“That wasn’t your place!” I nearly shouted. “You have no right to insert yourself into my family matters anymore. You gave up that right when you chose Ivy”
“I’m still legally your husband,” he reminded me. “And clearly someone needs to look out for you since you won’t accept help.
“I don’t need looking out for, I seethed. “Especially not from you.”
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“Then why are you so desperate for money? Victoria said it was urgent,” Julian pressed. “What’s going on. Hazel? Are you in some kind of trouble?”
I hesitated, torn between maintaining my privacy and the desperate need to recover my
mother’s bracelet..
“It’s personal,” I finally said.
“Is it the jade bracelet?” Julian asked quietly.
I nearly dropped my phone. “How do you know about that?”
“You mentioned it once, years ago. Said it was your mother’s most precious possession, passed down for generations. I remember you were devastated when your father took it after she died.
I hadn’t expected him to remember. It had been a passing conversation during our early dating
years.
“I found out he pawned it, I admitted, my voice tight. “For one hundred million. The redemption period ends next week”
Julian was silent for a moment. “That’s… a substantial amount”
“I know. That’s why I went to him. I thought maybe for once in his miserable life, he could do the right thing.
“And instead he hit you, Julian said softly.
The unexpected gentleness in his voice nearly broke my composure. I swallowed hard.
“Yes.
Another long pause. “I know that bracelet is extraordinarily significant to you, but I genuinely cannot produce one hundred million in cash right now.”
The words hung in the air between us. He knew exactly what I needed and exactly how much. And he was saying he couldn’t help me–at least not immediately.
What was his game?
