"Grandpa, Grandma, I was wrong. I know I was wrong..."
She crawled desperately toward Kiera and Holden, wrapping her arms tightly around her grandmother's legs. "I didn't mean it! I-I just had too much to drink. I wasn't thinking straight."
"I've just felt so neglected lately. Serena is so perfect, and everyone orbits around her. I just wanted people to look at me..."
"I have depression! I couldn't control myself. I don't know what possessed me... I-I was wrong! I'll never do it again!"
"Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Silas, Uncle Douglas, please... don't let them take me away... I'm a Vinton! You already lost Anna to prison. You can't let me go too..." She bawled hysterically, her cries echoing through the silent hall.
It was a pathetic, wretched display.
But as long as the royal guards didn't drag her away, as long as she could stay anchored to this wealthy family.
Who cared about pride?
Who cared about dignity?
She was past caring about any of that!
She clung to Kiera's legs, crying as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest.
Yet, Holden and Kiera looked down at her with a chilling, absolute indifference.
They had always assumed she was merely a little vain.
After all, she had been spoiled her entire life. Now that a new sister was sharing the spotlight, it was natural for her to feel a bit insecure.
But they never imagined her heart was this purely malignant.
To use such filthy, underhanded methods at her sister's own Debutante Ball, in front
of the international elite, just to frame Serena's friends.
If Serena's friends hadn't been able to prove their innocence.
Serena's reputation would have gone down with them.
Just to humiliate Serena.
She was willing to drag the Vinton family's honor through the mud and stomp on it!
"Isabella, you have disappointed us beyond words." Kiera closed her eyes, refusing to look at her anymore. "Keeping you here will only bring Serena grief and cost this family its peace."
Those words were effectively a death sentence for Isabella's social standing.
Isabella waited even louder, clinging to Kiera with a death grip, her tears soaking the hem of the older women's gown "Grandma, I know I messed up! Please forgive me this one time, just this once..."
"This is not the first time," Silas Vinton cut in his voice a freezing command "Isabella, you committed a crime, yet you don't even know who you should be apologizing to. Subconsciously, you still don't bettëvë you did anything wrong, You're crying and begging, not out of
remorse, but out of fear."
He gestured sharply to his security team. "Take her away. Lock her up for the night,
confiscate all her devices, and put a guard on her."
"First thing tomorrow morning, pack her bags and deport her back to Elyndor."
"Also, make a copy of that security footage and send it straight to the Lancaster family."
"Let them decide how to discipline and deal with her."
Isabella's hysterical wailing stopped dead.
She sat paralyzed on the marble floor, her face ghostly pale. The decree struck her
like a bolt of lightning, completely obliterating her final shred of hope.
All the evidence... sent to her parents?
No!
Absolutely not!
Last time, with the racetrack incident, she had managed to spin a lie and talk her way out of it.
But this time...
There was no defending this!
And with the two incidents stacked together.
Even if she lied, the Lancasters would never believe her again...
If her parents found out exactly how ruthlessly she had targeted Serena in the United Realmon States.
The perfect, obedient daughter persona she had spent twenty years crafting in the Lancaster family would be completely annihilated!
How could a top-tier billionaire family like the Lancasters ever tolerate an adopted daughter wi corrupted morals, sticky fingers, and a history of constantly sabotaging their biological flesh and blood?