She glanced around at the guests watching her fall apart.

“We’ve got signed vendor contracts, right?” she said.

“I’ll have my lawyer cancel every one of them Monday morning,” Ethan said.

He turned his back on her entirely.

Vanessa whirled around to face me.

She let go of her perfect posture, and her shoulders sagged.

“Please,” Vanessa begged me.

There wasn’t a trace of her usual polish in her voice.