Chapter 14 Priceless Trash
Selena's POV
The entire hall fell dead silent.
I'd bet that even if someone detonated a bomb here right now, it wouldn't have more impact than this thin invitation in my hand.
Taisia's face had gone beyond pale—it was the color of death itself.
She looked like all the strength had been drained from her, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.
As for the Katesons, the expressions on their faces were more dramatic than any Broadway show.
"No... impossible!"
Taisia finally found her voice, shrill and piercing. "It's fake! You forged it! Your parents are just poor nobodies from the countryside! How could they possibly..."
"Forged?"
I laughed softly and held the invitation out to Myrdal.
I didn't even need to say anything—his trembling hands said it all.
He looked at the family crest wax seal, at the familiar cream-colored cardstock, and finally, his eyes landed on the signature at the bottom.
It was his father's signature.
How could he have imagined that the invitation his father personally sent out was to the Hart family—a family he didn't even have the right to look up to.
And he never expected that I would be the one to show up.
"Myrdal, what's wrong?" Mrs. Kateson, clinging to her last shred of hope, grabbed Myrdal's arm and asked urgently.
Myrdal didn't answer her. He just raised his head and looked at me with an expression I'd never seen before—a mixture of fear and despair.
In that moment, I knew he understood everything.
And Mrs. Kateson, the instant she saw Myrdal's expression, understood too.
The arrogance on her face vanished instantly, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness.
Watching their family's world collapse in an instant, I felt no satisfaction, only endless weariness. How pathetic.
I took back the invitation and put it in my purse.
It was time for the next act of this farce.
"Well, now that we've cleared up the misunderstanding," I clapped my hands, "today is Taisia's big day after all, and I certainly couldn't come empty-handed."
I gestured, and Anna immediately brought forward the gift box I'd prepared in advance.
This was the final "gift" I'd intended to leave for them when I left the Kateson house last time.
I held out the beautifully wrapped gift box to Taisia.
"Congratulations, Taisia. This is my engagement gift to you."
Taisia jumped back like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, as if I were holding some deadly virus.
"Who wants your stuff! You think you can scare me with some broken box? What could you possibly give me? Potatoes dug up from your crappy farm? Take your garbage away! It's disgusting!"
As she spoke, she actually reached out to knock the gift box from my hands.
I turned my wrist slightly and easily avoided her movement.
"Taisia," I looked at her, a trace of pity in my eyes, "are you sure you don't want it?"
"Get lost! Take your garbage and get out!"
She screamed hysterically, tears mixing with her ruined makeup, making her look like a ridiculous clown.
Myrdal finally snapped out of it and tried to pull her back, but she shoved him away.
"Don't touch me! You all favor her! You've all been fooled by her!"
Mr. Kateson's lips moved. He seemed to want to say something, but looking at me, he ultimately couldn't get a word out.
He knew better than anyone that what I held in my hands could never be "garbage."
"Fine." I shrugged, my tone as casual as if discussing the weather.
"Since you insist."
I pulled back my hand and, in front of everyone, slowly opened the gift box.
Gossip from the onlookers reached my ears.
"What's in there?"
"With the Hart family's wealth, it's probably some priceless jewelry, right?"
I took out the folder and, under Taisia's gaze, pulled out the documents inside.
It was a thick stack of papers.
"Mr.Kateson, do you remember? Three years ago, Kateson Corporation nearly went bankrupt because of a bad overseas investment."
My voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the entire ballroom.
"It was me who pulled three all-nighters to create an asset restructuring and risk hedging plan that pulled the company back from the edge of the cliff."
Mr. Kateson's face went another shade paler.
"Two years ago, when the company's core technology patent was stolen by a competitor and you faced massive compensation claims, it was me who found the legal loophole in their contract. Not only did I help the company avoid the penalty, I turned the tables and made them pay us a huge sum."
Myrdal's eyes dimmed. He lowered his head, not daring to look at me.
"And last year..."
I waved the documents in my hand.
"Kateson Corporation's financial statements were already rotted into an empty shell. In this document, I've prepared your last way out. It contains immediately available funding sources, a five-year development plan, everything needed to bring Kateson Corporation back from the dead and even take it to the next level."
I looked at them. "This is my engagement gift to you today. A guarantee that you and your future husband can continue living your comfortable lives."
The entire ballroom was silent as a grave.
Taisia was completely stunned. She stared blankly at the documents in my hand, then at the Katesons beside her with their deathly pale faces, and her pitiful little brain finally started working.
She seemed to... understand something.
She began to realize what she had just refused.
"No... no..."
She muttered, her eyes filled with greed. She reached out, actually trying to snatch the documents from my hand. "Give it to me! Give it to me!"
Looking at her ugly face, I smiled.
"Didn't you say this was garbage?"
I raised the documents toward her and gave her a smile.
Then, under everyone's shocked gaze, right in front of her, I tore that stack of documents—capable of saving an entire family's fate—viciously in half.
The sound was particularly harsh in the quiet ballroom.
"No—!"
Mr. Kateson let out a desperate cry. Like a madman, he lunged toward me, trying to salvage the pieces.
But I didn't give him the chance.
I let go, allowing those papers that carried a family's future to flutter down like snowflakes at his feet.
"Since it's garbage, it belongs in the trash."
I dusted off my hands, turned around, and walked toward the door without looking back.
Behind me were Taisia's hysterical sobs and Mr. Kateson's pathetic figure kneeling on the ground, futilely gathering the scraps.
None of this had anything to do with me anymore.
I saw Uncle Jonathan waiting at the door.
I also saw Mr. Arnault not far from the entrance. He raised his glass to me, his eyes full of approval.