Chapter 32 CONFRONTING DIANA
POV: Selena
I walked into the Ashford estate while someone was still arguing with the guard about whether my name was on the list.
That was the first thing I noticed. Not the size of the place or the quiet wealth pressed into every surface, but the irritation in the man’s voice as he tried to stop me without touching me. As if I were something inconvenient he had not planned for.
I did not stop walking.
I wanted Diana. I wanted her now. And the pressure in my chest told me that if I turned around, even for a second, I might lose the nerve I had spent the entire drive building.
“Miss,” the guard said again, louder. “You cannot just—”
“Tell her Selena Alvarez is here,” I said, already stepping past him. “If she pretends she does not know who I am, that is fine. But she will know.”
Voices carried down the long hallway ahead of me. Calm, practiced voices. The sound of people who had never been interrupted in their own house.
I followed it.
The room I entered looked like it was designed for judgment. Tall windows. A long table. People seated like they expected to be listened to. Diana sat near the center, relaxed, her posture easy in a way that came from always being welcome.
Her mother looked up first.
Then Diana.
For half a second, her expression did not change. Then I saw it. Recognition. Surprise. A flicker of something sharper underneath.
“Selena,” she said, smiling as if we had run into each other at a charity brunch. “This is unexpected.”
“That makes us even,” I replied.
Every eye in the room shifted to me.
I stood there, hands loose at my sides, heart beating so hard I could feel it in my throat. I had imagined this moment a dozen times, each version worse than the last. None of them included how quiet it would feel once I actually spoke.
Diana gestured lightly. “I believe you’ve met my parents. And my father.”
That was when I saw him properly.
Judge Ashford did not move when he looked at me. He did not need to. His attention landed and stayed. Heavy. Assessing. The kind of gaze that did not rush because it assumed it would have time later.
“You’re interrupting a family meeting,” he said.
“Yes,” I replied. “That was the point.”
Diana’s smile tightened. “Selena, if you have something to say to me, we can do it privately.”
“No,” I said. “We cannot.”
She tilted her head. “Why not?”
“Because you count on privacy,” I answered. “And I am done helping you with that.”
Her eyes flicked briefly to her father. Then back to me. The smugness returned, thinner now, stretched over something alert.
“I think you should leave,” she said. “You are clearly upset.”
“I am,” I agreed. “But not confused.”
A murmur moved through the room. Someone shifted in their chair.
Diana folded her hands. “You’re an intern who got carried away. This will pass if you let it.”
I took a step closer to the table.
“I know about the photos,” I said.
That landed.
Diana did not react right away, but her mother inhaled sharply. Her father’s eyes narrowed, just slightly.
“What photos?” Diana asked.
“The ones your PR team has been holding onto,” I said. “The ones they threatened to release unless Adrian proposed to you.”
Silence.
Then Diana laughed. Soft. Controlled. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” I asked. “Because the metadata says otherwise. Same agency. Same internal email chain. Same time stamps.”
Her smile faltered.
I reached into my bag and placed my phone on the table. Not pushing it toward anyone. Just letting it exist between us.
“I’m not here to negotiate feelings,” I said. “I’m here to talk about extortion.”
Diana’s mother stood. “You should be very careful with your words.”
“I have been,” I replied. “For weeks.”
Diana leaned back. “You don’t have anything that would stand up in public.”
“I have enough,” I said. “Enough to raise questions. Enough to make reporters curious. Enough to connect dots you assumed no one would look at.”
Her gaze sharpened. “You would destroy yourself along with us.”
I shook my head. “No. I would survive. You would explain.”
That was when her father finally spoke again.
“You think you can walk in here and threaten my family?” he asked calmly.
“I think your family already made the first move,” I said. “I am responding.”
Diana’s fingers curled against the arm of her chair.
“What do you want?” she asked.
I met her eyes. “A public retraction. An apology. A clear statement that the photos were misrepresented and released without context.”
She scoffed. “And if I say no?”
“Then I go to the press,” I said. “With everything. Including how your engagement announcement was tied to a timeline your own team outlined.”
Her mother looked at Diana now. Sharp. Questioning.
Diana did not look back at her. She looked at me.
“You think people will side with you,” she said quietly. “A nobody. An intern.”
“I think people understand bullying when they see it,” I replied. “Especially when it comes from people with power.”
Her father stood.
He was taller than I expected. Broad. Unhurried.
“You are playing a dangerous game, Miss Alvarez,” he said. “My family destroys people like you for breakfast.”
My hands shook. I did not let them rise.
“Then I hope you’re hungry,” I said, my voice steady despite the burn in my chest. “Because I’m about to give you indigestion.”
The room froze.
Diana stared at me, something like disbelief breaking through her composure.
“You don’t belong here,” she said.
“You’re right,” I replied. “And that’s why this scares you.”
Her father studied me for a long moment. I wondered what he saw. A threat. A nuisance. A mistake he wished had been stopped earlier.
“Get out,” he said.
“Not yet,” Diana said, standing abruptly. “This isn’t finished.”
I picked up my phone.
“It is for today,” I said. “You have twenty four hours.”
I turned toward the door before anyone could say anything else. My legs felt light, unsteady, but they moved.
Behind me, Diana’s voice cut through the quiet.
“You think Adrian will thank you for this?”
I stopped.
I did not turn around.
“This isn’t about thanks,” I said. “It’s about limits.”
I walked out.
The guard did not stop me this time.
Outside, the air felt sharp in my lungs. I did not realize how tightly I had been holding myself together until I reached the driveway and had to pause.
My phone vibrated in my hand.
Adrian.
I did not answer.
Not yet.
I needed to feel this moment fully. The fear. The relief. The knowledge that I had crossed a line I could not uncross.
Behind me, the Ashford estate remained silent. Too silent.
I knew this was not over.
But for the first time since all of this began, I had chosen the move.
And whatever came next would be on my terms.