The laughter thundered through the ballroom like a crashing wave, washing over me in waves of mockery. I stood there, appearing outwardly calm while inwardly seething. Julian's smug face glowed with triumph as he surveyed the crowd's reaction to my public humiliation.
"Look at him standing there, completely pathetic!" Julian shouted, pointing at me as he continued his performance on the platform. "The disgraced live-in son-in-law who can't even satisfy his own wife!"
More laughter erupted. A few feet away, Seraphina clung to Gideon's arm, her red lips curled in a satisfied smirk as she witnessed my humiliation. Her eyes met mine briefly, filled with nothing but contempt.
"I heard he spent three years sleeping on a mattress in the storage room," someone called out from the crowd.
Julian seized on this immediately. "Is that true, Knight? Did they make you sleep with the mops and brooms?"
