The Divorce That Brought Us Back novel Chapter 240

Just as she was about to speak, Seraphina cut her off, gesturing to the paper bag in Nora's hands. "Aren't you going to open it?"

The bag was unsealed, making it obvious that inside lay the mink shawl Nora had lent her at the gala.

There was nothing special to see.

Nora planted her hands firmly on the edge of the table, leaning forward slightly. Her expression was icy as she demanded, "Ms. Sinclair, what exactly did you want to say to me?"

A smirk curled Seraphina's lips, her gaze remaining fixed on the bag.

She drawled, "Beneath that shawl is The Jameson Heirloom. Lady Whitman gave it to me herself years ago."

Seraphina finally looked up at Nora, repeating, "Aren't you going to take a look?"

Nora's breath hitched.

The Jameson Heirloom. Those three words nearly shattered her stoic facade.

Lady Whitman was Maloney's mother.

Nora's mother-in-law.

It was no secret that Lady Whitman had been desperate to have Seraphina as a daughter-in-law, even going so far as to gift her the family's ancestral token.

And now, that token had landed in Nora's hands.

She couldn't even describe the suffocating sensation in her chest.

Nora choked on her words.

Cassidy shot a look at Nora's fiercely maintained mask of indifference.

Hurts, doesn't it?

Nora had been laughing at her just moments ago. Let's see if she was still laughing now.

Nora fought back the intense urge to dig through the bag.

Feigning calm, she asked, "Did you orchestrate this entire meeting just to give me this?"

"Nora."

Seraphina sat perfectly straight in her plush chair, an air of careless elegance about her. She looked up at Nora, and despite the physical disadvantage, her imposing presence dominated the space.

"Take this token back. This way, neither of us can brand the other as the 'other woman.'"

"You're acting to protect your reputation, and I'm acting to reclaim what rightfully belongs to me."

"We'll compete fairly."

"If I win, you bow out gracefully and don't drag things on. If you win, I promise I'll never appear in front of either of you again."

Earlier at the gala, after Diana had dragged Seraphina away, she had lectured her about the supposedly epic love story between Nora and Maloney.

At the time, Seraphina had been entirely consumed by the blinding hatred of her subordinates' betrayal.

She hadn't had the mental bandwidth for romance.

Later, she methodically dealt with everyone who had wronged her.

Watching the people who had despised her, tried to control her, lusted after her empire, and used dirty tricks to sabotage her crawl at her feet, begging for forgiveness, had given her a thrilling sense of euphoria.

The only thing that still gnawed at her pride was the fact that Diana's warning had propelled her to take that final, ruthless step.

She hated admitting it, but it was the truth.

Yet, as her power swelled and everything fell into place, that lingering irritation had begun to fade.

It seemed entirely inconsequential now.

Once she stopped silently competing with Diana.

She placed the conquest of Maloney right back at the top of her agenda.

She recalled the story Diana had told her that night.

Her memory of the conversation was admittedly hazy.

She vaguely remembered Diana claiming that Maloney had paid a massive price to secure Nora.

Seraphina's eyes darkened as she leaned forward, her stare piercing Nora. "You know perfectly well that if it hadn't been for you, the woman marrying Maloney would have been me."

"No, it wouldn't have been you." Nora met Seraphina's gaze head-on. "He loves me. No matter what happened, the only woman he was ever going to marry was me."

"Your marriage was an accident!"

"It wasn't an accident. Regardless of how it started, we would have ended up together."

"Are you kidding me?!"

"It's not a joke, it's the truth. He never harbored feelings for you."

"Ha." Seraphina's eyelids fluttered as she cast a mocking glance at Nora. "You know exactly what he and I were to each other. Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

"You're the only one living in a fantasy." Nora refused to back down under the dismissive glare. "He explicitly told you he wasn't interested, yet you cling to your own fabricated reality."

"Do you honestly think he didn't have his own reservations and hidden struggles?!"

"That's just what you assumed. He never voiced any of those supposed struggles."

"How can you be so certain he was telling the truth?!"

"How can you be so certain he wasn't?"

As the argument escalated, Nora pulled out her phone.

"If you don't believe me, let him tell you himself."

She dialed Maloney's number directly.

She slammed the phone down on the table, switching it to speaker.

The call connected almost instantly.

Before Nora could utter a single word, Maloney's deliberately hushed, sultry voice drifted through the speaker, "Nora, darling. Have you been missing me?"

Nora froze completely.

Listening from the sidelines, Cassidy couldn't suppress a loud burst of laughter.