Chapter Twenty Five
(Nia’s POV)
I hadn’t planned to come to the Blackwood gala.
I had planned it.
Every flower arrangement. Every seating chart. Every donor speech, auction package, champagne tower, and quiet corner where the old money families liked to judge the new ones. I had spent months making sure Catherina Blackwood’s annual charity gala would be perfect.
Back then, I had thought perfection might finally earn me something from her.
Approval.
Respect.
Maybe just one look that did not make me feel like dirt had been tracked across her marble floors.
Wishful thinking.
I knew that now.
I had spent the last week resting the way the doctor ordered, eating when Callum reminded me, taking every supplement in the bag he had placed on my counter, and speaking to my attorney until t
