The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 831

"Mark Ellis is back."

Marissa said it to the whole Tiffany kitchen like news from the palace.

Serena did not look up from her tea. "Is he."

Mark Ellis. The boy with the very white teeth who had courted her for one summer, before the house married her off to Alex. He had stopped calling the week her mother died.

"Three years abroad, and he's come home rich," Marissa went on. "He's taking the whole family to dinner tonight, on the Seacrest's roof. And he asked for you specially."

At the end of the table, Gideon hid behind his newspaper. It was upside down. Nobody told him.

Marissa held out her phone for everyone to hear.

"Serena. It's Mark. I hear your mother's name isn't on her perfumes anymore. I want to put money behind them, under her own name again. Come to dinner and let me show you the numbers."

Her mother's name, on a bottle again. The promise she had made at her mother's bed. The one thing she could not say no to, and somehow Mark Ellis knew it.

"I'll come," she said. "For my mother. Not for him."

At the head of the table, the Baroness tapped her cane once on the floor. "A rich man wants something from this house. We'll all go. It's decided."

Patricia looked up from her nails. "Then I'll wear the green silk."

---

The Seacrest's roof hung over the black bay, where last night the Count had laughed at a man in a mask.

Mark was waiting by the lift in a pale suit. Patricia reached him first. His eyes went past her, straight to the drop of jade at Serena's throat.

"That's pretty. Market?"

"It was a gift."

"From your husband?" He smiled. "The famous idiot husband. I've heard so much."

A young waiter in a white jacket stepped in front of the velvet rope.

"I'm so sorry, madam. The roof is closed to the public tonight."

"Closed?" Marissa pointed past him. "There are people eating!"

"Members, madam. At nine o'clock the Count of Ashcliff signs this hotel over to its new owners, Halcyon. Tonight the roof is for our members and Halcyon's guests."

Preston pushed to the front. "Do you know who I am? I'm Preston Tiffany! I broke the Brotherhood! With my own bare hands!"

The waiter looked at Preston's hands. They were soft and pink, with a ring on every finger except the thumbs.

"Congratulations, sir. The roof is still for members."

The Baroness stepped forward on her cane. "Young man. We are the Tiffanys of Westmere."

"Yes, madam," the waiter said politely. "The roof is still for members."

"This is a restaurant, isn't it?" Marissa's voice rose. "You're supposed to serve people! Who are you to look down on us? Fine. Make us members. What does it cost?"

"A regular membership, madam, or a Deluxe?"

"Deluxe, of course! Do we look like we can't afford it?"

She whipped out her card and held it high. Mark Ellis was watching. She could not be small in front of Mark Ellis.

"The Deluxe tables by the glass need a deposit of five million dollars, madam."

The card went back into her bag so fast it bent.

"Five million? For soup?"

"It's very good soup, madam."

"And the regular one?"

"One million dollars."

"One million! Just to sit down!" Marissa's face went from pink to red. "That's robbery! Daylight robbery! We only want dinner, not the building. Let us in, and I'll see you get a very good tip."

"I'm sorry, madam. Members only."

"Then get me your manager!"

"The manager is with the Count's party tonight. I'm afraid he can't come."

Preston tugged her sleeve. "Mum. Let's just go somewhere else."

"And be laughed at all the way down in the lift? We're already here! Everyone's seen us!"

"Five million for a chair," the Baroness said, as if she were reading it off a bill. "That isn't business. That's theft."

It was true. Behind the rope, two women in silk had stopped eating to watch. One of them said something behind her hand, and the other one laughed.

Serena stood a little apart and looked at the bay. She counted the lights on the water. Eleven. Twelve. It was what she did when she wanted the ground to open, so that her face stayed still.

"Allow me, Mrs. Tiffany."

Mark stepped forward and drew a gold card from his breast pocket, holding it so the lamps caught it. "Gold member. Put us by the glass."

"Gold?" Marissa stared. "What does that cost?"

"Not much. Ten million to join." He smiled. "And twenty percent off everything after."

Ten million. Not much. Marissa's mouth opened and stayed open. Patricia slid her hand through Mark's arm, as if the card were half hers.

The waiter checked the card, and his smile grew twice as wide. "Please step inside, honoured guests!"

"Bootlicker!" Preston called after him. "My friend Mark is a Gold VIP! See that?"

Diners turned. At the next table, an old lady in diamonds looked at Preston over her spectacles until he stopped.

Marissa sailed in with her chest out and her chin up, as if she had paid for the bay.

---

They had just sat down by the glass when the lift opened again.

A young man stepped out in a brown jacket with a hole in the elbow. A woman's blue coat was folded carefully over one arm. He saw Serena, and his whole face lit up.

"Serena! You forgot your coat. It's windy on roofs."

Every head on the roof turned.

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