The chapel glowed with golden light, every inch soaked in luxury. Ivory roses lined the aisle. A quartet played softly beneath the domed ceiling. Cameras flashed from the velvet ropes just outside the gates, hungry for a headline.
Inside, the guests whispered. Every seat was filled with media moguls, politicians, and CEOs. Elena Thorne had personally selected each one. This wasn't a wedding. This was a spectacle. A staged display of power, submission, and image control.
And at the center of it all stood Cambria King.
Wrapped in white silk, her train gliding behind her like the tail of a silenced dragon, she walked toward the altar with steps so measured, so calm, she felt like she was outside her own body.
Each movement was deliberate. Each breath is calculated.
Maddox stood at the altar, dressed in black, a quiet fury in his eyes. He hadn't spoken since Elena arrived at her hotel suite that morning. Hadn't needed to.
Because this wedding wasn't for him.
It was for her.
Elena.
And the empire she refused to lose.
Cambria reached him.
Their hands met.
The priest paid and prepped and began the vows.
"Do you, Maddox Thorne, take Cambria King to be your lawfully wedded wife…"
Maddox's jaw tensed. "I do."
"And do you, Cambria King…"
Cambria stared into his eyes.
"I do."
Cameras clicked. The guests smiled. Elena, seated front row in a silk suit sharp as a blade, didn't blink.
It was done.
The kiss. The applause. The illusion.
Cambria was now legally, publicly, irrevocably his.
But not for love.
For survival.
An hour later, they stood alone in the private suite above the chapel. The silence between them was suffocating.
"I should be happy," Maddox said quietly, pouring himself a drink. "We're married. Again. That's what I always wanted, right?"
Cambria didn't answer.
He turned to her. "Say something."
"We're not married," she said coldly. "We're owned."
"I didn't do this to own you."
"You didn't stop it either."
His grip on the glass tightened. "She threatened your sister, Cam. What was I supposed to do?"
"Burn her to the ground."
"You think I haven't tried?" he snapped. "She's been ten steps ahead since the day I was born."
Cambria looked at him, fury and heartbreak colliding in her eyes. "Then maybe the problem isn't Elena. Maybe it's that you're still playing by her rules."
A knock interrupted them.
Elara.
She stepped inside, eyes scanning the room like a general entering hostile territory.
"It's done," she said. "The press is running the 'billion-dollar reunion' headline. Stock prices are steady. Thorne Tech looks invincible again."
Cambria laughed low and bitter. "Perfect. That's all that matters, right?"
"Not quite," Elara said and held up her phone. "There's been a breach."
Cambria straightened. "What kind of breach?"
Elara turned the screen.
A video.
Seraphina. Awake. Alone.
Speaking.
"My name is Seraphina King. If you're watching this, it means I've escaped. I was taken by people linked to Elena Thorne yes, that Elena Thorne. I've recorded everything. And I'm not going to be silent anymore."
Cambria's mouth fell open. "She got out?"
"She played them," Elara said with a grin. "Just like you taught her."
Maddox stepped forward. "Where is she now?"
"In our safehouse in Brooklyn. We're moving her tonight. But that's not the twist."
She swiped to the next video.
A voice recording. Elena's.
Unedited. Vicious.
"If the girl talks, we bury her. Understand? I want her erased."
Cambria's pulse spiked. "We release this now, Elena burns."
Elara nodded. "If we move quickly, we control the narrative. You're not just the fallen queen anymore. You're the resurrected one."
Cambria looked down at the ring on her finger.
"Elena thought this wedding would silence me," she whispered. "But it's the stage I needed to take her down."
Just before midnight, a black envelope slides under their suite door.
Cambria picks it up.
Inside: a torn piece of her wedding dress.
And a note, scrawled in Elena's unmistakable hand:
"One sister escaped. Let's see how long the other survives."
Cambria turns to Maddox.
"She's not done."
And this time… neither was Cambria.