The rain clung to me like a second skin, but I refused to move. Damien's words lingered in the storm, heavy, impossible to shake.
If you want revenge, I'll give you the power to take it.
My chest heaved, torn between anger and disbelief. Who was he to say that? He didn't know me. He didn't know what Adrian meant to me—what six years of loyalty and sacrifice had cost.
And yet… he wasn't wrong.
Something inside me wanted to scream yes. To take his hand, to burn the world that had cheered when Adrian betrayed me. But I couldn't. Not yet.
Not when my heart was still bleeding.
"Stay out of my way," I rasped, forcing myself to my feet. The soaked fabric of my gown dragged against the stones, heavy as chains. I turned from Damien's piercing gaze and stumbled back toward the estate.
I needed answers.
---
The ballroom was quieter now, though the air still hummed with the aftermath of scandal. Guests had begun to disperse, but clusters of socialites lingered, gossip dripping from their lips like honey laced with poison.
"There she is."
"She looks pitiful."
I kept my head high, though every whisper struck like a blade. My heels clicked against marble, defiant even as my dress clung to me in tatters.
Victoria spotted me first. My stepmother's expression twisted, half annoyance, half warning. She seized my wrist and dragged me toward a side corridor. The smile she had worn for the crowd slipped away, revealing the venom beneath.
"What were you thinking, storming out like that?" she hissed. "Do you know how humiliating you made us look?"
"Humiliating you?" My voice rose, raw and sharp. "Adrian just canceled our wedding in front of the entire city, and you—" I broke off, my throat tightening. "You knew. Didn't you?"
Richard appeared behind her, adjusting his cufflinks with maddening calm. "Of course we knew," he said, as though it were obvious. "This merger secures Vaughn Holdings for the next generation. You should be grateful Adrian considered you at all."
I stared at them, words failing. My heart cracked open all over again. They hadn't just abandoned me—they had sold me out, applauded my destruction as if it were strategy.
Victoria leaned close, her perfume cloying, her nails digging into my arm.
"You're a pawn, Elena. You always have been. You'll play the role we give you, or you'll be nothing."
Something inside me snapped. I yanked my arm free, leaving red crescents behind.
"Then I'd rather be nothing."
Their laughter followed me as I walked away.
---
I didn't make it far.
The moment I stepped back into the hall, cameras flashed, blinding me. Reporters swarmed like vultures, shoving microphones toward my face.
"Elena, how does it feel to be abandoned at your own engagement party?"
"Do you have a statement about Adrian marrying Eleanor Sinclair instead?"
"Were you aware of the arrangement, or were you simply used as a decoy?"
The barrage hit me all at once. My lips parted, but no sound came out. Every angle was captured—the wet hair clinging to my face, the ruined gown, the hollow stare. Tomorrow, the headlines would paint me as pathetic.
"Miss Vaughn!" Harper Quinn's voice rang louder than the rest. The gossip reporter grinned as if my pain were entertainment. "Is it true Adrian left you because you weren't fit to be his wife?"
The ballroom erupted with laughter. Cameras clicked furiously, immortalizing my humiliation.
I froze, nails digging into my palms until I felt the sting of blood. My voice trembled when it finally emerged.
"No comment."
And then I walked. Past the cameras, past the whispers, past the pitying stares. Each step echoed, each breath heavier than the last.
By the time I reached the empty hall beyond the ballroom, my body was trembling. My vision blurred. I braced myself against the wall, gasping, my heart breaking all over again.
For a moment, I thought I might collapse. That this was it—my end.
But then I heard it again. That smooth, unshakable voice.
"You see now," Damien said from the shadows, his presence impossibly steady. "They'll never protect you. They'll always choose power over you."
I looked up, my tears shining in the dim light. His eyes met mine, unwavering.
"And you?" I whispered, the words trembling from my lips. "What do you want from me?"
For the first time, he stepped closer, the distance between us dissolving into something taut, electric.
"What I want," Damien said quietly, "is to watch Adrian Blackwell fall. You can walk away now and let them ruin you, or you can stand with me and ruin them first."
My pulse raced. The storm outside echoed in my chest.
And though I didn't answer, though my lips pressed into silence, a fire had begun to spark in the ashes of my despair.