Then I looked down at my white dress, the one I'd planned to wear for photos with my fiancé, the one that was supposed to represent my perfect future.
That future was gone. Dead. Destroyed by Nathan's betrayal.
But maybe I could build something better from the ashes.
"One condition," I said. "Whatever we do, whatever plan you have I'm an equal partner. Not an employee, not a pawn. We do this together, or not at all."
Damien's smile turned genuine sharp and dangerous and absolutely beautiful.
"Deal." He clasped my hand, his grip firm and warm. "Welcome to war, Aria Chen."
As the car pulled up to Onyx, an exclusive bar in the Diamond District, I felt something shift inside me. The girl who'd walked into that engagement party naive, trusting, desperate for approval was dead.
In her place was someone harder. Someone who'd learned that love was a weapon and trust was a luxury she couldn't afford.
Nathan Cross had destroyed me tonight.
But from those ashes, I was about to become someone he should have feared.
And I was going to enjoy every second of his downfall.
They say be careful what you wish for.
I wished for revenge.
I got Damien Cross.
The private room at Onyx was exactly what I expected from a billionaire's hideaway dark leather, dim lighting, and enough expensive whiskey on the shelves to fund a small country.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked Manhattan's glittering skyline, a reminder that up here, above the chaos of the city, power made its own rules.
I felt completely out of place in my white engagement dress, like a ghost haunting someone else's life.
Damien shed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves as he poured two glasses of amber liquid from a crystal decanter. The casual gesture somehow made him more intimidating, not less. Nathan always kept his jacket on, always maintained that polished exterior.
But Damien moved like a man who had nothing to prove to anyone.
"Macallan 25," he said, handing me a glass. "Drink it. You'll need it."
I took the glass but didn't drink immediately. "I don't usually accept alcohol from men I barely know."
"Smart. But I'm not trying to drug you, Aria. I'm trying to propose a business partnership."
He settled into the leather chair across from me, grey eyes sharp despite the late hour. "And for what I'm about to suggest, you'll want the whiskey."
I took a sip. It burned going down, but the warmth spread through my chest, chasing away some of the cold shock that had settled there since the engagement party.
"Okay," I said, setting down the glass. "I'm listening. How exactly do you plan to destroy your brother?"
"Hostile takeover." Two words, delivered with absolute certainty. "I'm going to acquire Cross Enterprises, strip Nathan of his CEO position, and return Chen Technologies to its rightful owner. You."
My breath caught. "That's… that's not possible. Cross Enterprises is worth billions. Your parents control the majority shares. The board would never"
"The board is made up of people who can be bought, convinced, or compromised. My parents are old and sentimental, but they're not stupid.
When presented with evidence of Nathan's incompetence and fraud, they'll vote for the takeover to save the family reputation." Damien leaned forward. "And I have five years' worth of evidence."
He pulled out his tablet and slid it across the table. I picked it up with shaking hands and started scrolling through the files.
Emails. Financial records. Testimony from former employees. Documentation of every innovation Nathan had stolen, every person he'd pushed out, every lie he'd told to climb to power.
Including dozens of files about me. My work. My ideas. My strategic plans for Chen Technologies all credited to Nathan in official documents, but here, Damien had the original files with my name and timestamp proving they were mine first.
"How long have you been collecting this?" I whispered.
"Since Sophia died." His voice was flat, emotionless. "I realized then that Nathan had a pattern. He destroys people systematically women especially. I started documenting everything, waiting for the right moment to strike back."
"And I'm the right moment?"
"You're the perfect storm." Damien took a sip of his whiskey. "Catherine Chen's daughter, publicly humiliated, with legitimate claim to a billion-dollar company Nathan stole through manipulation.
You're not just a victim, Aria. You're a weapon. And if you're willing, I want to show you how to use yourself."
The words should have offended me. Should have made me feel like an object, a tool in someone else's revenge plot.
Instead, they made me feel powerful for the first time all night.
"What's in it for you?" I asked. "Besides revenge. You're spending millions on this takeover, risking your reputation, going to war with your own family. There has to be more."
Damien studied me for a long moment, and I saw something flicker in those cold grey eyes. Respect, maybe. Or approval.
"You're smarter than Nathan deserves," he said finally. "Alright. Full honesty. Yes, I want revenge for Sophia. But I also want to break the Cross family's hold on the tech industry.
They're corrupt, they steal innovations from smaller companies, they care more about profit than ethics. Your mother built Chen Technologies on a foundation of ethical AI development.
Under Nathan, it's become everything Catherine stood against."
He was right. My mother had always insisted that technology should help people, not exploit them. She'd built Chen Technologies with strict ethical guidelines, refused military contracts, donated technology to schools and hospitals.
Nathan had gutted those programs within months of taking over. Too expensive, he'd said. Not profitable enough.
"So you want to restore my mother's vision," I said slowly. "And destroy Nathan in the process."
"Yes. But more than that" Damien leaned back, swirling his whiskey. "I want to give you the platform you deserve. You're brilliant, Aria.
Your work on AI integration and adaptive learning algorithms is years ahead of anything else in the field. But you've been hiding behind Nathan, letting him take credit, dimming your own light.
"He said that's what supportive partners do," I said quietly. "That we were a team, and it didn't matter who got the public credit."
"That's what manipulators say to keep their victims quiet." Damien's voice turned sharp. "Real partners elevate each other. They don't steal credit and call it teamwork."