Seraphina did not go to her father's study. She stopped halfway down the corridor and turned sharply into the nearest empty guest room instead. Her hands were shaking too heavily to face him yet.
She closed the door behind her and locked it, pressing her back against the wood as though something might chase her down the hallway. The house sounds with preparation and distant conversation, but inside this room, there was only silence and the faint ticking of a decorative clock on the wall.
Her phone screen remained lit in her hand. Your resignation. The words stared back at her hardly.
She forced herself to breathe slowly. If Adrian planned to announce her resignation from Vale Holdings tonight, then everything had already been set in motion. The wedding was not the beginning of his takeover. It was the final seal.
She crossed the room unsteadily and stopped in front of the tall standing mirror near the wardrobe. The woman staring back at her looked young and hopeful, she can't stop looking at herself in the mirror because she couldn't believe what is going on.
Seraphina felt anger rise so fast it made her chest ache."You had no idea," she said aloud to her reflection.
Her voice sounded steady, but her eyes betrayed the storm building behind them.
She stepped closer. "I trusted him," she continued, her tone tightening. "I defended him when the board questioned his speed. I signed agreements because I believed we were building something together."
The reflection did not answer. She remembered every compromise she had made in the name of partnership. She remembered persuading her father to give Adrian operational access. She remembered staying late at the office to help integrate their systems, believing she was strengthening Vale Holdings.
She had thought she was being a good and loving wife. She had thought love meant standing beside someone without suspicion.
Her fingers curled against the edge of the mirror."You were not foolish," she said, correcting herself calmly. "You were loyal."
Her throat tightened but loyalty had cost her everything. She also remembered lying in that hospital bed, her body failing, while Adrian discussed dosage and efficiency as though she were a project timeline. She remembered the calm in his eyes when the gurney moved forward. He had not panicked, and he had not tried to save her.
The memory made her stomach twist very hard. Tears blurred her vision, but she did not look away from herself."You loved him," she whispered. The confession felt like reopening a wound.
She had loved him in the way people love once, without thinking. She had admired his ambition, she had been drawn to his confidence, and she had believed they were equals. She saw now how carefully he had cultivated that illusion.
Her jaw tightened. "You let him rewrite everything," she said to the woman in the mirror. "You let him frame your caution as weakness. You let him convince you that questioning him meant doubting the marriage."
Her reflection stared back, silent but unflinching. A strange thought began to settle over her grief. She had not been weak, she had been manipulated. There was a difference.
Her breathing steadied gradually. Anger replaced the trembling in her hands."He thinks I will walk down that aisle tomorrow," she said. "He thinks I will smile while he finishes taking control."
Her lips curved slightly, though there was no humor in it."He thinks I will not notice."
She leaned closer to the mirror until her forehead nearly touched the glass."You died because you waited too long to confront him," she said softly. "You tried to understand him instead of protecting yourself."
The weight of that truth pressed heavily against her ribs. She closed her eyes briefly, when she opened them again, something had shifted. Her gaze was no longer wounded, It was focused."If I am truly back," she said carefully, "then I have information he does not."
She straightened her posture. "He believes the future is fixed," she continued. "He believes his plan is flawless."
Her mind began to piece together. The joint management agreement. The board reshuffle. The way he stopped her from certain financial discussions months before the anniversary and the steady transfer of authority disguised as efficiency.
He had played the long game, so could she. The knock on the guest room door startled her."Seraphina?" her father's voice called. "Are you in there?"
Her heart pounded painfully. She moved away from the mirror and unlocked the door. Her father stood in the hallway, feeling concern for her. "You disappeared," he said gently. "Your mother said you seemed shaken."
She studied him closely. Five years ago, she had watched stress hollow him slowly as Vale Holdings slipped from his control. She had watched him sign documents he barely had time to read because he trusted Adrian's summaries.
He had believed he was handing the company to capable hands. He had not realized he was surrendering it."I am fine," she said, forcing calm into her voice. "I just needed a moment."
He looked at her face carefully."Are you sure you are ready for tomorrow?" he asked.
The question landed differently now."Daddy," she said slowly, "have you signed any new documents recently?"
He frowned slightly."Adrian brought over a preliminary restructuring outline last week," he replied. "It was only a draft."
"Did you sign it?"
He delayed. "I initialed it for review," he said. "Why?"
Her heart skipped."Where is it now?" she asked.
"In the study safe," he answered. "Why are you asking about business matters today of all days?" Because tomorrow it will be too late, she thought.
"I want to look at it," she said.
He smiled faintly."You sound like you are preparing for a board meeting, not a wedding."
She held his gaze steadily."Please." He studied her for a moment longer, then nodded."After breakfast," he said. "We will review it together."
Relief mixed with urgency inside her chest."Thank you," she said quietly.
He squeezed her shoulder."I trust Adrian," he added gently. "He has proven himself." The words felt like a warning disguised as reassurance.
Seraphina forced herself not to react visibly."I know," she replied. He left her standing in the hallway, she returned to the guest room and closed the door again.
Her phone vibrated in her hand: You cannot let him sign anything else, the message read.
I will not, she typed. There was a pause before the next reply. He is already planning the announcement tonight.
Her stomach tightened. She stared at her reflection once more, the girl in the mirror still looked like a bride-to-be.
She no longer felt like one."If he wants a spectacle," she murmured, "then I will give him one."
Her heart steadied into something deliberate. She did not need to scream, she did not need to cry, she needed to think, she picked up her phone again and opened her contacts. Her finger hovered briefly before selecting a name she had not considered in years. Lucien Ashford.
In her previous life, Adrian had bankrupted himself within eighteen months of the wedding. She remembered reading the headlines about Ashford Group's sudden collapse. She remembered Adrian calling it a necessary consolidation.
Her jaw tightened. If she was correct, then Lucien was the only man who truly understood how Adrian operated. She delayed only a moment before pressing the call.
The line rang twice before connecting."This is Lucien Ashford," a calm, cool voice answered.
Seraphina inhaled slowly."Mr. Ashford," she said evenly, "my name is Seraphina Vale." There was a brief silence.
"I know who you are," he replied.
"I need to speak with you," she continued. "Privately." Another silence followed.
"I am getting married tomorrow," she added. "To Adrian Hawthorne."
His response was cool."Congratulations."
She looked at herself in the mirror again."That is exactly why we need to talk," she said. Silence stretched for several seconds.
When he spoke again, his tone had shifted slightly."I am listening."
Seraphina's reflection held her gaze steadily as she delivered the words that would change everything.
"I believe Adrian Hawthorne intends to destroy both our companies," she said quietly. "And I think he has already started." The line went silent.
Then Lucien asked one controlled, deliberate question. "What makes you so certain?"
Seraphina met her own eyes in the mirror."Because," she replied, "I have already seen how it ends." The silence on the other end deepened.
When Lucien spoke again, his voice sounded new."Then I suggest," he said carefully, "that you do not walk down that aisle tomorrow."
Her grip tightened around the phone."That," she answered, "is exactly what I am considering."
Outside the guest room window, workers began testing the sound system for the ceremony. Music shifted faintly through the air. Seraphina stared at the young woman in the mirror one last time.
The bride vanished. In her place stood someone else, and for the first time since she woke under that white ceiling, she felt something stronger than grief. She felt ready.