Chapter 1 – The Betrayal

The florist downstairs wrapped the bouquet in cream paper, tying it with a ribbon that matched the color of my engagement dress. It wasn’t even my wedding day yet, but the thought of seeing Damien tonight made everything feel real. Two days. Just two more days and I’d become Mrs. Damien Whitlock. My heart skipped a beat just thinking about it.

I stepped out of the elevator, clutching the bouquet a little too tightly. His penthouse door was only a few steps away. I didn’t bother texting him; I wanted to surprise him. I’d spent all week picking the perfect scent for the reception, arguing over cake flavors, and pretending not to panic about my mother’s endless “helpful” suggestions.

This surprise was for me. For us.

The hallway smelled faintly of rain. It had been drizzling since morning, soft and lazy, like the world itself was waiting for something beautiful to happen. I balanced the bouquet in one arm and reached for the spare key Damien had given me last month. My fingers trembled slightly as I pushed the key into the lock.

The door clicked open.

Inside, the apartment was dark except for the soft yellow glow spilling from the bedroom. Damien always left a light on when he was home. A small, private habit.

“Damien?” I called softly. “Guess who’s here.”

No answer.

I kicked off my shoes and tiptoed in, trying not to slip on the polished floor. The bouquet was already slipping in my sweaty palm, and I laughed under my breath at myself. Who shows up like this? Like some lovesick idiot with flowers?

Me. I do.

“Damien?” I tried again, a little louder.

A sound drifted down the hallway. A breathy, low moan.

I froze.

The air thickened around me, pressing against my chest. For a second, I thought maybe he had the TV on, maybe it was one of those terrible late-night shows he liked watching half asleep. But no. That wasn’t some actor’s voice. That was him. That was Damien.

And someone else.

I forced myself forward, one step at a time, down the short hallway that led to the bedroom. The door was half closed, but I could see the reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall. Two figures tangled together. Sheets a mess. Skin against skin.

I didn’t breathe.

I didn’t blink.

I just stared.

Damien’s hand slid down the curve of her waist. Her hair spilled over his chest. A familiar scent hit me, floral and expensive. Chanel No. 5.

My mother’s perfume.

The bouquet slipped from my hands, hitting the hardwood with a dull thud. The sound made

Damien’s head jerk up. His eyes met mine over her shoulder. His pupils dilated. His mouth fell open.

“Elara.”

The woman in his arms turned slowly, lazily, like someone who owned the world and knew it.

“Sweetheart,” my mother said with that same practiced smile she wore at charity galas. “What are you doing here?”

I didn’t answer. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. My hands were ice.

Damien scrambled upright, pulling the sheet around his waist. “Wait, it’s not—this isn’t what it looks like.”

My laugh came out cracked and ugly. “Really? Because it looks like my fiancé is screwing my mother.”

“Don’t say it like that,” she snapped,

as if I’d insulted her. “You don’t understand, darling—”

“Oh, I think I do.”

I stepped inside fully now. The cold from the hallway clung to my skin, but inside it was warm and smelled of sex. My world tilted, and suddenly all those little things I’d ignored came flooding back. His sudden late nights. Her strange smiles at family dinners. The way she’d brushed her hand against his arm once, too casually, and I’d told myself I was imagining things.

I wasn’t imagining anything.

“Elara,” Damien tried again, reaching out. His voice was soft, pleading, the way it had been the night he proposed to me under the oak tree in the park. “Listen to me. It just… happened.”

“Just happened?” My voice trembled, but I didn’t cry. Not yet. “You tripped and fell into my mother’s bed? Or maybe she tripped and fell into yours?”

“Elara!” My mother’s tone turned sharp. “Enough of this drama. You’re being childish.”

Childish. She called me childish while sitting half-naked on my fiancé’s bed. I stared at her, at the silk robe slipping off her shoulder. She was flawless, like she’d always been. She knew how to win, how to get what she wanted, and for the first time I saw it clearly: she wanted him.

I took a step back. Then another.

“Elara, don’t go.” Damien stumbled forward, clutching the sheet. “It’s complicated.”

“No,” I whispered. “It’s disgusting.” My heart pounded so loudly I could hear it in my ears. This was supposed to be the happiest week of my life. Two more days and I would’ve stood at the altar, looking into his eyes, believing every lie he’d ever told me.

“Please,” he begged. “I love you.”

I stared at him. At my mother. At the ruins of everything I’d believed in. And then I laughed. Not a soft laugh. Not even a bitter one. It was sharp, high, broken in the middle.

“You love me?” I said. “You love me so much you decided to celebrate with my mother?”

“Elara, you’re overreacting,” my mother cut in. “We can fix this.”

“Fix this?” I said slowly, tasting the words like poison on my tongue. “Are you serious?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re young. You’ll meet someone else.”

The floor seemed to tilt again, but this time something steadied me. A strange calm settled over me like cold water.

I looked at Damien, at the man who’d sworn to love me. “I trusted you.”

“I made a mistake,” he whispered.

“No,” I said. “You made a choice.”

He flinched. That made me smile. A small, cold smile that didn’t belong to the girl who had walked in with flowers a few minutes ago. That girl was gone.

“Don’t walk away,” Damien said. “We can still get married. No one has to know.”

I almost choked. “You think I’d still marry you?”

My mother slid off the bed and wrapped the robe tightly around herself, like she was the victim. “Elara, let’s not make a scene.” “Oh, sweetheart,” I said, my voice shaking with something

dangerously close to laughter. “This is just the beginning of the scene.”

The room was spinning, but I was steady. I bent down slowly, picking up the bouquet from the floor. The petals were crushed. Just like me. But as I stared at the ruined flowers, something hard bloomed in my chest.

I wasn’t going to cry.

I wasn’t going to beg.

I was going to remember this moment. Every breath. Every smell. Every word. I was going to make them regret it.

“Congratulations,” I said softly, placing the bouquet on the edge of the bed. “I hope you two are happy together.”

“Elara—”

“Save it,” I said. “Both of you.”

I turned and walked out, leaving the door wide open behind me. Rain was still falling outside, gentle and constant, the way it always does when the sky doesn’t care about human heartbreak. I took the elevator down, holding my head high. I didn’t even wipe the tears burning in the corners of my eyes.

The city lights blurred through the glass as the elevator descended. By the time I reached the lobby, I knew something inside me had changed. I wasn’t the same woman who’d stepped into that penthouse.

I stepped into the rain without an umbrella. My hair clung to my face, but the cold didn’t bother me. My heart hurt, but beneath the pain, something sharp was taking root.

Revenge didn’t need to be loud. It could start with silence. With a promise whispered only to yourself.

They thought they could break me.

But I was done being the good girl.

This time, I’d be the one holding the knife.

Damien’s voice still echoed in my head as I walked away: I love you.

Love was easy to say. Love was cheap. But revenge—revenge was earned.

Two days before the wedding, I lost everything.

And in that same moment, I decided to take everything back.