DESTRUCTION IS DEMURE!

LIAM RYDER

SEVEN YEARS LATER

I adjusted my tie one last time in front of the mirror, making sure the knot sat perfectly. My hand hovered over my wristwatch when Karen stepped into the room.

I didn’t need to look at her to know what expression she wore. I could feel it—the disapproval and the jealousy, seeing me dressed up in my favorite sleek black suit and black tie just for wife's anniversary, must have pissed her off.

Actually, if a trophy is given to the most easily jealous woman in the world, I think Karen gets it ... As I tried to spray some perfume, she pressed in from behind, her arms wrapped gently around my waist.

“So much effort for a death anniversary?” she muttered, her voice laced with jealousy... 

I totally guessed right...

“I told you we shouldn’t go, Liam.” she finally said.

I sighed, turning to face her. No matter what I needed to say at the moment I can neither give her more reasons to be jealous nor give her the satisfactions she wants right now. “Stop it, Karen,"  I said softly, my hands crawling to her waist.

"It’s my wife’s death anniversary, you know I can’t just ignore it. The press will be all over it. I won’t give them the satisfaction of painting me as the heartless husband who didn’t show up at his wife's death anniversary"

And it was true. Six years ago, I wasn't expecting to hear the news that Camilla Ryder died in a prison fire outbreak. For a moment, I actually felt sorry. I never truly loved her, but I never wanted her to die… not that early at least, leaving me with a son she claimed to be mine.

And God knows I wouldn't have taken the baby in if the DNA hadn't proven he is truly mine...

Karen stepped back, dropping onto the bed with a scoff. “Late wife about to be ex-wife, remember?” she snapped, flashing her ring like a trophy as if I needed a reminder that I’d proposed to her just months ago.

After months of her pushing for marriage, I finally agreed but only on the condition we stay engaged until the public forgot Camilla ever existed. Now, she waved that ring in my face every chance she got.

Yes, I love Karen like it was some kind of spell she used on me but I can't afford to let my emotions take the better of me... Not after everything I had to do to get to where I am.

“Right. Late wife,” I corrected, softening my tone. “I’m sorry, honey.” I leaned in and kissed her lips, hoping it would cool her jealousy.

But she wasn’t done.

“She’s dead and still stealing the spotlight,” Karen spat. “People are pathetic, only celebrating her now that she’s gone, acting like she was some kind of saint... I bet she realizes how cruel people can be when I pretended to be dead after she pushed me"

"Well... Thanks to that acting, it got us the company today,"  I smiled at her before picking up my car keys.

“Are we ready now?” I asked.

She walked up to me slowly, her fingers trailing from my lips to my chest, her breath warm against my neck. She knew exactly how to get under my skin. And I swear, she got me right there...

“Karen…” I murmured, grabbing her hands loosely, “Not now. Jeoffrey could walk in any minute.”

Her face darkened instantly. “That brat wouldn’t dare enter without my permission,” she snapped. “I can’t even stand him anymore. He’s just like her. Every look, every word, it’s Camilla all over again. It’s sickening.”

As we descended the stairs, I let out a low chuckle. “Camilla is dead now, you need to stop getting jealous of the dead, just let her breathe in the grave and besides, Jeoffery is just a kid, Karen. He’s seven. And when get married, he’ll be your stepson.”

"Whatever.... And I wasn't ever jealous of that witch" She said anchoring my hand.

I just nodded with a smile.

***

CAMILLA RYDER

I glanced at my phone while scrolling through the news, and there it was—bold and pathetic:

"LIAM RYDER HEARTBROKEN ON HIS WIFE’S DEATH ANNIVERSARY – CAMILLA RYDER"

A smirk tugged at my lips as I sipped my drink slowly. Across from me, Vincenzo cleared his throat, his eyes fixed on me, waiting but I ignored him. My gaze was glued to the screen, each word fueling the storm inside me.

Seven years. Seven whole years and Liam still managed to parade around with that fabricated sorrow, pretending to the public. I clicked on the video attached to the news and I watched him faking a cry, I felt like tearing him from limb to limb.

But, I leaned back, letting memories flood in. I never once regretted stepping into that sleek black car seven years ago, from an unknown stranger, who just sent me a strange letter and a one-way ride out of hell. Only later did I discover who had rescued me Rocco Bianchi—the infamous Mafia king and business tycoon. I thought I was saved from hell only to be thrown in a cage.

“So… I guess I’m invisible now?” Vincenzo muttered as he emptied his glass, trying to get me out of my head.

“Maybe you are,” I replied coldly. He was used to my dry humor by now.

Vin wasn’t just my bodyguard and personal assistant. Anyone with half a brain would think we were lovers. But we weren’t. Who knew we'd become so close seven years ago, when he picked me up from prison, the day he told me why Rocco wanted me- Apparently I was a complete look-alike of Giulia Bianchi, Rocco’s only daughter who died in a plane crash two days before her wedding to Lorenzo Vincent.

Lorenzo’s father, Marco Vincent, is the real power behind the Mafia curtain. Their peace alliance was to marry Giulia to Lorenzo. So they found me… and I became Giulia.

Vin leaned in slightly. “What’s your plan now? Your husband can’t know the real reason you’re back in the city, Giu.”

He never stopped trying to convince me not to do anything that'd cost me my head... maybe... Whether I was Rocco's fake daughter or not, it took him nothing to blow up my brain if he found out my plan. But the truth? I didn't come this far just to be Giulia.

I glared at Vincenzo. “I didn’t become Giulia just to sit and let Liam Ryder walk off with everything he stole from me,” I said, holding the tears threatening to fall off my face as my voice laced with ice. “He will suffer slowly. And anyone who stands in my way… becomes part of the wreckage.”

As the car pulled up in front of my hotel, I stepped out without a word. Vincenzo trailed behind me, followed by a swarm of bodyguards—As the wife of Lorenzo Vincent, I have tons of bodyguards follow me around like bees after their queen. Yeah, that's because Lorenzo is an insecure freak who never trusts anyone just like his father

... And if he hadn’t flown off for a business trip, I wouldn’t even be here representing him at the M-Elite Grand Opening, its new alliance with X-ren, the biggest name in Italy owned by Lorenzo's family—he's now heading it.

It was the perfect stage for my grand return.

Liam wouldn’t see it coming.

And Karen? She’d probably choke on her wine.

A dark smile danced on my lips. Let them gasp. Let them stare. They thought I was buried with Camilla Ryder.

Now… I rise as Giulia Bianchi-Vincent, and this time, I’m the nightmare they won’t wake up from because revenge is too simple, destruction is demure ...