Chapter 2 Public Ruin

Boney straightened and watched Caramel's face carefully waiting for a crack. Caramel didn't move at first. Her head was lowered and her hands was trembling badly. Gradually, she lifted her head and looked at him.

The man in front of her didn't look like the person she fell in love with. He looked like a total stranger. Before she could speak, Boney gave someone a small signal and a screen lit up behind her.

She didn't turn immediately. But the room wasn't the same anymore. Chairs scraped and her parents looked up sharply, their faces filled with shock as they stared past her. Slowly, she turned and saw it.

Apparently , everything she'd just read was projected for the whole room to see. Her breath caught and the paper slipped from her fingers to the floor. "No..." she whispered.

Murmurs rose around her.

"What is that?"

"Divorce on her birthday?"

She turned back to him, eyes heavy with tears. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" Her voice shook. "What's going on?"

He didn't answer. Cameras flashed — not phones anymore. Real ones. Paparazzi pushed into the room like they'd been waiting for this exact moment.

"Boney!" She grabbed his arm. "You need to stop right now!"

He looked at her, calmly. "I've waited a long time for this moment, Caramel. There's no stopping now." He removed her hand from his arm. "I promise, they're here to make tonight more memorable."

He walked back to center stage. "I'm sorry for the interruption," he told the room, but he wasn't sorry — it was written all over him. "I know everyone's confused, but don't worry. It's about to get even more interesting." He looked at the cameras. "I hope the press is ready. Because tonight, you're getting something exclusive."

His face turned hard. "As of today, Caramel Bento, cease to be my wife."

Gasps exploded across the room.

"I didn't marry her because I loved her." Boney continued, then he ooked at Caramel's parents now. "You can thank her family for that."

"What are you talking about?" Caramel's voice cracked. "This isn't fair!"

He finally looked at her. "You want to talk about fairness?"

"This isn't you, Boney..."

"You've been deceived," he cut in. "This is who I am. Not the man you thought was in love with you." He turned back to the room. "Does the name Aliandro ring a bell, Mr. and Mrs. Bento?"

Her parents froze.

"My name isn't Boney Makavia," he said. "It's Boney Aliandro. I'm the son of the man your family destroyed. And I've spent years preparing for this day."

"That's not true!" Caramel's mother's voice cut in, sharp and desperate and it only made things worse, because now every camera swung toward her too.

Caramel pressed one hand to her chest, the other over her stomach, like she could shield the life growing there from everything happening around her.

"You know you can be arrested for this," she said, shaking. "How could you humilate me and my parents like this?"

He stepped closer, mocking. "Because you and your murdering family deserve it."

"And now," he said, "we're even."

A sharp pain twisted low in her stomach. She gasped, hand flying down as something warm slid down her thigh.

She looked down.

Blood.

Her vision blurred. She lifted her eyes to his, and for the first time that night, he looked genuinely shocked.

"My... my..."

Her knees gave out. For half a second, nobody moved. Then the room broke apart.

"Caramel!" Her father was already shoving past chairs, past guests frozen with their phones still raised. "Get away from her... someone call an ambulance!"

Two of Boney's security men stepped into his path before he'd gone three feet. He shoved against them, his voice raw. "That's my daughter! Let me through!"

Caramel's mother was already moving the other way, straight for the stage, heels abandoned somewhere behind her. "Caramel, baby..."

A hand caught her arm but she wrenched free of it and kept going, climbing the steps herself before anyone could stop her, dropping to her knees beside her daughter on the floor.

"Someone help her, please!" she screamed at the room, at the cameras, at anyone. "Somebody help my daughter!"

Boney hadn't moved. He was staring down at Caramel like the ground had shifted under a plan he'd been so sure of.

"Boney." His name came out of her father like an accusation and a plea at once. Security still held him back, but he wasn't done. "Whatever this is...whatever you think we did...she has nothing to do with it. Look at her!"

Somewhere near the doors, more people were pushing in and phones were raised higher now, reporters shouting questions over each other, someone's camera flash catching Caramel's face where she lay against the stage floor.

"Get them back," someone shouted. "Give her air!"

That was when a reporter knew that he needed a report and shoved a microphone toward Boney from the edge of the stage. "Mr. Aliandro — do you have proof? Are the Bentos aware of these charges?"

Boney didn't answer. For a fact, he didn't even look at her. His eyes were entirely fixed on Caramel, on the blood and on the stillness of her body, like something in his plan hadn't accounted for this.

Near the front row, a young woman leaned in with her phone raised, angling for a closer shot of Caramel's face on the floor. A strange older looking man beside her who has been watching the entire scene with a stillness that didn't match the panic around him, reached over and lowered the woman's phone without a word. He wasn't filming and he wasn't shouting for help either.

Instead he was watching Boney.

Not with shock or concern but with satisfaction at how everything unfolded. He also didn't look so pleased with Boney's last minute reaction. As if Boney felt he was been watched, he took his gaze away from Caramel and his eyes landed on the man. Boney's expression changed subtly with shock but it disappeared as soon as it came. The man gave Boney a cold stare and he did not utter a word. He just adjusted his cufflink, and stepped back into the crowd as security began pushing people toward the doors.