Chapter 2

Elena's POV

The banquet hall went still all over again.

The girl walked in, step by careful step.

My mother's eyes filled almost immediately.

"My child."

She rushed forward and pulled the girl into her arms.

In that single second, I went stone-still.

Because from the beginning of all of it, my mother had not once looked back at me.

The girl bit her lip softly and spoke in a small voice.

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't mean to ruin my sister's engagement banquet."

The tears spilled over while she was still talking.

And the eyes around the room shifted, one by one.

"So she's the real heiress?"

"Then what does that make Elena?"

"A fake. That's all."

The whispers were getting louder, sharper.

I couldn't breathe right anymore, and without thinking, my hand tightened on Alexander's.

Like he was the last thing keeping me from going under.

"Alexander."

My eyes were already burning.

You promised me. You said you'd marry me no matter what happened.

You said you loved me.

You said you'd never leave me.

My voice was shaking, my whole body was shaking. Looking at the cold, distant thing his face had become, I couldn't get anything out except his name, and all the strength I had left went into holding on to his hand.

When Alexander saw me trembling like that, eyes wet and red, he gave me that soft, familiar smile, the one I knew.

And then, slowly, finger by finger, he pried my hand off his.

Slow. Methodical. Cruel.

I just stood there, frozen, watching him.

"What did you think?"

He spoke at last.

He turned his head and looked down at me.

There was nothing left of the man who'd loved me in those blood-red eyes.

"Why do you think I chose you?"

I couldn't breathe. My chest hurt so badly it had gone numb. I looked at that cold face and suddenly didn't recognize him at all.

"If it weren't for that bloodline, you were never fit to stand beside me."

In that instant the blood went cold in every part of my body.

I couldn't believe it.

That these words were coming out of Alexander's mouth.

The boy who'd grown up beside me.

Who'd panicked every time I cried.

Who'd held me and sworn I'd never be hurt by anyone.

That man was standing in front of everyone now, grinding me into the dirt with his own hands.

"No."

I shook my head.

"It's not like that."

"Alexander, you love me, I know you love me."

But he was already frowning, and there was impatience in his eyes now.

"Enough. Don't be stupid, Elena. Get out of my way. Walk out of here on your own."

Then, in front of everyone, he slid the engagement ring off my finger.

I started shaking.

"Alexander."

I reached for him.

He pulled back from my hand before I could touch him.

Like I was something dirty.

Then he turned, and took the other girl's hand.

"Welcome home. My true bride."

That was all he said.

The hall exploded.

"This is unreal. She doesn't actually think Lord Alexander loved her, does she?"

"A fake trying to marry into a vampire House."

"No noble blood, just a regular human. What is she even?"

The voices cut into my ears like knives.

The people who'd flattered me, who'd fawned over me, who'd tried to get close to me, every one of them stood with my family and the man I'd grown up with and helped shove me into hell.

I stood in the middle of all of them, freezing.

"Father?"

I finally turned to him, eyes red.

"You don't want me anymore?"

But he was just frowning.

There was nothing left in his eyes of the man who'd raised me.

"Enough."

His voice was cold.

"You've taken twenty years of her life from her. Stop embarrassing yourself."

Something inside me shut down.

It felt like someone had torn my chest open.

Beside me, someone was already laughing softly.

"She isn't going to try to stay, is she?"

"How ugly. A fake heiress, nothing more."

The eyes on me looked at me the way you look at a cheap clown.

In the end, an attendant came up.

"Miss. Please leave the banquet hall."

I bit down on my lip hard.

"I'm not leaving. This is my engagement banquet—"

A wave of laughter went up the second the words were out of my mouth.

"Yours?"

"You? Deserve this?"

The attendant grabbed my arm.

I was dragged out of there in a mess.

My heel snapped off. My skirt was soaked with spilled wine.

I felt like a puppet with its strings cut. I couldn't fight back, I couldn't do anything.

Without the bloodline, without the name, I'd lost every scrap of love and attention that had ever been mine.

The love I'd thought I had, all those years, had been that thin.

My eyes blurred. I looked back at my family, looked at Alexander, and none of them reacted at all.

Laughter filled the whole banquet hall.

Just before they pushed me through the doors, I turned my head one last time.

Up on the platform, Alexander was sliding the ring, the ring that had been mine, onto another woman's finger.