ed down on me, making the thin silk dress feel like a second, useless skin. I stood on a circular stage i

supposed t

nto my finger. Our engagement party was a fairytale, held in the sprawling gardens of my family' s estate. My father, a respected venture capitalist, beamed with pride, and my mo

phone in the room. Vance Capital had collapsed, implicated in a massive fraud scheme. My father' s face went white. The ce

he double blow of losing her husband and our entire world, retreated into a place in her mind I couldn't reach. Her laughter

vernight. My home,

eek, minimalist office overlooking the city, a landscape of power he had conquered

e, his face a mask

d of any emotion. "Every part of it. I destroye

w grief in my chest. "Why? L

ur father destroyed my family. He fabricated a scandal, accusing my father, a brilliant inventor, of stealin

disgraced. The world he built turned on him. He killed himself, Ava. And my mother, drivi

sing to process the words. "N

swore I would take everything from him, just like he took ever

, to this exclusive, underground club he owned, a place where the city's elite came to indulge their darke

tion of his revenge. He

g me from the sickening memory, "we present our

leaning back with an air of total control. He raised his glass to me in a mock toast,

thought he had won. He would see. One day, he would kneel and beg for a forgiveness I woul

fiance, my mind already plotting, planning for a future where I would be the one holding all the