Emily's POVThe tension in the dining room was unbearable, the weight of unspoken grievances pressing against my chest like a suffocating fog. I sat stiffly in my seat, forcing myself to focus on the silverware in front of me, the polished surface of my fork gleaming under the chandelier’s glow. Damian had been called away to speak with his father, leaving me alone to endure the suffocating company of people who barely concealed their contempt for me.I was accustomed to it.Still, I had hoped for at least a moment of peace.That hope was shattered the moment Louis turned his gaze toward me.“Emily,” he said, his voice smooth, yet dripping with venom.I barely acknowledged him. I didn’t want to.But he didn’t care.He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, his piercing eyes locked onto mine. “Tell me, what exactly are you trying to accomplish by being with Damian?”I inhaled sharply but refused to respond. I would not give him the satisfaction.Louis, however, took my silenc
Emily's POVCharlotte tilted her head, feigning innocence. “Who’s to say they don’t have an ulterior motive?”Maya’s face stiffened.Lyla’s fingers twitched slightly against the tablecloth.And Charles, despite his carefully maintained composure, looked rattled.It was Louis who spoke first.“That’s enough.”But Charlotte merely raised an eyebrow, unaffected by his demand.Then Charles finally spoke, his voice cold, sharp. “Maya has sacrificed so much for this family.”Charlotte scoffed, her lips curling into something cruel and unamused.“So, you’d rather stand up for Maya than for your own daughter?”The tension in the dining room thickened like a suffocating fog, pressing in from all sides. Charles’s face was rigid with barely contained frustration, his eyes sharp as they locked onto Charlotte. The weight of unspoken resentment hung in the air, heavy and unrelenting.“This isn’t about Maya,” Charles finally snapped, his voice stern, unwavering. “It’s about you.”Charlotte arched an
Emily's POVThe knock at the door came late, just past midnight. The city had settled into a hushed lull, the distant hum of traffic barely audible through the thick walls of Damian’s apartment. I had been curled up on the couch with a book, Damian beside me, his arm draped lazily over my shoulders, his warmth soothing the tension that still lingered from the disastrous dinner at his family’s estate.At first, I thought I had imagined the sound. But then it came again, sharper, more insistent.Damian sighed, untangling himself from me as he stood, his steps heavy with reluctance as he moved toward the door. He didn’t need to check who it was. We both knew.When he pulled it open, Charlotte stood there, arms crossed, chin lifted in that stubborn, unyielding way of hers. She looked just as she had when she stormed out of the estate, furious, exhausted, and wholly unwilling to explain herself.“I’m staying here tonight,” she announced, as if it were an irrefutable fact.Damian didn’t look
Emily's POVI blinked up at Damian, caught off guard by the sudden confession. He didn’t sound hesitant, but there was a certain weight to his words, as though he had been waiting for the right moment to say them.“I thought about it,” I admitted, my voice quiet in the dimly lit room. “It didn’t make sense to me, especially after everything we’ve been through.”His lips twitched with the ghost of a smile, but his eyes remained serious. “It wasn’t about keeping distance, Emily. I never wanted that.” He paused, as if choosing his next words carefully. “I’ve been dealing with my family’s business late at night. I didn’t want to disturb your rest.”Relief flooded through me, washing away the last remnants of doubt I hadn’t even realized I was still holding on to.“You were protecting my sleep?” I asked, a soft laugh escaping me.He smirked, brushing a kiss against my forehead. “I was trying. Though, I have to admit, I missed you more than I expected.”I smiled, my fingers tracing the stro
Louis's POVLately, my life has been a complete mess.I stood in my office, the once-pristine shelves now half-empty, their contents scattered across the desk in various stages of packing. The room, once a symbol of my ambition, now felt suffocating, like a tomb I was sealing shut with every item I placed in the boxes.The decision had been made. I was leaving this company behind, stepping into a new position at Charles’ family business, a move that wasn’t entirely my own.Maya had ensured that.I dragged a hand through my hair, exhaling sharply. The very thought of it sent a wave of unease through me, an unshakable heaviness that clung to my chest.My eyes flickered toward the darkened window, and just like that, the past surged forward, an unwelcome ghost clawing its way back into my mind.***Maya sat across from me, draped in silk, her lips curved in a knowing smirk. She held a glass of wine between her fingers, swirling it lazily as she leaned back against the plush couch in our
Louis's POVThe city lights blurred as I drove through the night, their glow reflected in the windshield like distant stars mocking me. A week had passed since I left my old office, and yet, the weight on my shoulders had only grown heavier. Because of Maya, my workload had doubled. More meetings, more responsibilities, more insufferable business dinners with men whose voices grated on my nerves.This was what she wanted.Maya had secured her position as Charles’ daughter, and in turn, she had pulled me into a world I had no interest in. She wanted me integrated, established, tied so deeply into her family’s empire that there was no escape. And I let her.Networking events. Tedious discussions about investments, supply chains, and expanding market control. I had to play my part, to endure it all if I wanted to keep my place. I despised it. Every second of it felt like a slow suffocation, like being trapped in a role I never auditioned for.Tonight had been particularly unbearable.I g
Maya's POVLucy Laurent, the woman who would soon be my mother-in-law, was going to drive me insane.No, she already had driven me insane.Every single day, it was something new. Some trivial argument over a meaningless detail, some clash of preferences, some new and insufferable eccentricity she introduced into the house. We were two completely different people—our tastes, our habits, our very lives could not have been more incompatible. And yet, somehow, we were stuck under the same roof, battling over dominance like two queens in a game of chess.I was patient. I always won in the end.But the victories were exhausting.She knew how to push my buttons, how to make everything just unbearable enough to ruin my mood. But ever since my status changed—since I became Charles’ acknowledged daughter, since I secured my position at the top—she had started showing some restraint. At least on the surface.Still, I wasn’t a fool. I knew she loathed me.But I didn’t care. Because I had everythi
Maya's POVI couldn’t take it anymore. My hands were trembling as I clutched my phone, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The sheer disgust of what I had just seen, the chaos of this house, the stench that clung to every surface, it was all too much. I swiped at the tears on my cheeks, pressing the call button with shaking fingers. The phone barely rang before Louis picked up."Maya?" His voice was steady, indifferent, as if he hadn’t just left me to drown in this nightmare of a house.I felt my composure shatter the moment I heard his voice. "Louis, I can't do this anymore," I cried, my words tumbling out in a desperate, breathless rush. "I swear to God, I am losing my mind in this house! Your mother—she is unbearable! She is always here, always interfering, always shoving her ridiculous remedies down my throat, and I have had enough!"There was silence on the other end, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. "She keeps making these disgusting concoctions and insists I drink them.
Emily's POVI couldn’t help it. The smirk spread across my face before I could stop it, satisfaction blooming in my chest like a firework. There, on her wedding night, Maya stood trembling in her glittering red dress, her mask ripped away, her secrets echoing in the cool evening air. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to dance. But I kept my expression composed, the way a queen might regard a jester who had overstayed her welcome.Damian’s arm tightened around me, and now he was looking at Maya with open contempt. “This is your last warning,” he said, his voice a low growl. “If you continue scheming, I will destroy you. Not just with rumors or whispers. I will bring the truth out in the open, and there will be nowhere left for you to hide.”Maya flinched. For the first time, she had no comeback, no clever insult, no crocodile tears. She stood rooted in place, teeth clenched, eyes darting from him to me and back again, her fury barely contained beneath her skin.I stepped forward slightly, no
Emily's POVThe sound that followed was unmistakable. Maya’s voice—clear, venomous—hissed from the tiny speaker.“The day you lost your baby… You still remember it, don’t you?”My breath caught again, but this time it was not from pain. It was from the raw clarity of hearing her confession echoed back to her. Damian stood tall beside me, his phone raised slightly between us all, his face unreadable.“You want to know the truth, Emily? That day… the day everything fell apart for you… I went to Louis’s house. It was Lucy who let me in. And after she left, I changed into your clothes. And while you were asleep… I drugged you.”There was a soft gasp from Maya, but the recording continued, unwavering.“I needed you to look crazy, Emily. And it worked, didn’t it? Poor, unstable, hysterical Emily. And your baby? Well, that was just an unfortunate consequence.”Maya's face blanched as her own giggle crackled from the speaker.“I was the one who released it.”Then my voice joined in, calm, eve
Emily's POVThe tent flap flew open with a suddenness that cut through the tension like a blade, and Maya’s smugness evaporated instantly. I watched as her whole body transformed, as though she were an actress snapping into a different role with revolting ease. She dropped her smirk like a discarded mask and lunged for my hand with trembling fingers, her eyes wide and glistening with freshly manufactured tears.“Emily,” she whimpered, her voice catching, as though she were the one who had just been threatened. “Please… I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just trying to talk—”It was horrifying to watch. She looked like a chameleon caught mid-shift, her oversized, glassy eyes darting between expressions, her mouth twisted into a trembling grimace of sorrow. She was grotesque, a pitiful little thing putting on a pageant of guilt. My skin crawled. I stumbled back, yanking my hand from her claws, my voice sharp and full of loathing.“Let me go,” I spat, shaking off the last trace of her tou
Emily's POVI remained still. My heart pounded in my chest, but I did not move.That drove her completely mad.Maya’s expression tightened, frustration flashing behind her eyes. This was her moment of triumph, her moment to watch me crumble, to see me break beneath the weight of her cruelty, and I refused to give her that victory.She drew a breath, her lips curling into something sharper, something colder. “Do you remember that video?” she whispered, her voice like silk wrapping around a dagger. “The one that destroyed you? The one that made Louis finally leave you? The one that showed the whole world what you refused to believe?”I clenched my fingers at my sides.A slow, satisfied smirk stretched across her lips. “I was the one who released it.”The world tilted for a split second.Pain lanced through me, sharp, deep, sudden. My breath hitched ever so slightly, but I forced myself to breathe, to push past the suffocating weight pressing down on my chest.For so long, I had wondered
Maya, however, chuckled lightly, the sound as artificial as the diamonds glistening in her ears. "Oh, Emily herself is already annoying enough," she mused, her eyes gleaming. "I did hear something rather interesting, though. Apparently, Damian has been searching for someone, his childhood first love." She tilted her head, her gaze locking onto mine. "Maybe he just thinks Emily looks like her."Her words were not spoken in hushed tones. They were meant to be heard, meant to draw a reaction, meant to make me falter.I did not.Instead, I reached for my fork, cutting through the delicate piece of fish on my plate, tasting the citrus glaze with an appreciative nod. "The ingredients are lovely," I said simply, directing my words to Damian and his grandfather, who sat nearby. Damian smiled, nodding in agreement, and his grandfather gave a pleased chuckle.Maya’s smile tightened.The rest of the night continued in a blur of laughter, music, and speeches. I played my role well. I smiled when
Emily's POVI still came to the wedding despite my reservations.When Damian’s father personally delivered the invitation, I hesitated for a long time. I could have refused and left all the pain in the past, could have spared myself from the whispers, the lingering stares, the carefully measured pity disguised as politeness. But in the end, I chose to face it. I wanted to prove to everyone that I had moved on.With my hand resting on Damian’s arm, I stepped into the wedding reception with composed steps, my expression indifferent, my spine straight. The murmurs started almost instantly, hushed voices passing from one guest to another like a ripple in still water. I could feel the weight of their gazes, lingering too long before darting away when I met their eyes. Most of them were familiar faces, I had once raised my glass to toast their happiness at their own weddings, just as they had once watched me walk down the aisle toward Louis, believing it was forever. And now, they saw me he
Maya's POVStepping out of the bridal suite once more, I felt reborn. The deep wine-red gown cascaded over my frame, sculpted to perfection, seductive yet elegant, as though it had been woven from the very essence of power itself. The rubies glistening at my neck and wrists caught the light with every movement, perfectly matching the fire in my veins. It was not just a dress. It was a statement. It declared to the world that I was untouchable, that I had won.The moment I stepped outside the main doors, heads turned. My father, Charles, was the first to approach, his expression one of pure admiration. His arms opened, and I stepped into his embrace, inhaling the scent of expensive cologne and success."You are breathtaking," he murmured, pulling back to admire me. "Everything about this night is perfection, and all of it is for you, my beautiful daughter."I beamed, tilting my chin up as if soaking in the admiration. "Thank you, Father. This wedding, this reception, it is beyond anyth
Maya's POVThe reception was a masterpiece.Exactly as I’d imagined it—a golden haze blanketing the estate as the sun dipped low in the sky, casting everything in that soft, glowing light you can’t fake. Rows of champagne flutes sparkled like diamonds, the scent of roses wafting through the warm air, mingling with hints of truffle, seared lamb, and other delicacies I had hand-selected from a Michelin-starred tasting.People were talking about it already. I could hear it in the way they murmured as they arrived, the way their eyes widened at the floral arch, the way their compliments grew more effusive with each course. This wasn’t just a reception—it was the event. The kind of thing high society would whisper about for years.Louis and I stood at the entrance like royalty, arms elegantly linked as guests floated toward us with their congratulations and over-the-top gifts. I wanted every single one of them on display—glinting under the chandeliers in the grand salon like trophies. Proo
Emily's POVLouis wasted no time. He pulled her into his arms, pressing a lingering kiss against her temple before resting his forehead against hers. “Finally,” he murmured, his breath warm against her skin. “It’s over. We’re married.”Maya smiled, resting her hands on his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart beneath the crisp fabric of his tuxedo. “Yes,” she whispered. “And it was perfect.”His lips curled into a soft grin as he kissed her once more. “I can’t believe we actually made it through the day.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Now we can start our new life together. Just us and the baby.”At the mention of their child, Maya’s fingers tightened against his jacket. Their baby. The ultimate symbol of her victory. She had everything. Louis, their marriage, their child.She let out a pleased hum, tilting her head to look at herself in the full-length mirror. Louis wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, and she sighed in contentment. She wasn’t showing yet, thank Go