“I think I just have to kill her father,” Treston said, his tone disturbingly casual. “Then I can finally dispose of her.”
My body turned to ice.
I stood frozen just outside his office door, every breath caught in my throat. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My fingers clutched my bag so tightly I thought the straps would snap.
He wasn’t joking. He wasn’t angry.
He meant every word.
I thought that was the end of it—his cruelty. His audacity. But then he laughed again, voice thick with arrogance.
“She’s so damn stupid. Imagine thinking I was her savior. Me,” he scoffed. “The truth is, I’ve always been the villain. I’m the reason her family lost everything.”
My knees weakened. I had to press against the wall to stay upright.
He continued, voice lowering with pride, “Our companies were rivals, remember? And then when that merger was being discussed, everyone thought it was a win-win. But she wasn’t paying attention—too busy living in her little world, ignoring board meetings, pretending business didn’t concern her.”
I remembered that. I remembered hearing whispers about a partnership between our companies. I met Treston once during a corporate charity gala, and even then, something about him felt… dangerous. But I didn’t care about corporate politics. I left it to my father. He always said he’d protect me from that world.
Until he couldn’t anymore.
“Her father never saw it coming,” Treston said with a cruel chuckle. “I orchestrated the scam. The investor collapse. Everything. And when the crash came and the old man landed in that coma, all I had to do was act like a hero.”
Summer giggled. “And now she thinks you’re her only lifeline.”
“She was,” Treston said. “But now? I don’t need her anymore. I own everything. Their name. Their legacy. Her father’s treatment is just leverage until I’m done securing these final investors.”
Summer’s voice lowered. “What if she finds out the truth?”
Treston scoffed. “Even if she does, it’s too late. I already won. The company is mine. Her father is practically mine. What can she do?”
“And what about me?” Summer asked, sounding suddenly annoyed. “Why not divorce her already and marry me? Our son’s getting older. Don’t you want people to know he has a father?”
Treston kissed her. “Relax, babe. Just wait a little longer. Once I close this investor deal, I’ll get rid of her. I still need her name—for now. These investors still believe in her and her father. They’re the only ones who defended him after the scandal. But once they sign…”
He didn’t finish the sentence.
He didn’t have to.
They laughed together.
And that was it.
I didn’t cry. I didn’t even feel anger. I felt emptiness.
The five years I gave him. The loyalty. The silence. The sacrifices. The marriage. It was never love. Never real. I was just part of his long con. A pawn.
I walked away from the door, heart hollow. I refused to cry again.
Later that afternoon, I visited my father.
I sat beside his hospital bed, gently holding his hand, and whispered, “I’m sorry, Papa… I should’ve listened to those board meetings. I should’ve asked you more questions. Maybe if I had, you wouldn’t be here. Maybe I could’ve stopped all of this before it happened.”
His chest rose and fell rhythmically, peacefully.
“I’m going to make things right,” I promised. “Even if I have to destroy everything to do it.”
As if on cue, my phone buzzed.
A message from Niccolo.
Everything is ready for you and your father. See you in three days. You’re finally mine now, Amber. There’s no way I’m letting go.
Niccolo. My sworn rival back in college. Ruthless. Brilliant. Obsessively interested in me. And the man I had called one week ago in desperation.
The man who had always told me that someday, I would need him. And now… I did.
I went home, still feeling like I was sleepwalking through a nightmare. But the nightmare wasn’t done with me yet.
Because there, in the living room, was Summer. And a child. A little boy, barely three. Running around the house like it was his own. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him. Summer once brought him over, casually saying, “He’s my friend’s son. I need to babysit him for a few days.”
And Treston… he’d started asking me to buy baby gifts a year ago.
“For a client,” he’d said. “I need to make a good impression on her son.”
I believed him. God, I was such a fool.
Summer had disappeared abroad three years ago—right after our wedding. When she returned a year later, she never talked about where she’d been. I never asked. I trusted her.
Now I knew. She had been carrying his child. And I had been buying gifts for their son.
My thoughts were spinning when the little boy ran through the hallway, knocking into the altar at the center of the living room.
The urn fell.
My mother’s urn.
Shattered.
My scream echoed through the house. “What the hell did you just do?!”
The child stared at me, confused, then started crying.
He ran—toward the stairs.
“Wait—no!”
Before I could catch him, his foot slipped. He tumbled, fast, his small body bouncing down the wooden steps with a sickening thud.
Everything went still. My breath caught. And all I could do was stare at the broken urn… and the child on the floor.
