Ivy Richardson POV:
Clayton's hoarse, demanding question echoed across the empty, wind-swept cemetery. Even in his shock, his tone carried that same sickening, ingrained arrogance—the voice of a man who was entirely used to barking orders and expecting the world to bow.
I didn't look at his face. I lowered my gaze, my eyes landing on the cheap bouquet of plastic white lilies lying in the mud between us.
Lilies were my mother's absolute favorite flower. Yet, the man who claimed to be my grieving fiancé couldn't even be bothered to spend twenty dollars on a real bouquet.
I lifted my foot. The sharp heel of my custom Italian leather shoe came down hard, directly onto the center of the fake petals. I didn't hesitate. I pressed my weight down, grinding the plastic into the wet earth.
*Crack.*
The sharp, brittle sound of the plastic stem snapping echoed loudly in the dead silence. It wasn't just a flower I was crushing; it was the pathetic, hypocritical illusion of his deep affection.
Clayton's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. The muscles in his jaw ticked violently.
He was genuinely enraged. For years, he had been completely conditioned to my absolute, silent obedience. The sight of me actively destroying something he had brought, actively defying him, short-circuited his brain.
He lunged forward, closing the physical distance between us in one aggressive stride. The oppressive, heavy scent of his cologne invaded my personal space.
I stood my ground. I looked at him with the exact same expression I would use to look at a rotting piece of garbage left on the sidewalk.
I spent every single day next to Collin—a man who controlled global markets with a flick of his wrist. Standing next to a true apex predator made a weak, entitled little boy like Clayton look absolutely repulsive.
Clayton reached out, his large hand aiming directly for my shoulder. His fingers were curled, ready to grip me, to physically assert his ownership over my body just like he used to.
Before his skin could even brush the fabric of my trench coat, I shifted my weight.
I pivoted smoothly on my heel, stepping backward and dropping my shoulder in a flawless evasion maneuver. Five years of grueling, daily hand-to-hand combat training had hardwired this muscle memory into my very bones.
Clayton's hand grabbed nothing but empty air. He froze, his arm suspended awkwardly in the space between us, looking utterly ridiculous.
The power dynamic had just inverted, and he could feel it.
He gritted his teeth. Beneath the shock and the anger, a sick, twisted flash of possessive joy ignited in his bloodshot eyes. His property wasn't dead after all.
"Do you have any idea what you've done to me?" he snarled, his voice dripping with venom. "Five years, Ivy! You let me carry the guilt of your death for five years without a single phone call!"
I let out a soft, breathy scoff.
It was the classic abuser's playbook. He was standing over my grave, yet somehow, he was the primary victim. I felt a wave of profound secondhand embarrassment for the old version of myself who had actually loved this pathetic excuse for a man.
I reached up and slowly pulled off my black sunglasses.
I didn't blink. The eyes that he remembered—the ones that used to constantly brim with unshed tears and desperate pleas for his approval—were gone. My gaze was razor-sharp, flat, and lethal.
Clayton physically recoiled. The sheer, freezing intensity radiating from my eyes burned him. He involuntarily took a half-step back, his boots crunching on the gravel.
"Under what title exactly are you questioning me?" I asked.
My voice was a dead, chilling calm. I was perfectly mimicking the dark, sociopathic cadence of my adoptive brother, Arnulfo. I was completely stripping Clayton of his perceived authority.
Clayton blinked, stunned by the question. "I'm your fiancé!" he blurted out, the patriarchal entitlement practically vomiting out of his mouth.
I didn't argue. I just reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I tapped the screen to wake it up.
The bright backlight illuminated my custom lock screen: a high-definition close-up of my hand intertwined with Collin's, a massive, flawless diamond wedding ring resting heavy on my finger.
I didn't turn the screen to show him. He didn't deserve to see it. I simply checked the time. My schedule was far too expensive to waste on a dead man walking.
"Fiancé," I repeated, the word tasting like ash. "That title expired the second you stood in that hospital corridor five years ago and signed the 'Do Not Resuscitate' order."
All the blood instantly drained from Clayton's face. His skin turned a sickly, translucent white.
I had just ripped open the ugliest, bloodiest secret of his life.
"That... that was a medical necessity!" he stammered, his chest heaving in panic as he furiously tried to backpedal. "The doctors misdiagnosed you! They said you were brain-dead!"
I took a deliberate step forward. The sharp click of my heel against the stone path sounded like a judge's gavel.
I invaded his space, completely dominating the physical environment. I stared directly into his panicked, darting eyes, dissecting every single pathetic lie he was trying to construct.
A thick bead of cold sweat broke out on Clayton's forehead. His breathing grew shallow. His body was recognizing that he was no longer the hunter. He was the prey.
My lips parted, and I delivered the final, crushing blow.
"And Ainsley?" I whispered, my voice slicing through the cold air.
Clayton's entire body violently shuddered at the sound of her name. He looked like a man who had just been caught standing over a fresh corpse.
I smiled, and it was the cruellest thing he had ever seen.
"When you pulled my oxygen tube back then, Ainsley was watching from right outside the door, wasn't she?"
