The next evening Xander was waiting at the bottom of the marble staircase, his hand stretched out like always waiting for me to take.
At the very next moment I walked past him without a word for the first time in three years.
He froze for a second before composing himself, a flicker of surprise reflecting in his eyes before he composed himself.
With that he followed me without another word, sitting opposite in the car like a stranger.
It was my night.
The Valcruz Legacy Showcase.
REVIVE.
My first fashion line.
Six dresses that took me years to prepare..
Every thread was a wound that I remembered.
The collection was my love letter to a woman the world tried to erase.
To a girl who was eight years old and alone when she watched her mother stop wanting to live.
At the fashion show of the year my dresses began to appear one by one.
‘Ariadne’ the dress in pink, my mother’s youthful love to my father.
‘Descent’ a bird in cage when mom realised that father married her for her money.
‘Unspoken’ Cerulean blue when my father’s mistress was found and my mother was locked for ‘creating a scene’.
‘Inheritance’ midnight-black embroidered with barbed vines. Strength passed through pain.
‘Resurrection’ a scarlet blaze cut high and fierce. The fire she lit in me.
But then the clapping intensified as my final piece appeared with thousands of people cheering and applauding yet my face was pale as a ghost.
My stepsister Jessica stepped onto the stage, wearing the final masterpiece.
‘Love’
A dress I had stitched with trembling hands, tears slipping onto the fabric.
It held a piece of mom….actual strands of her hair sealed inside the brooch at the collar.
Her heartbeat lived inside that gown.
My mother’s dress.
My ears rang in horror.
“No!” I choked out, stumbling towards the stage “She is not supposed to wear that…she can’t! No!”
At that moment a hand gripped my wrist in a bruising grip.
I whipped around on the verge of breaking down and saw him.
Xander.
His fingers dug into my skin, his gaze unreadable.
“Let go of me!” I hissed, shaking with rage. “That dress has my mother’s hair in it! My mother’s killer is wearing a part of her? No! Don’t you understand that?!”
But Xander didn’t flinch.
“Don’t cause a scene, Miss Valcruz. This isn’t about you.” I staggered back snapping my hand out of his hold, my entire world collapsing.
That’s when a voice boomed across the room.
A man stepped forward in black uniform.
“My name is Peter. Butler to Mr. Xander Thorne, CEO of Thorn Enterprises.”
He bowed elegantly before continuing “Our CEO believes that all beautiful things in this world should go their rightful owner and all these dresses can only have one master and that is Miss Jessica..”
Jessica blushed, pressing a gloved hand to her chest as if embarrassed. “Oh… I had no idea Mr.Xander would show me such favor. I-I am just honored….I would want to meet the man who is so kind…I have never seen him before so I hope we can arrange a meeting soon.”
The crowd swooned.
The flashes grew louder.
“Xander Thorne? Everyone knows about him but he has never made a public appearance, and to think Miss Jessica already has him wrapped around her finger?”
“Xander Thorne must be head over heels for Miss Jessica. To think she attracted the attention of such tycoon.”
My steps faltered.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, low and sharp, barely breathing.
Before I could reach the stage, event staff wheeled out racks. The five other dresses shoved onto plastic hangers. Not handled with gloves. Not even with care.
“All six pieces, exclusively gifted to Miss Jessica Thorn by our master Mr Xander Thorne, who has said that Miss Athena should know her place and not bully the innocent miss Jessica.”
The crowd gasped and everyone watched me like I was a specimen in zoo, harsh and calculating.
Jessica looked around, feigning innocence.
“Sister? Please don’t..don’t be mad okay?…I am sorry but I never wanted to steal your spotlight.” she said with eyes wide and innocent.
I wanted to scream and cry.
Xander stood behind me watching me closely like a judge.
He didn’t speak.
He looked at me like I was an eyesore. Like this was a necessary punishment for not inviting Jessica and for calling her a ‘wench.’
His wrath was precise.
Public.
Humiliating.
I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood.
The event ended and just like that all my dresses were gone with my name completely erased.
With that I didn’t had anything left in me.
Turning around I did not watch Xander looking at Jessica like a lovestruck man, nor did I see Jessica’s sly smile.
I drove to the countryside farmhouse which was on the verge of collapse.
To the garden.
My mother’s garden. The one she fought to keep when they wanted to demolish it for an underground vault.
The jasmine had bloomed early.
I stood beneath it in heels and ruin, looking like a woman who was left with nothing.
And I cried.
Not polite tears but the deep cries that shake one’s soul.
The kind that come from the deepest corner of a broken girl.
Not because I had loved Xander like a fire in winter and he had used that very same fire to burn me alive.
Not because the crowd adored Jessica like she was the heroine and marked me as the villainess.
But because I was letting go of all the love that once I held for anyone in this place.
The screams that echoed were left unanswered.
