The chaos of the cathedral spilled out onto the wide stone steps, a frenzy of shouting reporters and flashing cameras. The cold air hit Athena's burning cheek like a slap. She felt like a prisoner being paraded through the streets for public ridicule, each step a walk across broken glass.
Armond followed them out, positioning himself at the top of the steps, a king surveying the execution of a traitor. He watched, his face impassive, as the officers pushed her toward the waiting police car.
At the curb, just before they forced her inside, she stopped. With a sudden, violent twist, she wrenched her arm from the officer's grip. He grunted in surprise, fumbling to regain his hold, but she had bought herself a few precious seconds.
She spun around. Her eyes, blazing with a fire born from the ashes of her love, cut through the clamoring crowd and locked onto Armond.
In that instant, the world fell away. The noise, the lights, the jostling bodies-it all vanished. There was only him, standing there in his perfect suit, the architect of her ruin.
There were no tears on her face. Only a terrifying calm, the stillness that comes after a devastating storm has leveled everything to the ground. And in that stillness, something new was taking root: a cold, sharp, and undying hatred.
"Armond Solomon."
Her voice was not loud, but it was clear and sharp, carrying over the din with a metallic resonance.
At the top of the steps, Armond's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. He had expected hysterics, pleading, tears. Not this.
A strange, tragic, and utterly mocking smile touched Athena's lips. "You won," she said, her voice steady. "You've destroyed my home, you've destroyed my name, and now you're sending me to prison."
Her gaze roamed over his handsome face, a face she had once loved with every fiber of her being. "I thought I married a man," she continued, her voice gaining strength. "I see now that I married a coward. And a blind man."
A collective gasp rippled through the reporters closest to her. No one dared to speak ill of Armond Solomon, let alone to his face.
His expression darkened, his eyes flashing with a spark of fury.
She ignored it. "You'd rather believe a beautifully crafted lie than the wife who slept by your side for five years." Her voice rose, ringing with a terrible power. "So I curse you, Armond."
"I curse you to live every day for the rest of your life with the memory of this victory."
"I curse you to be haunted by guilt in your sleep, to be tormented by the truth you refuse to see."
"And when that day comes-and it will come-when you finally uncover the truth, you will realize that the only real thing you ever had is what you destroyed with your own hands."
"You will come back to me. You will crawl back on your knees and beg for my forgiveness. And on that day," she finished, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper, "you will receive nothing from me but the same pain you gave me, a hundred times over."
Each word was a bullet, fired with deadly precision.
Having said her piece, she didn't give him another glance. She turned, her back straight, and slid into the back of the police car with a dignity they could not take from her.
The door slammed shut, sealing her off from the world.
As the car pulled away from the curb, the siren beginning its mournful wail, she looked out the window. She saw him one last time, standing on the steps, his face a thunderous mask of rage. Her eyes met his, and what he saw there was no longer love or pain, but the promise of a reckoning, cold and absolute as death.
The police car sped away, leaving Armond Solomon standing amidst the chaos, his hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles were white. Her words echoed in his ears, a venomous prophecy.
A strange, unsettling feeling-a flicker of something like doubt-pricked at his conscience. He crushed it instantly, dismissing it as anger at her unrepentant defiance.
He turned to his assistant, his voice a low growl. "Make sure she gets the maximum sentence."
FIVE YEARS LATER.
A heavy iron gate groaned open, the sound of scraping metal setting teeth on edge.
Blinding sunlight flooded the opening.
Athena Barnes stepped out, squinting against the sudden brightness. She wore a cheap, ill-fitting set of clothes provided by the state. Her face was pale, thinner than before, but her eyes held a new depth. They were calm, steady, and hard as polished stone. The love, the pain, the betrayal of five years ago had been burned away, leaving behind only a quiet, unbreakable resolve.
She was free.
