The Sinclair Matriarch’s welcome dinner was set to be a grand affair.
The entire capital knew about this marriage.
Ashton, Candice, Richard, and Evelyn were already seated in the main hall. They were eagerly waiting for me to shuffle into the room, covered in bruises, my spirit completely broken by Brandon’s supposedly violent temper.
Because Brandon was “too weak and unstable” to leave his room, I was told to attend the banquet alone.
I walked down the grand staircase wearing a flawless emerald silk gown, my posture perfectly straight, my expression calm and untouchable.
I saw Ashton’s hand tighten around his wine glass.
Candice’s sweet smile froze on her face, a flash of pure jealousy crossing her eyes.
Desperate to reclaim the spotlight, Candice quickly stood up.
She held a velvet box in her hands and walked toward the Sinclair Matriarch with a soft, practiced smile.
“Grandma Sinclair,” she said smoothly. “To celebrate this union, I brought a special gift.”
She opened the box.
Inside sat a diamond-cut bottle.
It was “Elixir,” supposedly the world's most exclusive and expensive fragrance.
“I know my sister Lorraine is used to cheap, village-level things,” she sighed. “I wanted to ensure the Sinclairs experience true luxury today, to make up for her lack of refinement.”
Everyone’s eyes settled on me, waiting to watch the chaos, convinced I would feel ashamed. Instead, I let out a light laugh.
I walked over, picked up the diamond-cut bottle, and unstoppered it.
I took one sniff.
Then I dropped it back into the box with a dull thud.
“True luxury?” I asked, my voice even. “This is synthetic linalool mixed with artificial musk. The ethanol base is already separating.”
I looked straight at Candice. “It's a cheap, black-market counterfeit.”
“How dare you!” Ashton slammed his hand on the table, his face turning dark. “Apologize to Candice right now!”
I calmly opened my clutch, pulled out a tiny, unmarked glass vial, and handed it to Mr. Sterling, the Sinclair family’s legendary luxury appraiser who sat nearby.
Mr. Sterling frowned, but he opened the vial.
“This…” His voice trembled in the quiet room. “The botanical purity… This is the unreleased master formula!”
Suffocating silence fell over the entire banquet hall.
No one spoke.
The guests turned their eyes toward Candice, their looks shifting from praise to barely hidden disgust.
Gifting a fake to the Sinclair Matriarch was an unforgivable insult.
Ashton stood frozen, utterly humiliated in front of the capital's elite.
I retrieved my vial, turned to Ashton, and flashed a chilling smile.
“Teach your fiancée how to shop, little brother-in-law,” I said lightly. “It's embarrassing.”
I didn't want to stay in that room any longer, so I turned and stepped out onto the darkened stone terrace.
Moments later, the heavy glass doors were pushed open violently.
Candice stormed out.
“You bitch!” she screamed.
Before I could even speak, she grabbed a heavy crystal champagne flute from the patio table.
She smashed the rim hard against the stone railing.
The glass shattered, leaving a jagged, sharp edge.
Without a second of hesitation, she lunged straight at me.
I twisted my body instinctively to dodge.
But I wasn't fast enough.
The jagged crystal sliced brutally into my side.
It tore through the expensive emerald silk and bit deep into my flesh.
A sharp, breathless agony ripped through me in an instant.
Warm blood poured down my waist, soaking my dress.
Before I could even react to the pain, Candice dropped the bloody glass.
She threw herself onto the hard stone floor, scraping her own knees, and burst into hysterical, loud sobs.
Right on cue, the terrace doors swung open again.
Ashton, Richard, and Evelyn rushed out into the night air.
“Mom! Dad!” Candice cried out, curling into a pitiful ball. “I came out to apologize, and she attacked me! She tried to kill me!”
In the dim moonlight, my dark emerald gown perfectly hid the massive amount of blood I was losing.
But the bloody broken glass lay right there on the floor.
Evelyn dropped to the ground right away, pulling Candice into her arms, glaring at me with pure hate.
Richard marched straight toward me.
A heavy slap landed hard across my face.
My head turned to the side, my ears ringing, the taste of copper filling my mouth.
“You vicious, jealous monster!” Richard yelled, his face twisted with anger.
I slowly turned my head back.
I pressed my hand to my side. My fingers were completely wet with my own blood.
“She stabbed me, Father,” I said.
My voice was tight from the tearing pain in my ribs, but I forced it to stay steady.
“Don't call him that!” Evelyn shrieked from the floor. “Candice is our true daughter! We should have left you to rot and die in those mountains!”
In that moment, the last fragile thread in my chest finally snapped.
I had always believed that if I just proved myself, they would eventually see me.
I believed they were capable of being decent parents.
But now I finally understood that it was nothing more than my own fantasy.
The small hope I still held that they might care broke apart right then.
Staring at the faces I knew so well yet felt so distant from, a wave of ridiculousness rushed through me.
I felt nothing at all.
No hurt, no anger, no need to explain.
“Then from this moment on, you no longer have a daughter.”
I didn't wait for their reply.
I turned my back and walked down the stone steps, stepping into the pitch-black gardens.
I kept my back perfectly straight.
But once the shadows of the hedge maze swallowed me and I was out of their sight, the adrenaline suddenly faded.
My knees buckled.
I pressed my hand hard against my side, but the warm, sticky wetness kept flowing, dripping down my leg and pooling in my shoes.
The cut was too deep.
My head spun, and my breathing grew shallow as the severe blood loss took over.
I pulled out my phone with shaking fingers and ordered a private car to the back gates.
I barely managed to stumble out of the estate and fall into the back seat of the waiting car.
“City General Hospital,” I choked out to the driver, my fingers gripping my violently bleeding wound.
“Hurry.”
Just as the car sped forward, my vision tunneled, and everything faded into absolute blackness.
