The ceremony lasted barely fifteen minutes. No flowers, no family, no celebration—just a piece of paper binding me to a man who didn’t pretend to love me, didn’t use me, didn’t destroy me.
A clean slate, sealed with ink.
Days blurred together after that.
I moved through the house like nothing had changed. I smiled when spoken to. I laughed when expected. I joined breakfasts, dinners, and little conversations in between.
Maxon stayed mostly gentle and warm, checking on me like I was fragile glass. Lewis and Victoria floated around like a guilty secret trying too hard to seem innocent.
Then came Grandma Madeline’s birthday.
A day big enough. Formal enough. Public enough.
Perfect.
In the morning, I approached Maxon with a soft smile.
“You go ahead,” I told him. “I’ll bring Mom with me. She needs extra time to get ready.”
His face lit with relief and affection. “Okay. I’ll save you a seat next to me.”
“Please do.”
He kissed my forehead—warm, trusting, undeserved—and left without a shred of suspicion.
The moment he was gone, my entire posture shifted. My breath steadied. My eyes sharpened. This was it.
I slipped out the back entrance with a single suitcase, and left a message to my butler to send the gift to Madeline.
When I arrived at the private hangar, Isaac was already there.
He leaned casually against the stairs of the jet, hands tucked in his pockets, looking like trouble and salvation wrapped into one. “You’re right on time,” he said with a faint smirk.
“For once,” I answered. My voice no longer trembled.
He offered his hand. I took it.
The plane door shut behind us with a soft thud—like the closing of a chapter I would never revisit.
As the engines hummed to life, I gazed out the window. The city stretched below me, familiar and cruel, then slowly began to shrink as the jet ascended.
I pressed a hand to my stomach—steady, certain.
At the party, everything would unfold exactly as planned. The truth in that gift box would carve through their lies like glass. Grandma Madeline would know what they’d done.
Everyone would.
And by the time the murmurs spread across the ballroom—by the time faces turned, shocked and whispering— they would also know one more thing:
I wasn’t theirs to break anymore.
I had married Isaac Holt.
And the moment my name was announced… their entire world would burn.