My grandmother Victoria Valcruz always gave Jessica everything. The billion dollar inheritance.

A perfect debutante ball and a curated rise in the tabloids as “Valcruz’s Darling Heiress.”

So I knew that she would finally give me this- a wedding full of thorns.

As anticipated, an envelope arrived the next morning sealed in blood-red wax with the Arrows crest- a coiled serpent around a crown.

I stared at it for a long time, my fingers trembling as I broke the seal.

[MARRIAGE CONTRACT

Athena Valcruz and Killian Arrows

Status: Approved]

Along with the contract was a letter for me.

[I will come to receive you in three days. A private villa that had already been prepared and bridal fittings are scheduled. Our marriage is in two weeks~ Killian]

The wedding ceremony? In two weeks.

I placed the letter down on the desk, my hand numb.

So this was it.

I had been sold. Again.

Just this time, it was my own voice that sealed the bargain and made me realize that this family never accepted me from the beginning.

Walking down the hallway reminiscing my life that I was about to throw away I came across Xander’s room

And the noises stopped me cold.

Low pants and masculine moans ignited the atmosphere.

It was raw…ferocious… Shameless.

My hand reached for the door and opened hell.

Xander was sitting shirtless, muscles taut, sweat gleaming off his skin, his hand buried between his legs his eyes half-closed, lost in pleasure.

His back to me as papers were scattered everywhere….The floor. The bed. The desk.

My eyes widened as I stumbled back.

Jessica.

He had drawn her face in every angle laughing, looking over her shoulder, hair tousled like she had just rolled out of bed.

And then there was something more.

Sketches of her nude.

Not crude or pornographic but intimate soft curves.

In one image, she was lying on her back, her head turned slightly, mouth parted.

In another her arms above her head, a silk sheet barely covering her thighs.

I stood frozen as Xander lifted one particular sketch of Jessica topless, back arched and kissed the paper softly before moans of pleasure filled the room.

“Jess….Jess…”

I felt everything inside me sink. Collapse.

He hadn’t just used me.

He had never even seen me.

Then his phone buzzed.

“No” he said gruffly. “I can’t return to the mafia until she’s mine. I want her at my side as my queen. Jessica is my everything.”

I choked on my breath.

Mafia?

Xander Thorn.

My heart froze completely.

My once-betrothed fiancé that I never even saw… who publicly rejected me after my mother’s funeral, calling me “unworthy of his blood.”

A tear escaped my eye in horror.He had been beside me this whole time, with a new name, a new face…

and I had welcomed him like a lamb to slaughter.

“I am only here for Jessica..” he continued. “Always was. Athena? Still throwing herself at me like a dog in heat.

You think I would waste three years on Athena if it wasn’t for the bigger picture?”

Tears dribbled my eyes as a dagger twisted in my heart deep.

“She is useful and lonely. That’s what makes her easy. Always trying to seduce me wearing such clothes…it is almost like she is a prostitute.”

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t feel my legs.

Three years. Three goddamn years. I let him into every corner of my life. My schedule. My insecurities. My mother’s ashes.

I thought he was stone, unmoved by glitz and glamor.

But all this time… he was chasing her…the reason my mother died of heartbreak.

The day my mom found out my father had a secret mistress and a second child, something in her snapped. I witnessed her stop eating…stop speaking and soon began scratching at her own skin until she bled.

I was eight when they took her to the psychiatric wing, her broken eyes looking at me for the last time.

One day, she walked into the sea wearing pearls and never came back.

They called it “an accident.”

Jessica moved in the next week. Took my room. Called my mother “that unstable woman.”

She framed me at ten for trying to push her down the stairs. My father slapped me across the face in front of the servants.

I should have walked away. Should have screamed when Xander chose her and yet I stood in the doorway frozen with Xander not even flinching as our eyes met.

He saw that I looked at his body and unabashedly dressed himself without a care, eyes staring at me like I was just another assistant who had forgotten to knock.

I should have screamed. Should have thrown something.

“Even if I am your guard, knock before you enter Miss Valcruz.”

Miss Valcruz.

As if he hadn’t memorized the sound of my footsteps, the pattern of my panic attacks, the way I liked my wine after boardroom disasters.

As if he hadn’t held me when I collapsed on the bathroom floor the day I lost my mother’s estate in court whimpering and thrashed like a ragdoll..

He moved to pick up his sketchbook, wiping it like it was some treasure before keeping it away.

I could no longer bear and said "Tomorrow is an event I am organizing, you have to follow me as my bodyguard-”

“Will Miss Jessica come?”

My heart shattered completely as I looked at him with my eyes wide.

“W-What? It’s a tribute for my mom…for her death anniversary! Do you think I will invite that wench?!”

As soon as my words fell into his ears, Xander’s face darkened instantly.

Not for the mother who raised me in a backroom apartment while Jessica had nannies and ponies.

“Follow me tomorrow, it is an order!” I turned to leave, my throat burning.

Then, as if to make sure the knife twisted fully, I heard him mutter under his breath-

“She’s still chasing me…” he muttered behind my back. “Thinks one night in my bed changed anything. It’s pitiful.”

I stopped walking.

He didn’t know I heard.

Didn’t care if I had.

For him I was just the stepping stone.

I left the door open behind me.

Let the wind blow through as I told myself that everything as coming to an end.

And I was going away from the chaos.

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.

Two days.

That’s how long I stayed locked up in my bedroom packing my things in silence and preparing for my departure.

I ate nothing and barely survived but now the previous emotional wounds did not hurt…I was numb.

Soon a knock came.

“Athena?” Jessica’s voice came sugary sweet.

When I didn’t move to answer, the door creaked open anyway.

Jessica stepped in like she owned the place.

“Sister, I know you have been… going through things but.. it’s my birthday, and everyone’s asking where you are. You have to come and greet guests because even if father is angry with you…you are still his daughter.”

I still said nothing and continued emptying my wardrobe.

“Athena… Please? I’m just trying to keep the family together.”

And then another voice followed

Deeper. Colder. His

“Where are you going? Why can’t you act normal once-”

“You are my servant not master, no need to forget your place.” My words sliced through the atmosphere like a dagger and Xander froze for a second, his face devoid of emotions as he looked at me.

I hadn’t seen him since that night. The night he sold my legacy like it was a clearance item.

“Miss Athena you have everything.” he said finally in a formal tone. “The Valcruz name…the fortune and legacy. You don’t need to compete with your sister or bully her.

The least you can do is show up for one night. Just behave.”

I laughed.

It broke out of me bitter and raw and more painful than a sob.

Behave?

Jessica sniffled, acting innocent. “Xander, you are my sister's bodyguard and friend so please help me…I just want Athena to come downstairs. Everyone’s talking…”

I turned my face away.

If I looked at either of them another second, I was going to scream.

“Get out, I will be there.” I said finally, my voice hoarse and dull.

Because the only thing worse than being broken…was letting them see it.

The ballroom glittered in soft pink and gold, walls dressed in roses, chandeliers dripping light like liquid sugar. Laughter floated like perfume, thick and sickly.

And then I heard him.

My father.

Laughing.

Proud.

“So, the Thorne heir himself chased after my Jessica!” he beamed to a circle of men in tuxedos. “Xander Thorne, of all people. I always knew my daughter was special!”

Someone asked about me.

He didn’t hesitate.

“Athena?” A wave of dismissal passed over his face. “She is a troublesome child. Not like Jessica. She is incomparable with that well behaved child and is always in conflict, always needing attention.”

I froze. The words sank their claws in my throat. Still, I stood there in the shadow of the marble column, invisible but listening.

Then Jessica’s voice rang out over the mic.

“Everyone!” she sang. “I want to say something before the cake!”

People gathered, drawn like moths to her manufactured glow.

She smiled sweetly, her gaze sweeping over the crowd until it landed on me. She beckoned me forward like I was part of her little act.

“I know things have been… tense…” she said, voice soft and saintly. “But I want you all to know…that I and my sister have made amends.”

I blinked.

She turned to me, eyes wide with false vulnerability. “I am sorry to make you angry and jealous sister, my intention was never to compete with you no matter how much you hated me I have always looked upto you…. because at the end of the day, we are sisters.”

The guests murmured.

Jessica smiled like she had just performed a miracle. “I just want us to be a family again. Don’t you, Athena?”

My lips parted, but I had no voice.

She turned back to the cake, slicing it elegantly before lifting the first bite.

“To my sister.” she said sweetly. “May she one day find peace and purpose.”

She stepped closer and offered the fork to me.

I didn’t take it.

Her whisper reached only my ears: “That’s the last thing you will ever taste as part of this family bitch. First your mother was thrown out and now is the time you follow her. Your father is not your own, your ex-fiance is running after me like a man in love and even your bodyguard whom you loved has chosen me above you… ”

My eyes were bloodshot red and yet I did not wish to give Jessica the satisfaction of making a fool of me thus I spun on my heel, ready to walk out of that golden hell.

And that’s when it happened…my dress tugged strongly and then..

SNAP!

Air hit my spine like ice.

Gasps tore through the room.

The weight of silk slid down my body in a merciless wave as my dress slipped down half my body making me partially bare- my breasts visible.

I clutched the fabric to my chest too late.

Cameras flashed instantly.

A low whistle cut through the silence as men openly gawked lecherously.

My arms shook as I tried to pull the ruined dress back up, but the clasp was gone. A deliberate cut which was clean and cruel making me kneel on the floor with tears in my eyes.

Behind me, Jessica gasped like she was the one attacked.

“Oh no, sister!” she said, hand flying to her lips. “Athena… why would you do something like that? Is this for attention again?”

The crowd turned.

Their faces melted together…shock, curiosity, disgust.

And then…

He moved.

Xander.

From the edge of the room, his gaze locked onto mine. Cold. Distant as he came forward and yet didn’t shield me.

He shrugged off his jacket like he was shedding pity and then dropped it at my feet.

Not on my shoulders.

Not around me.

At my feet. Like it was a choice.

A gesture that said: ‘Cover yourself. You have embarrassed us all.’

I knelt and grabbed it with shaking hands teared tumbling down my eyes in absolute devastation, pulling it over my trembling frame.

The room fell away in blurred edges and muted laughter as Xander guided me toward the exit.

No words. No comfort.

Just pressure at my elbow like I was some clown to be escorted out quietly.

We reached the bathroom that I rushed inside clicking the shut behind me.

My back hit the cold wall, and I slid to the floor, the marble biting into my bare thighs as I clutched Xander’s jacket around me like a makeshift shield. My breath was ragged, hands trembling, shame crawling up my spine like fire ants.

Hot tears trailed down my eyes as I felt like it was better if the earth would open up to swallow me whole.

Then I heard Jessica’s crying voice outside.

“W-Why would my sister do it?!”

“They way she acts…” Xander said coldly, his voice low and clipped. “Like it means nothing. Like stripping in front of hundreds was a performance she was proud of is something an innocent person like you will never understand Miss Jessica.”

Then came the words that pierced my heart like knives.

“I can’t believe a woman could act with so little self-respect.” Xander muttered. “Who takes their clothes off like that? For what…attention? Sympathy? A moment in the spotlight?”

I stared at the floor feeling like the walls closed in.

“I mean, she’s always been an attentionseeker framing you and acting like a…prostitute.” he continued outside. “But tonight proved it. No woman with dignity would do something like that. She exposed herself in front of everyone.”

The words were bullets.

One.

After.

Another.

He truly thought I chose this. That I planned the humiliation. That I wanted eyes crawling over my skin, wanted to be less than human in front of a ballroom full of people.

To think I loved this kind of man and gave him my heart?

I was full of regrets.

Loving him was the biggest mistake of my life.