Let Go of Love and Hate

After seven years of twisted love and hate with Veronica Grey, I became the notorious darkness she could never erase—her Black Moonlight.

On the day she held her ninety-seventh wedding to her fiancé Andrew Clark, I swore I wouldn’t ruin it this time.

But before my oath even cooled, every digital billboard in Downtown Los Angeles began broadcasting our most intimate photos—on loop.

It took her less than half an hour to track me down and drag me off the rooftop.

“Michael Linwood, are you sick in the head?!”

“I just want Andrew to have a perfect, unforgettable wedding. Why must you fight me every single time?!”

I shook the phone in my hand, letting the live stream continue its frenzy.

“I just made a little bet with your fiancé… whether you’d abandon him and come running to me.”

Veronica’s eyes burned red as she shoved me toward the edge of the 18th-floor rooftop.

“You love gambling, right? Then let Los Angeles bet on whether it’ll be you or me who hits the ground first!”

…

On my phone screen, Andrew Clark looked devastated, eyes shimmering with tears.

Veronica’s grip tightened around my throat.

“You swore—swore—you wouldn’t ruin this wedding! Do you know how much I’ve been looking forward to marrying him? Are you just incapable of seeing me happy?!”

The wind lashed against my face like knives.

I smirked, my hand lifting to brush her cheek like a lunatic drunk on love.

“Oh, Veronica… aren’t promises made to be broken?”

After all—she always breaks hers.

The live chat exploded with outrage, filling the screen with curses:

“Michael is insane. Who the hell ruins ninety-seven weddings? Karma’s coming for your creepy ass!”

“If he really loved her, he shouldn’t have killed her mom in that crash! Disgusting!”

“Just push him off already! The Greys could bury this guy and no one would blink. Society would thank her!”

Andrew’s trembling voice spilled from the speaker:

“Vera… are you really going to keep letting him hurt us…?”

That did it.

Veronica’s shaking hands pushed me even closer to the drop—closer—

Until suddenly, she yanked me back with a gasp, panting heavily.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Michael,” she snarled, eyes wild.

“You think I’d leave Andrew over some photoshopped fantasy? I have never touched you.”

“Maybe I did care once—as dumb kids—but after you killed my mom, we became enemies. Blood enemies. I feel sick just looking at you.”

Just as relief flickered across my bruised face, Andrew collapsed on screen clutching his chest.

“Andrew!”

Veronica instantly called an ambulance and rushed off to St. Mary’s Medical Center, but not without a final dagger:

“This isn’t over.”

I stared down at the leaked photos, a bitter laugh cutting through my ribs.

Funny thing is—every moment in those pictures was real.

But she forgot all of it.

Or rather—she forgot everything except that I’m the perfect villain to blame.

When I returned to the Linwood Estate, my grandfather Charles Linwood sat waiting, fury carved into every wrinkle.

The moment I crossed the threshold—whip!—

His leather belt lashed across my back.

“Kneel!”

“I thought you might bring value to this family because Grey Corporation wanted a partnership. But you embarrass me again and again—ruining their weddings, leaking trash like that! Veronica Grey called me personally!”