llway, my wedding dress trailing silently behind me. The sounds of the waiting guests

ng and walked down the steps barefoot, the rough concrete a welcome, grounding sensation. Each step

The city air was cool on my skin. I pulled my phone out and

asked, a hint of a

said, my voice flat. "T

away from the curb.

ago in my first life, forced into a small apartment by the debts Mark created. But now, in

ened the door. Her face was

happened? T

d behind her, his

white satin of my dress now s

is off," I

omething?" my mother ask

who had suffered so much because of my choices i

y father's gaze. "I can't marry him.

, though it was quickly replaced by

ome time. I'm going to sell my shares in the company

n't tell them the truth. They wouldn't understand

y eyes. That night, I slept in my childhood bed, the fir

ake in Miller-Johnson Technologies. It was a fire sale, and I knew Mark would snap it up for a fracti

The narrative, spun by Mark and Ashley, was that I had a nervous breakdown, unable to handle the pressure of o

tory. While the world g

ing projects, honing my skills, pushing the boundaries of what I could do. I built a new life, a new identity,

nected with

talist, a rising star in the financial world. I reached out to him not as a victim, but as

listened patiently as I laid out my

I finished. "But it's also... aggressive.

e point,"

moment. "This isn't jus

swer. I did

his unwavering belief. We built a new company in secret, a shell corpora

nary CEO, with Ashley Greene, now the company's COO, by his side. I would see their smiling faces on

fuel. It kept my hatr

came in the form of an invitation. The Global Tech Summit, h

the invitation to m

he asked, his e

bold letters. I thought of his sneering face as he w

smile spreading across my

-