hapter 14
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Chapter 14
DIANA
—
I kept pacing the length of the hotel room, my bare feet silent against the cold tiles, but my mind far from
memories pressing into the corners of my still. It buzzed, swirled, snapped at the edges like a live wire thoughts like sharp glass.
How far I’d come.
How hard I’d worked to build the life I now lived.
People thought it was luck. Some thought it was beauty. But none of them knew what it had taken to reach this level the kind of darkness I’d crawled through, the kind of decisions that carved through your soul and left pieces of you scattered along the way.
–
I remembered the day Alicia got arrested.
The memory of it had faded a little over the
years like a scar, but still there. Still tender when touched.
She never saw it coming. That was the best part.
—
I had planned to have her devoured the night before. But somehow, she got into different room.
But my real heartbreak that night had nothing to do with Alicia.
It was Max.
My Max.
The man I loved… showing up to the party with another girl on his arm. Laughing. Holding her. Looking at her the way he used to look at me when we still mattered.
I had tried to be strong. To hold my head high and pretend it didn’t tear something inside me. But I couldn’t. I drank too much. I smiled too wide. And when it was time to leave, I was barely holding myself together.
That drive home – I’ll never forget it.
It was dark. My vision blurred. My chest felt tight, and my hands trembled on the steering wheel. Then I saw her. The girl. The one Max had chosen over me. She was walking across the road, her dress swaying in the wind, a smile dancing on her lips like she had won something. Like I was the joke.
It felt like she was mocking me. Laughing at my pain.
I don’t even remember making the decision. I didn’t think. I just pressed my foot down on the gas.
–
And the sound – God, the sound when the car hit her it was… awful. And yet, in the sickest part of me, it felt like justice. Like the pain I had inside had found somewhere to go.
I should have driven off.
Chapter 14
I tried.
But my stupid car –
that cursed, useless car – decided to betray me. The engine stalled. I hit the ignition over and over, praying it would spark to life. Nothing. Just silence.
My heart slammed in my chest. I was frozen, staring at the crumpled body lying across the road — lifeless. Reality hit. Panic followed.
I flung the door open, abandoned the car, and ran like hell.
I didn’t sleep that night. But I knew what I had to do.
If they traced that car, it would lead back to me. I couldn’t let that happen. Not after everything.
So I turned back to the one thread I could pull – Alicia.
She was already in that hotel. Already in a mess I had helped spin for her. All I had to do was twist the rest of it around her neck.
—
I returned to the hotel and used my connection — the manager, who was far too eager to please me – to dig
up in. up information. I needed to know whose room Alicia had ended
When he told me it was Damien Stone, my blood ran cold.
Of all people.
Damien was powerful, dangerous, and unpredictable. If he found out Alicia had been set up… if he believed her… everything I’d done would fall apart.
So I made a move.
I had all the CCTV footage of Alicia being chased deleted. It wasn’t difficult. A few whispered words, a long night in the manager’s bed, and every trace of that night vanished.
Without that footage, all Damien would see was a desperate woman sneaking into his hotel room. And from what I had heard about the man, he despised women like that. Opportunists.
My plan was clean.
Let her take the fall.
When I returned home very early the next morning, I cried in my mother’s arms, told her a half–baked story about how I got into an accident and needed Alicia to take the fall. My mother never needed much convincing. Alicia was never her favorite.
Everything fell into place. Alicia was arrested. I was untouched. The news barely made a ripple, but I watched
it unfold.
But fate, it seemed, wanted to reward me even more.
Eventually, Damien’s assistant showed up
–
asking after Alicia.
Chapter 14
And I stepped in.
Took her place.
Slipped into her life like it was a silk dress made for me.
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At first, it was just temporary. I knew I’d be paid off and dismissed… but I wanted more. And then the universe fulfilled my wish and gave me the final gift – Alicia’s pregnancy.
I remember the look on my mother’s face when I told her.
She almost dropped her teacup.
“You’re pregnant?” she asked, mouth wide.
“No,” I replied. “Alicia is.”
Jeff was supposed to be my golden ticket–the little boy who would anchor Damien to me forever.
The few who knew, called me a special woman, for having Damien’s son. They didn’t know I wasn’t the mother at all. Not really.
That child belonged to Alicia.
But I had made plans to ensure that she would never be an obstacle in my way.
Blinding her wasn’t an act of cruelty. It was necessity. Cold, calculated necessity.
Once she was no longer a threat, it was easy to present the child as mine. I remember how Damien had held Jeff for the first time, his eyes slightly watering–not that he ever admitted it. The way he touched Jeff’s cheeks and whispered, “You’re my boy, huh?” I had never seen that expression on his face before.
I had everything a woman could ever want–wealth, luxury, and the spotlight that came with being “Damien Stone’s fiancée.” But still, it wasn’t enough. Not without the ring. Not without his heart.
For a moment, I thought I’d done it. I thought I had him.
But I didn’t.
Damien treated me like I was some distant acquaintance. Polite. Cold. The kind of man who asked about the weather just to avoid asking about your heart.
It drove me mad.
