Chapter 3: An Untouchable Name
Chapter 3: An Untouchable Name
Salem was on his knees, weeping, reaching out to grab the hem of my dress. "Ava, please! I loved you! I didn't know! I swear I only did it because my father forced me to fit in! Please tell him to stop!"
I looked down at the man I had spent two years trying to build a life with. The man who claimed he loved me when I had nothing, only to show me he was a spineless coward the moment his family demanded cruelty.
I stepped back, pulling my dress out of his desperate, bloody grip.
"You told me you chose me because I came with nothing, Salem," I said, my voice steady, the burning on my cheek completely gone, replaced by a cold, empowering numbness. "But you didn't choose me. You chose an image. And tonight, you get to watch that image burn."
I turned to my father, slipping my hand into the crook of his arm.
"Let's go home, Dad," I whispered.
"Always, Little Bird," he replied gently.
As we walked down the center of the ballroom, the six hundred guests parted like the Red Sea, bowing their heads, terrified to even make eye contact with us. Behind us, the sounds of Arthur shouting at his son and the crash of reality hitting their fake empire faded into the background.
May you like
They wanted a woman with a name. They wanted a woman with power and connections.
They got exactly what they asked for. But by the time they realized the price of admission... they had already lost everything.
