“I did nothing,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “Dimitri, I—I would never—”
But I can see it.
The doubt.
Etched across his face like a shadow.
He doesn’t believe me.
My stomach turns to ice.
“I’ve been hiding in my room because I was hurt,” I breathe, trembling now. “Not plotting. Not betraying you. God—why would I ever do that? I don’t even know half of what you’re involved in.”
But he just watches me, unreadable.
And for the first time today…I feel truly, completely alone.
Chapter 11 – Dimitri
“RUSNAK HEIR’S SECRET REVENGE MARRIAGE.”
I stare at the headline blazing across one of the biggest business newspapers in the country.
Then another.
“LAURENT PRINCESS IN TROUBLE—CAUGHT IN THE SNARE OF BRUTAL WARLORD.”
Warlord?
My jaw tightens until it aches.
The scandal explodes overnight. Every major outlet runs the story, each headline worse than the last. I’ve counted more than fifty variations, all circling the same narrative:
Dimitri Rusnak destroys the Laurent heiress out of revenge.
It’s spiraling faster than even I anticipated.
I shove the laptop away and turn toward the window, fingers drilling into the frame.
I should have known.
Of course she’d betray me.
Like father, like daughter.
I don’t know why I let myself forget. Why I chose my damn heart over my head. Why I treated her like something fragile, someone equal—
Instead of the revenge piece she was meant to be.
The witch went behind my back and fed the media everything.
And she doesn’t even have the decency to admit it.
Since last night, she’s been denying it, all wide-eyed innocence. But of everyone who knows the truth, she’s the one with a motive. The one with nothing to lose.
It had to be her.
It must be her.
