Page 15 of Vows of Deceit
She tilted her head toward him. “Is that what you want?”
He smiled. “Of course.”
She smiled back. “Then let’s give everyone what they’ve been waiting for.”
Damien blinked. “What do you mean?”
Cassie turned to face him fully, her hand on his chest. “Let’s do the vow renewal. Make it grand. Make it unforgettable.”
His surprise morphed into something warmer, hope, maybe. Or relief.
“You’re serious?”
She nodded. “Completely.”
That night, Cassie stood alone on the penthouse balcony, overlooking the city. Behind her, Damien was asleep in their bed. She could hear the low hum of his breathing, the rhythmic certainty of a man who thought he had won but she was the one writing the story now. She pulled out her phone and opened a group message with Delia and Harper.
Cassie:It’s on. Three months. I want fireworks. I want silence when the curtain drops.
Delia replied instantly.
Delia:Got it. Already compiling the guest RSVP targets.
Harper’s message followed.
Harper:You sure about this?
Cassie’s response was immediate.
Cassie:This isn’t revenge. It’s reclamation.
At 3:14 a.m., while the city slept, Cassie wrote her new vows. Not the ones she would read publicly but the ones she would carry inside.
I vow never again to be quiet for someone else’s comfort. I vow to choose myself, even when no one else does. I vow to rise from the ruins they left me in and when the ashes settle, I will still be standing.
She folded the page and tucked it into the drawer beside her bed. Then she climbed in beside the man who had betrayed her and closed her eyes, already dreaming of the reckoning.
Chapter Eleven
Whispered Warnings
The rooftop bar of The Sterling Crown buzzed with midweek elegance with whiskey glasses clinked softly, and jazz notes floated through the air like lazy dragonflies. But at a secluded corner table framed by a cascade of fairy lights, the mood was less festive.
Harper Linwood swirled her drink with practiced irritation, the crushed mint in her mojito matching the glint in her green eyes.
“I’m saying this as your best friend,” Harper began, leaning in across the table. “There’s a line between justice and destruction, Cass.”
Cassie King sipped her wine, calm as the moon above them. Her dress shimmered like molten gold in the light, her expression composed.
“I’m not burning down a city, Harper,” she said. “I’m simply redecorating the skyline.”
Harper exhaled a breath between a laugh and a groan. “You sound like a Bond villain.”
Cassie smiled faintly. “Then Damien shouldn’t have played the role of traitor.”
Harper leaned back in her seat, arms crossed. “Just promise me this isn’t about hurting him more than it is about healing yourself.”
Cassie’s gaze lifted to the skyline. “Maybe it’s both.”
