Page 34 of Vows of Deceit
A hush fell.
Jared nodded discreetly to Leo, who tapped a command on the control tablet. The lights dimmed. The screen behind the altar flickered to life.
Gasps.
Then silence.
A video montage began seamlessly edited clips. Kelly’s voice. Damien’s voice. Bedroom whispers. A hotel check-in. Receipts. The camera angle from the hidden loft camera in Damien’s penthouse, recorded the week before.
Damien frozen in time, saying, “She gave me everything.”
Kelly purring, “And yet you keep coming back to me.”
A stolen kiss in the shadows. A hotel suite door closing. The camera returned to Cassie standing there, radiant and unshaken. She turned to the crowd.
“Two years,” she said clearly. “Two years of betrayal. Of manipulation. Of silence.”
Damien looked at her, ashen. “Cassie—”
She faced him. “You broke our vows before we ever made them.”
The crowd was silent. Elaine looked pale. Charles quietly sipped his whiskey. Cassie scanned the room.
“I hosted you all today not to celebrate love,” she said. “But to expose the lies that thrive in silence. That rot in the dark.”
Kelly finally emerged from the rear entrance, face twisted in disbelief.
“You don’t know what you’ve done,” she hissed.
Cassie raised an eyebrow. “On the contrary, sister. I’ve finally done what I should have from the start.”
Jared stepped forward with a remote and clicked the screen again. One final clip played, a blurred video from the night before Cassie and Damien’s wedding. Damien and Kelly entangled on a hotel bed. The room collectively recoiled.
Cassie inhaled deeply. “To every woman who’s ever swallowed her pain to protect an image, this is for you.”
She turned to Damien. “You may be many things. But you’ll never be my husband again.”
And with that, she removed her ring and laid it on the podium. Then turned, head high, and walked down the aisle. The applause began slow—Harper. Delia. Grayson.
Then more and more. A standing ovation for the woman who burned the house of lies to the ground.
Chapter Twenty Six
Shattered Glass
The news spread like wildfire. Every gossip column, financial news site, and social media feed exploded with headlines.
"Billionaire Betrayal: Sterling-King Vow Renewal Becomes Scandal Unveiling."
"Cassie King Exposes Sister Kelly King’s Affair With Her Husband Damien Sterling."
"Vows Turn to Ashes: Socialite’s Legacy Celebration Ends in Chaos."
Photos of the ceremony flooded every platform with Cassie in her stunning gown, standing tall as her carefully curated video exposed years of deceit. Damien’s slack-jawed expression. Kelly’s attempt to storm forward, only to be blocked by security. And finally, the shot of Cassie walking down the aisle alone, to thunderous applause.
By morning, Cassie’s name was trending globally. Kelly’s was too but for all the wrong reasons.
In the Sterling estate, the mood was volcanic. Elaine Sterling paced the parlor in a storm-blue robe, her manicured nails clinking against a crystal tumbler of scotch.
