Chapter 3 The Beginning of My Revenge

DIANA POV

My apartment is dark when I let myself in. I don't bother with the lights. I drop my bag by the door, kick off my heels, and sink onto the sofa, pulling my knees to my chest.

And then I let myself feel it.

The full weight of it. Not the anger-not yet-but the grief underneath. The future I imagined with Sebastian. The wedding I'd started planning in my head, even though he'd never officially proposed. The apartment we were going to buy together. The life we were going to build.

Gone. All of it. In the time it took to open a bedroom door.

How did he discard me so easily? How did two years mean so little to him? I replay every conversation, every promise, every time he told me I was different. I search for the moment it all went wrong, and I can't find it. Because it wasn't one moment. It was all of them. Every lie he told while looking me in the eye. Every night he spent with her while I was working late, sacrificing, believing we were building something real.

I press my forehead to my knees and I cry. For the first time tonight, I let the tears come. Ugly, gasping, broken sobs that shake my whole body. I cry until my throat is raw and my eyes are swollen and I can't remember what it felt like to be happy.

Then my phone buzzes.

I ignore it. It buzzes again. And again. I reach for it blindly, expecting Sebastian-hoping, maybe, that it's Sebastian, that he's realized what he's lost, that he's calling to apologize.

It's Olivia.

I answer the phone.

"Diana?" Her voice is sharp with worry. "Where are you? I've been calling for an hour."

"I'm home." My voice comes out wrecked.

"I'm coming over."

"Liv, you don't have to-"

"I'm already in the car." I hear her engine turn over. "Don't move. Don't do anything stupid. Don't call him."

"I wasn't going to call him."

"Good. I'll be there in ten minutes."

She hangs up before I can argue.

The ten minutes pass in a blur. I don't move from the sofa. I don't turn on the lights. I just sit there in the dark, feeling the weight of everything that's happened pressing down on my chest like a physical thing.

When the buzzer sounds, I drag myself to the door. Olivia stands in the hallway, still in her work clothes, her hair escaping its ponytail, her face set in that expression she gets when she's ready to fight someone on my behalf.

"Oh, honey," she says, and the sympathy in her voice breaks me all over again.

She steps inside, drops her bag, and pulls me into a hug. I cling to her like she's the only solid thing in a world that's crumbling beneath my feet.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I didn't know who else to call."

"You did the right thing." She pulls back, her hands on my shoulders, her eyes searching my face. "What happened? Tell me everything."

So I do.

We sit on the sofa, and I tell her about the doorman, the key, the closed bedroom door. About the shirt on the floor and the shoes and the sound of Sofia's laugh. About walking in and seeing them together, tangled in sheets I picked out. About Sebastian's careless oh and Sofia's fake sympathy and the way neither of them even tried to apologize.

Then I tell her about my parents. About my mother's damage control and my father's silence and the way they made me feel like the problem instead of the victim.

Olivia listens without interrupting. Her jaw gets tighter and tighter, and by the time I'm finished, her hands are balled into fists on her knees.

"I'm going to kill him," she says.

"Get in line."

"I mean it, Diana. I'm going to march over there and-"

"Don't." I put my hand on her arm. "Please. I can't handle any more drama tonight."

She exhales, forcing herself to calm down. "Okay. Okay. What do you need?"

"I don't know." I lean my head back against the sofa. "I don't know what I need. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now."

"You're supposed to take care of yourself."

"I don't even know what that looks like anymore." My voice cracks. "I built my whole life around him, Liv. My whole future. And he just... threw me away. Like I was nothing."

"You are not nothing."

"To him I was."

"To him you were convenient." Olivia's voice is hard. "He used you. He lied to you. He cheated on you. That's not a reflection of your worth. That's a reflection of his character."

I stare at her. "How do you always know what to say?"

"Because I've been where you are." She takes my hand. "Remember Marcus?"

"Your ex who cheated on you with his personal trainer?"

"Exactly. I thought my life was over. I thought I'd never be happy again. But I got through it, and so will you."

"This feels different."

"It always feels different when it's happening to you." She squeezes my hand. "But here's what I know: Sebastian is a coward. Sofia is a snake. And neither of them is worth a single tear you've cried tonight."

"I've cried a lot of tears."

"Then they owe you a lot of reparations."

I laugh despite myself. It's a weak, watery sound, but it's something.

"That's my girl," Olivia says. "Now. What do you want to do?"

I think about it. I think about the way Sebastian looked at me-not guilty, not sorry, just annoyed that I'd interrupted his evening. I think about Sofia's smirk and my mother's cold voice and my father's silence. I think about all the people who were supposed to love me and how easily they'd dismissed me.

"I want them to regret it," I say slowly.

"Regret what?"

"All of it. I want them to regret ever thinking they could do this to me and get away with it."

Olivia's eyes light up. "That's what I'm talking about."

"I'm not going to beg him to come back. I'm not going to cry to my parents until they take my side. I'm not going to give any of them the satisfaction of seeing me broken."

"Good."

"I'm going to find a way to make them pay."

Olivia leans forward. "What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know yet." I stand up, pacing the length of the living room. The anger is back, burning hotter than before. "But I know Sebastian. I know what he cares about. I know what he's afraid of."

"And what's that?"

I stop. I think about all the times Sebastian talked about his family. About the pressure he felt. About the uncle who controlled everything, the one man he couldn't charm or manipulate or lie to.

"Richard Thomas," I say.

Olivia frowns. "His uncle? The billionaire?"

"The one and only." I turn to face her. "Sebastian is terrified of him. Richard controls the family money, the family business, everything. If Richard disapproved of something Sebastian did-"

"Then Sebastian would be screwed," Olivia finishes.

"Exactly."

I sit back down, my mind racing. The idea is half-formed, barely more than a spark, but it's the first thing that's made sense all night.

"Sebastian fears Richard," I say slowly. "And Richard has the power to challenge him. To punish him. To make him regret everything."

"Diana." Olivia's voice is cautious. "What are you thinking?"

I look at her, and for the first time tonight, I feel something other than grief.

"I'm thinking," I say, "about paying a visit to Richard Thomas."

Olivia's eyes widen. "You can't just-"

"I haven't figured out the details yet. But I know one thing for sure." I meet her gaze, my voice steady for the first time in hours. "Sebastian thinks he's won. He thinks he's hurt me and gotten away with it. But he's wrong. I'm going to find a way to make him regret the day he ever met me."

And as I sit there in my dark apartment, with Olivia beside me and the city lights flickering outside my window, I begin to think about what Sebastian fears most-and who has the power to challenge him.