Vengeance and Vows

Gideon narrowed his eyes. His honed intuition, sharpened over decades in the corporate world, screamed a sudden warning against acting rashly. Staring at his niece standing proudly on the stairs, he realized Sloane was no longer the cheerful, naive girl from before her presumed death. She now radiated the exact same ruthless, terrifying cunning that had defined his oldest brother, Alaric.

Masking his deep, twisting unease, Gideon forced a fawning, hypocritical smile. "Sloane, please give us some time to move our belongings out of the estate. We have a lot of things to sort through."

Sloane curved her lips into a cold, empty smile. She knew Gideon assumed she still possessed her father's soft heart and would show them mercy. He was gravely mistaken.

"Sure, I will give you time." Sloane kept her tone perfectly even.

In her mind, she was merely giving them time to pay. A swift resolution would be far too easy for the parasites who had occupied her home. She desired their ruin to be a slow, agonizing process. They were going to serve as a brutal example to anyone who dared cross her.

As Sloane turned to leave the corridor, a heavy porcelain vase tumbled off a side table, rolling directly before her feet.

Gideon scrambled frantically across the marble floor to pick it up. He dusted off the ceramic surface and held it out, desperately attempting to flatter her. "This is a priceless antique I acquired recently, Sloane. They say it belonged to a queen. You can have it if you like."

With a sneer of utter disdain, Sloane snatched the vase from his trembling hands and carelessly tossed it aside.

The porcelain shattered against the floor with a crisp, echoing crash. Gideon flinched, his greedy heart aching at the sight of the expensive broken shards.

"It is just a replica." Sloane delivered the dry remark over her shoulder and walked away.

A heavy, oppressive quiet settled over Kensington Court later that night. The chaotic noise of the day had finally faded. Sloane slipped quietly into her late parents' master bedroom. She walked over to the mahogany vanity and stopped. Staring at the framed portraits of her dignified father and elegant mother, her tough, untouchable facade finally cracked.

Her eyes reddened with unshed moisture. She reached out, gently caressing the polished wood of the frames.

"I'm back." She choked out the tearful whisper, the silence swallowing her grief.

The agonizing tragedy from three years prior rushed back to her. Her father had finally agreed to arrange a marriage alliance with the Vance family for his daughter. Sloane had been deeply in love with Kaelen ever since he saved her from a terrifying abduction when she was fourteen. She had waited eagerly for the good news. Instead, her parents perished in a horrific, fiery highway crash. Their vehicle had exploded, leaving nothing behind but devastation. Forensic examinations were the only way to confirm their identities, crushing Sloane's world.

The lonely silence of the room was abruptly shattered by her ringing phone. Sloane blinked away her sorrow and answered the call.

The voice of her hacker friend, Ronan Pierce, drifted through the speaker. "I have some news, but I am hesitant to tell you."

Sloane swiped a stray tear from her cheek and commanded impatiently. "Spill it."

Ronan let out a heavy sigh over the line. "Your ex just publicly announced he is marrying Valeria. The wedding is in exactly four days."

Sloane froze. Her heart clenched with a sharp, sudden pain that tested her fierce resolve to move on. Four days. That was the precise timeframe when their divorce proceedings would be officially finalized.

She gripped the edge of the vanity, her knuckles turning white. Was Kaelen truly that eager to marry his beloved?