The ceremony lasted less than ten minutes.
No music.No flowers.No kiss.
Just a judge, a pen, and two signatures exchanged under dim courthouse lighting.
Damian stood beside Elena like a statue, tall, sharp, unreadable. He wore a black tailored suit, not a single crease in sight. She, in contrast, wore a simple ivory blouse and a pencil skirt. No gown. No veil.
No illusions.
The only witness was Damian's lawyer, who barely looked up from the documents he shuffled.
"Do you take this woman""Yes," Damian interrupted coolly."And do you""Yes," Elena answered before the judge could finish.
And that was that.
No Vows. No Tears. No Love.
Outside, the city kept moving, oblivious to the wedding that had just taken place in shadows.
Damian walked Elena to the car without a word. His chauffeur opened the door, and she slid in silently.
As they drove, Elena gazed out the tinted window, her thoughts racing, not with regret, but with resolve.
She had no parents here. No family to call. No one to tell.This wasn't a beginning, it was a transaction.
And yet…
That night, in the rooftop garden of Damian's penthouse, Elena stood before a small steel bowl, the cold wind biting her skin.
She held her old engagement ring, the glittering symbol of Nathan's lies, between her fingers.
"To the girl who was stupid enough to believe in fairy tales," she whispered.
She dropped the ring into the bowl, flicked her lighter, and watched the flames devour it.
The diamonds cracked. The gold twisted.
And Elena smiled for the first time in days.
She wasn't that girl anymore.