POV: Sera
The champagne glass slipped from my fingers.
I watched it fall in slow motion, bubbles catching the light from the chandelier above. It shattered against the marble floor of the Grand Hotel ballroom, and three hundred faces turned to stare at me.
But I wasn't looking at them. I was looking at the massive screens behind the stage—the screens that were supposed to show our engagement photos. Instead, they showed emails. My emails. Or at least, emails with my name on them.
"As you can see," Marcus's voice boomed through the microphone, smooth and confident like always, "my fiancée has been quite busy."
My fiancée. He still called me that, even as he destroyed me.
I tried to move toward the stage, but my legs felt like stone. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. This morning, Marcus kissed me and said he couldn't wait to marry me. This morning, I was happy.
"Sera Winters has been selling her own mother's research to our competitors," Marcus continued. His handsome face looked sad, like he hated doing this. "For six months, I've been investigating. The evidence is clear."
The screens changed. Bank statements with my name. Transfer receipts. Voice recordings of someone who sounded like me making deals with strangers.
All fake. They had to be fake.
"Marcus, stop!" I finally found my voice. It came out wrong—too high, too desperate. "Those aren't real! I never—"
"Sera, please." He held up his hand, and the crowd went quiet. Three hundred people watching me fall apart. Three hundred witnesses to my destruction. "I know this is hard to accept. But I have proof."
A new image flashed on the screens. Security camera footage of me entering a building downtown. Except I'd never been to that building in my life.
"That's not—I wasn't—" My voice cracked.
"I wanted to handle this privately," Marcus said, his voice dripping with fake sympathy. "I really did. But Sera, you left me no choice. The company, the investors, the employees—they all deserved to know the truth."
I looked around wildly for someone, anyone, who would believe me. My eyes landed on my father standing near the bar. He was supposed to walk me down the aisle next month. He was supposed to protect me.
"Dad?" My voice was small now, childlike. "Dad, tell them. Tell them I would never—"
My father looked down at his drink. He wouldn't meet my eyes.
The room started spinning. Not him too. Please, not him too.
"There's more," Marcus said, and something in his tone made ice spread through my chest.
A woman walked onto the stage. She wore a red dress that hugged her perfect body. Her smile was bright and cruel.
My half-sister. Vivienne.
"What is she—" I started, but Marcus was already pulling Vivienne close. His arm wrapped around her waist like it belonged there. Like he'd done it a thousand times before.
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Sera," Vivienne said, not sounding sorry at all. "But Marcus and I have been together for months. We tried to wait until after we exposed your crimes, but..." She held up her hand, and a diamond ring sparkled on her finger. Not my ring. A different one. Bigger. "We're engaged now. The real engagement."
The room exploded with gasps and whispers. Camera flashes went off like lightning. Someone near me whispered, "Oh my god, this is insane."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Marcus and Vivienne? My fiancé and my sister?
"You absolute—" I lunged toward the stage, but strong hands grabbed my arms.
Security. Two huge men in black suits.
"Miss Winters," one of them said quietly, "you need to leave. Now."
"Let go of me!" I fought against them, but they were too strong. "Marcus! You lying piece of—Vivienne, how could you? She's your sister!"
Vivienne just smiled. "Half-sister. And honestly, Sera, you should thank me. Marcus deserves someone on his level. Not some tech nerd who thinks she's special because her dead mother left her a few patents."
The words hit like a punch to the stomach. Our mother. The woman who raised Vivienne after she married my father. The woman whose research I'd protected like it was sacred.
"Get her out of here," Marcus ordered, his voice cold now. The fake sympathy was gone. "And someone call the police. There's a warrant for her arrest."
"A warrant?" I stopped struggling. "What warrant?"
"The one I filed this morning," Marcus said with a smile. "Corporate espionage is a serious crime, Sera. You're looking at ten years in prison."
The security guards started dragging me toward the exit. Three hundred people watched. Three hundred phones recording my humiliation. Tomorrow, I'd be all over the news. The brilliant young CEO who sold out her own company. The traitor. The criminal.
"Dad!" I screamed one last time as they pulled me past him. "Please! Tell them the truth!"
My father finally looked at me. His eyes were empty, cold. "I'm sorry, Sera," he said quietly. "But the evidence is clear. I can't defend this."
Something inside me broke then. Not just my heart. Something deeper. The part of me that believed good things happened to good people. The part that trusted anyone.
They threw me out the side door into an alley. Rain poured from the sky, soaking through my dress in seconds. Thunder crashed overhead.
I heard sirens in the distance. Getting closer.
I had maybe two minutes before the police arrived. Two minutes to decide: stay and try to prove my innocence, or run.
My phone buzzed. A text from Marcus: "Don't bother running. There's nowhere you can hide from this. You're finished, Sera. You were always going to be finished. You just didn't know it yet."
Then another text, this time from a number I didn't recognize: "Run. Now. Into the woods behind the hotel. Trust me."
I looked back at the hotel door. Heard voices inside getting louder.
I looked at the dark woods at the edge of the parking lot.
The sirens were closer now. Maybe one minute left.
I ran toward the woods.
Behind me, I heard the hotel doors slam open. "There she is!" someone shouted. "Don't let her get away!"
But I was already crashing through the trees, branches tearing at my dress and skin. Rain and tears mixed on my face until I couldn't tell which was which.
I had lost everything. My company. My reputation. My family. The man I thought loved me. My freedom.
The only thing I had left was the ability to run.
So I ran deeper into the darkness, while thunder roared above me and the whole world collapsed behind me.
And I had no idea that running into those woods would change everything. That the biggest betrayal of my life was about to lead me to the one person in any world—mortal or immortal—who would never betray me.
But first, I had to survive the night.
And in the woods ahead, something was waiting.
Something with silver eyes that had been waiting for three thousand years.