Rising From Ashes: The Betrayed Heiress

Dorene stood less than two feet away from Kadyn. The physical distance was close, but the emotional chasm between them was infinite. She could clearly see the messy swirl of anger, embarrassment, and a cowardly urge to look away flashing in his eyes.

The surrounding guests held their breath. Even Chuck stopped groaning and clamped his mouth shut. The air in the ballroom felt thick, heavy, and suffocating.

Dorene completely ignored the trembling woman hiding behind Kadyn's back. Her perfectly lined eyes stayed locked onto Kadyn's face. Her voice was terrifyingly calm, devoid of any tremor or heat.

She tilted her chin up just a fraction. "Kadyn. I am only going to ask you one question. Look me in the eye and answer it."

Kadyn's instinct was to look at the floor, but the sheer, crushing weight of her stare pinned him in place. He was forced to meet her dead, icy eyes.

Dorene slowly raised her hand and pointed a single finger at Chuck, who was cowering a few feet away. Her voice carried a faint, heartbreaking trace of desperation. "Do you honestly believe I belong with a piece of trash like him?"

The question hit Kadyn like a sledgehammer to the ribs. He knew exactly what Chuck Vance was. He knew that associating Dorene's name with a man like that was the ultimate degradation.

Kadyn opened his mouth. His conscience screamed at him to say no, to defend the woman who had stood by him for seven years. But right before the word left his throat, he felt a soft, desperate tug on the back of his suit jacket.

Dolly let out a microscopic, pathetic sniffle. "Kadyn," she whispered, her voice barely audible but perfectly timed. "I just wanted her to find someone so she stops trying to ruin us..."

That single, venomous whisper triggered the hero complex hardwired into Kadyn's brain. He remembered Dolly bleeding on the floor just minutes ago. He remembered he had to protect his fragile, pregnant fiancée from this aggressive woman standing in front of him.

To prove his loyalty to Dolly, Kadyn crushed his guilt. His eyes hardened into cold stones.

He looked Dorene straight in the face and delivered the killing blow. "Dolly is just trying to help. Since he likes you, why don't you give him a chance? Give it a shot."

Give it a shot.

Those four words were like a rusty, serrated blade plunging directly into Dorene's heart and twisting violently.

Dorene's pupils contracted to pinpricks. The ambient noise of the ballroom vanished entirely. All she could see was Kadyn's cold, indifferent face magnifying in her vision.

She had imagined a hundred different ways they might finally end. She never imagined he would personally hand her over to a predator just to score points with his new lover.

Behind her, Vivian gasped loudly. "You are a sick, twisted bastard," Vivian hissed, stepping forward to slap him.

But Dorene stood frozen like a marble statue. She bit down on her lower lip so hard the metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. She forced her tear ducts to stay dry. She would not bleed for him. Not here.

She stared at Kadyn for ten agonizing seconds, burning the image of his pathetic, cowardly face into her brain so she would never, ever forget it.

And then, Dorene laughed.

It wasn't a hysterical laugh. It was a bright, stunningly beautiful smile that dripped with absolute, crushing mockery and profound sorrow.

The smile sent a violent shiver down Kadyn's spine. He instinctively took a half-step back. The woman standing in front of him suddenly felt like a complete stranger, someone entirely out of his league.

Dorene let the smile drop. The last flickering ember of warmth in her eyes died completely, leaving behind a barren, scorched wasteland.

She nodded slowly. Her voice was as light as a feather, but every word was a lethal injection. "Okay. Good. Kadyn Paul, you really showed me what true garbage looks like today."

She didn't just insult Chuck. She took Kadyn and Dolly's dignity and ground it into the marble floor with her stiletto.

Kadyn's face turned a sickly shade of gray. He opened his mouth to shout back, but he found his throat completely paralyzed. Standing in front of the woman he had just mentally destroyed, he couldn't form a single word.

Dolly tried to salvage the moment. She stepped out from behind Kadyn, her eyes wide. "Dorene, please-"

Dorene shot her a look so violently cold that Dolly physically recoiled, snapping her mouth shut.

Dorene didn't waste another breath on them. She turned around gracefully, facing Vivian. She reached out and gently adjusted the collar of Vivian's dress, which had gotten twisted during the fight. Her demeanor returned to the flawless, untouchable elegance of a true heiress.

"Let's go, Vivian," Dorene said calmly. "The air in here is toxic. It's making me sick."

Without looking back at the crowd, the groom, or the bride, Dorene straightened her spine. She looked like a queen leaving a conquered territory, not a woman who had just lost everything.

She walked toward the grand exit, her heels clicking sharply against the floor, leaving Kadyn staring at her retreating back.