I didn't remember walking out of the house.
i didn't remember my feet touching the pavement.
i didn't even remember the moment i stopped breathing normally.
all i knew was the cold night air slapping my cheeks while the world around me blurred into a mix of neon lights and muted city noise.
my life — the one i protected, cherished, and sacrificed everything for — had shattered in the span of ten minutes.
ten.
minutes.
that's all it took for my fiancé to betray me.
that's all it took for my family to choose her.
that's all it took for my heart to go from steady to silent.
i didn't cry.
not yet.
i felt too numb to break down.
maybe that was the worst part.
---
i kept replaying his voice.
"she's dying, serena. please don't make this harder."
"it's just for a few months."
"i'll come back to you after the ceremony."
like i was some placeholder.
a spare ring.
a backup bride.
something to pick up after he finished fulfilling my stepsister's final "wish."
wish.
the word made my stomach twist.
my stepsister, elara, was never the delicate, pitiful angel everyone else believed she was. she was a master actress — a girl who could weaponize tears like diamonds and make every room orbit around her.
and suddenly she was dying? suddenly she wanted my fiancé as her dying wish?
no.
no, something wasn't right.
i could forgive stupid decisions.
but not lies.
---
i kept walking without seeing where i was going until a horn blasted next to me. a car screeched. a man cursed.
i blinked and realized i'd stepped into the road.
great. i was one mental collapse away from becoming roadkill.
the driver yelled something but the words hovered around me like smoke.
i stepped back onto the pavement, clutching my arms around myself, grounding my shaking fingers.
my phone buzzed.
i didn't want to look at it.
but i did.
---
14 missed calls — lucas
7 missed calls — mom
5 messages — elara
i clicked on hers.
> serena, please don't make this harder. we can talk later.
i didn't want it to be this way.
please forgive me.
i really am sick.
i'll explain tomorrow.
no mention of why she stole my fiancé.
no apology that mattered.
no proof of anything.
i stared at her messages, and suddenly the numbness snapped.
my chest tightened.
my eyes stung.
my throat burned.
i wasn't crying — not yet.
but the world tilted like it was about to let me.
i sank onto a bench outside a closed bakery and stared at nothing.
i had spent six years building this future:
the house we were supposed to move into,
the wedding we planned,
the dreams we whispered at 2am,
the life i mapped out around him.
six years of love.
six years of loyalty.
thrown away for a girl who cried on command.
---
"you look like you just escaped a funeral."
the voice cut through the fog in my head.
deep. calm. too smooth to belong on a street corner bench.
i looked up.
and there he was — the man from the wedding hall, the stranger who had watched everything unfold like he already knew the ending.
same tailored black suit.
same cold, unreadable eyes.
same aura that made the air feel colder even though he wasn't touching me.
he stood in front of me like he'd walked straight out of a different world — one cleaner, sharper, richer, and infinitely more dangerous.
"i'm fine," i muttered.
"you're lying," he said softly.
my jaw tightened. "you don't even know me."
"i don't have to," he replied. "pain looks the same on everyone."
something inside me twitched — irritation, exhaustion, and a little bit of fear.
"go away," i whispered. "i don't need anyone."
he tilted his head slightly, studying me the way a predator studies a wounded creature deciding whether it's worth saving or killing.
"no," he said.
no?
NO?
who the hell refuses to walk away when told to?
i blinked, confused, annoyed, and a tiny bit grateful for the distraction.
"what do you want?" i asked.
he slipped his hands into his coat pockets, his gaze still locked on me.
"to offer you a choice."
my heart skipped.
"what choice?"
"the one no one else will give you." he paused. "to stop begging people to love you — and start making them regret ever hurting you."
the words hit me so hard my breath caught.
he didn't say it kindly.
he didn't say it sweetly.
he said it like a truth i'd been too blind to see.
i swallowed. "you don't even know what happened."
"i know enough."
he shrugged lightly.
"you were betrayed, humiliated, and thrown aside like an inconvenience. but you're still sitting here, thinking it's your fault."
i opened my mouth — then closed it.
he was right.
and i hated that he was right.
"why do you care?" i whispered.
"because," he said, stepping closer, "women like you don't break. they transform. and i enjoy watching transformations."
there it was — the air shifted.
a warning.
a promise.
danger.
but the strange thing?
danger felt safer than the home i'd just left.
"who are you?" i asked.
he smiled faintly.
"you'll know when you need to," he said. "for now… go home."
"no," i cut in immediately. "i'm not going back there."
"then where?" he asked.
i stared at the glowing city skyline.
i didn't have an answer.
he watched me quietly before reaching into his pocket and placing something beside me on the bench.
a card.
pure black.
no logo.
just a single embossed symbol in gold — a wolf's head.
"call me when you're ready," he said.
"for what?"
"revenge."
my heartbeat stuttered.
he stepped away, the cold night folding around him like a veil.
but before he disappeared into the darkness, i asked, "wait—why me?"
he didn't turn around.
"because," his voice drifted back, low and dangerous, "you're about to lose everything. and people who lose everything… become unstoppable."
---
he vanished into the night.
i stared at the card.
my hands trembled — not with fear, but with something else i hadn't felt in a long time.
strength.
no, not strength.
spark.
a tiny spark of something fierce.
dangerous.
alive.
i stood up slowly, breathing in the cold air.
no more crying.
no more begging.
no more letting people walk all over me.
if lucas wanted to marry my stepsister?
fine.
if my family wanted to throw me away?
fine.
but they forgot one thing.
i never stayed down for long.
i looked at the city lights shining like a crown across the skyline.
maybe that stranger was right.
maybe tonight wasn't my ending.
maybe tonight was my rebirth.
---
i walked into the night with the card in my pocket — the card that would change everything.
the old me died today.
the new me?
she was just starting to wake up.
and god help the people who broke me.
because once i rose…
i wasn't planning to fall again.