Love doesn't die. It gets betrayed.
The rain fell hard the day Selena ran into the man she thought she would marry.
A black Bentley pulled up outside the fashion house in central City A, and every eye on the sidewalk turned. Its doors opened not with arrogance, but with an air of authority only true wealth possessed. Selena didn't need to turn. She already knew who it was.
Damien Kain.
Her Damien. Or at least, he used to be.
Before the lies. Before the betrayal. Before her sister took everything.
But let's rewind, shall we?
Two years ago, Selena Vellance was not the cold, untouchable woman she had become. She was warm then. Sweet. The kind of woman who believed in candlelight, handwritten letters, and midnight calls where silence said more than words.
She was an artist—more dream than steel—with soft hands and a softer heart. Her passion was designing custom wedding gowns. A bit ironic now, considering how her own love story had shattered like glass under a stiletto heel.
Selena grew up in a family that looked perfect on the outside. The Vellance name opened doors in society, but behind the glimmering facade were cracks no one talked about. Her mother drank too much wine. Her father adored money more than his daughters. And her younger sister, Sierra…
Sierra Vellance was beautiful. Not in the way Selena was—refined, elegant—but in a wild, stormy kind of way. Where Selena walked with grace, Sierra danced through life like the world owed her something. Maybe it did.
Selena loved her sister. She really did. Until she didn't.
But back then… they were still close. Not best friends, no. Sierra didn't do "best friends." She did secrets and whispered promises, pinky swears she never kept. But Selena believed in family. She believed in people.
And she believed in Damien Kain.
He wasn't a man you forget easily. Towering over six feet, with charcoal-black hair that kissed his collar and eyes the color of bruised steel, Damien looked like the villain in a romance novel—until he smiled.
And when he smiled, you melted. Literally.
Selena met him at a charity gala thrown by the Vellance Foundation. She was sketching in the corner—designing yet another wedding dress for someone else's dream—when Damien walked in like he owned the night.
"Beautiful sketch," he said, glancing over her shoulder.
Selena turned, startled. "You like dresses?"
"No," he said, smiling. "I like the way you see them."
Their connection was instant. Organic. She wasn't used to a man looking past her name and into her thoughts. He was thirty-two, an investor in green tech startups and heir to the Kain Holdings conglomerate. But with her, he wasn't the billionaire. He was just Damien. A man who brought her coffee without asking how she took it. Who waited at her studio in the rain just to walk her home. Who memorized the way her eyes softened when she talked about fabric.
Their love wasn't flashy. It was… sacred. Slow-burning. Safe.
Until Sierra happened.
At first, it was subtle. Selena didn't even notice.
A lingering look from Sierra across the dinner table. A too-tight hug when Damien dropped by the Vellance estate. The lipstick stains on wine glasses that didn't belong to Selena.
She trusted her sister. That was her first mistake.
The second was trusting Damien.
"You're imagining things," he said when she asked about the late-night calls.
"Don't be dramatic," Sierra laughed when she walked in wearing Damien's hoodie. "It's just clothes."
But love makes fools of even the cleverest women.
Selena told herself it was paranoia. That Damien loved her. That her sister wouldn't betray her blood.
She was wrong.
The truth came crashing down one Tuesday afternoon.
Selena had left her sketchbook in Damien's penthouse. She let herself in with the code he gave her—the code he once said was hers alone. That lie hurt more than she ever expected.
She heard them before she saw them.
Laughter. Whispers. A moan.
Selena froze in the hallway. Her feet moved before her brain caught up. There, on Damien's leather couch, lay Sierra—hair a mess, lipstick smeared, Damien's shirt halfway off her shoulder.
They didn't notice her. Not at first. Her body made no sound as it broke inside.
Then Sierra turned her head.
"Selena?" Her voice was casual, almost bored. Like she was surprised she hadn't been caught earlier.
Damien stood too quickly, guilt already crawling across his features. "Selena, I—"
"Don't." Her voice wasn't angry. It wasn't even cold. It was… empty.
She walked out without crying.
Because sometimes the heart breaks too hard for tears.
That was a year ago.
Now she stood across the street, watching Damien climb out of that black Bentley, suit perfect, hair wind-blown. And next to him…
Of course.
Sierra.
Clutching his arm like she'd won a trophy.
Selena didn't flinch. Not anymore.
She had rebuilt herself from the shards they left behind.
Her fashion line was thriving. Selène Atelier was now featured in Vogue's "Top Ten Rising Designers." She had walked into boardrooms and shattered expectations. She had become the woman her mother once warned her never to be—independent, powerful, untouchable.
But she hadn't forgotten.
She never would.
Because this wasn't the end of her story.
It was the beginning.
Six months earlier, she had nearly deleted the email.
"CEO Contract Offer – Confidential Proposal Attached."
It sounded like spam. But the sender name made her hesitate: Grey & Co. Holdings.
She opened it out of curiosity.
And that's when fate smiled for the first time in a long while.
The CEO position wasn't just any role. It was for a joint merger between Vellance Enterprises and Kain Holdings—a merger that would put her directly across the boardroom table from Damien.
It was a trap. And she was going to walk into it.
Willingly.
Not for revenge. No.
For closure.
For power.
And maybe… just maybe… to remind Damien Kain of the woman he lost.
But first, she needed a mask.
She became colder. Bolder. Selena Vellance rebranded herself into something unstoppable.
Men now whispered her name like a rumor they were afraid to love. Women envied her wardrobe, her elegance, her calm fire. But no one knew the storm beneath.
They didn't know about the nights she couldn't sleep. About the pain that still clung like an old perfume. About how sometimes, she still dreamed of Damien's hand wrapped around hers.
But dreams were for fools.
She was no longer one.
Back in the present, Sierra spotted her from across the street.
Selena smiled.
A slow, deliberate smile.
One that didn't reach her eyes.
Sierra's mouth fell open, as if seeing a ghost. Her grip on Damien's arm tightened.
But he didn't look.
Not yet.
Selena turned and walked away, heels clicking on wet pavement like thunderclaps.
This was her story now.
And it was just getting started.
Author's Note:
What if the one you loved betrayed you with your own blood? What if you were the woman left behind? Selena's journey from heartbreak to vengeance is just beginning. Secrets, contracts, and high-stakes boardroom battles await. But underneath it all… can a heart that's been shattered still beat for love?
Keep reading. Chapter Two will reveal what Selena does next—and why Damien Kain isn't quite done with her yet.