---- Chapter 17 Aria tried to scramble to her feet, her magnificent wedding gown tangled around her legs. She tripped, falling hard onto the marble floor, a sharp pain shooting up her ankle. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here." The voice was low and menacing, coming from behind her. She turned, her heart seizing with a new kind of terror. It was Rico's loan shark. A hulking man with a scarred face and dead eyes, flanked by two equally intimidating thugs. "| believe you owe me a rather large sum of money," the man said, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "And my associates here tell me you were planning on skipping town." "|... Lean get it!" she stammered, her eyes darting frantically to Bennett. "Ben, please! Help me!" She crawled towards him, her hands outstretched in a desperate plea. Bennett looked down at her, his face a mask of cold, indifferent fury. He didn't say a word. He just watched. The loan shark chuckled. "He's not going to help you, little girl. In fact, he's the one who told us where to find you. Seems you made a very powerful enemy." ---- Aria stared at Bennett, a look of pure, unadulterated horror on her face. This was his revenge. It wasn't just public humiliation. It was utter destruction. "Please," she sobbed, clinging to Bennett's leg. "I'lldo anything." He calmly stepped away, leaving her exposed. "Take her," he said to the loan shark. The thugs grabbed her, their hands like iron vises on her arms. She screamed, a raw, terrified sound that was quickly muffled as they dragged her out of the ballroom, her white dress trailing behind her like a shroud. The last thing she saw was Bennett's back as he turned away, his face completely devoid of emotion. His parents rushed to his side, their faces grim. "It's done," his father said. "Now, what about Kelsey?" « The name was a physical blow. Bennett pulled out his phone, his hands shaking. He had sent Kelsey a dozen texts in the last hour. None had been delivered. "| can't reach her," he said, a note of raw panic in his voice. "Her phone is disconnected." "Bennett," his mother said, her voice soft. "There's something you need to know." 2 They told him everything. The divorce papers he had unknowingly signed. The generous settlement. The fact that ---- they had orchestrated her disappearance, believing they were doing what was best for the family, for the heir that never was. "You did what?" he whispered, his face ashen. The floor seemed to tilt beneath his feet. He had been a fool, a pawn in everyone's games. His parents, Aria, all of them had lied to him The only person who had ever been truly honest, truly loyal, was Kelsey. And he had destroyed her. "Where is she?" he roared, his voice cracking with a pain so profound it was terrifying. "Where did she go?" His parents shook their heads. "We don't know. She wanted to disappear. We helped her." He pushed past them, stumbling out of the ballroom, leaving the wreckage of his fake wedding and the ruins of his life behind him. He ran, not knowing where he was going, just knowing he had to find her. He had to get back to New York. He had to find Kelsey.