Chapter 10
A strange light flickered in Scarlett’s eyes as she laughed.
“Left with nothing, did you? How pathetic! After all your scheming, you still ended up empty-handed!”
Her voice rose to a shriek. “Julie Beaumont, stop pretending! Abandoned by the man you love, this is the end you deserve!
How pathetic!”
I tilted my head, genuinely puzzled.
“I have Damien’s entire fortune. Friends who care about me. Adoring students.”
“I’m wealthy and free. Why would I be pathetic?”
The words struck her like a physical blow. Watching me possess everything she’d ever coveted, Scarlett’s carefully
constructed facade cracked.
“You gold-digging whore! Damien’s cast-off trash! Who do you think you are-”
I’d heard enough.
Crack.
My palm connected with her cheek with satisfying force.
Scarlett staggered back, eyes wide with disbelief. The mouse she’d tormented for years had grown claws.
Before she could react, I struck again-three sharp slaps that left her face swollen and bleeding.
Yet instead of crumbling, her lips curled into a grotesque smile.
“Damien!” she wailed, spotting a figure in the distance. “Help me! See how vicious Julie is? I’m the victim here!”
Damien arrived breathless-and stepped right over Scarlett as she reached for him.
Gently, he took my stinging hand. “Is your hand alright?”
Scarlett touched her split lip, her expression twisting into something feral. With a scream, she lunged at me, a small knife
glinting in her raised hand.
“Go to hell, you bitch!”
Damien moved faster. His kick sent the knife flying before he pinned Scarlett to the ground.
“Enough.” His voice dripped with revulsion. “We’re done.”
I watched understanding dawn in Scarlett’s eyes. Born to a gambling father and drug addict mother, she’d clawed her way into high society through sheer determination.
Damien’s fleeting pity had been her golden ticket-until I appeared, stealing his attention.
Now, as security dragged her away kicking and screaming, I saw the truth in her desperate sobs.
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Without Damien, she would vanish back into the obscurity she feared most, before she could realize she would find
herself at the very bottom of society.
As the commotion faded, Damien tried to slip away unnoticed.
“Damien.”
He froze, hope blazing in his eyes as he turned.
“Julie…”
My next words extinguished that light.
“Don’t come near me again.”
His smile shattered. “I just wanted to watch over you-from a distance-”
“Let me go.” The whisper carried the weight of years. “Or I’ll disappear where you can’t follow.”
Damien’s shoulders shook violently before he choked out, “I’ll recall all the surveillance. You’ll have your freedom.”
A pause. Then, stubborn to the last:
“But I won’t remarry. I’ll wait. However long it takes.”
I didn’t respond. These cold words are never meant to be taken seriously.
Some lessons only needed learning once.
Outside, the students’ laughter floated through the air.
“Ms. Beaumont! Come hunt seashells with us! We will be making collages in our art class!”
Taking a deep breath of salt-tinged air, I called back, “Coming!”
The past was finally behind me.
And the future?
The future was mine to shape.
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