Chapter 7
841words
His blood trail marked the marble floor—a gruesome reminder.
The ballroom remained deathly silent.
Everyone held their breath.
All eyes on Dominic and me at the center of the room.
I still gripped the broken bottle neck tightly.
The jagged edge now pointed at Dominic.
My hand trembled violently.
"Stay back."
I rasped.
Dominic froze.
He stared at me, those typically cold, distant eyes now bloodshot.
"Scarlett, put that down."
His voice shook.
What was he afraid of?
Was he afraid I'd hurt myself?
How absurd.
"Stop pretending to care!"
I backed away, tears finally breaking free, mixing with the champagne that had splashed on me, making me look utterly wretched.
"Dominic, why play the hero now?"
"What was that kick for? To show everyone you own your 'property'?"
"Don't forget, you were the one who handed me to him five years ago! You gave him permission to destroy me!"
Dominic went rigid.
As if I'd spoken in an alien tongue.
"What?"
He looked stunned.
"I gave you away? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Stop lying!"
I screamed, unleashing five years of bottled hatred.
"The letter! Brad showed me your handwritten letter! You called me a burden and said you were giving me to him in exchange for investment money!"
"I tried to find you—even if I was being sold off, I wanted to hear it from your own lips!"
"But your number was disconnected! You cut all contact! You wanted me gone completely!"
Dominic stared at me as if I'd struck him.
"I cut contact first?"
He strode forward, ignoring the broken glass, and seized my wrist.
Hiss!
The jagged edge sliced his palm, blood welling instantly.
But he gripped me as if he couldn't feel it.
His eyes were wild, his voice raw with pain and fury.
"Scarlett, listen to me! I never sold you!"
"That night five years ago, your father—that vindictive bastard—had me tied up in a basement and broke my leg!"
"Because he thought I was just some poor nobody, not worthy of his precious daughter!"
"I was in a coma for three days! When I woke up, I called and texted you like a madman for 24 hours straight!"
"And what happened? Every number disconnected!"
Dominic roared, veins bulging in his neck, eyes blazing.
"Since you'd cut me off completely, what was I supposed to do? Keep your photo as a reminder of my humiliation?!"
"So I threw it away! I wanted to forget you existed! Because by then my heart was already dead!"
My mind went blank with shock.
The broken glass slipped from my fingers, shattering on the floor.
"How is this possible..."
I stared at his bleeding hand, then at his anguished face.
Fragments of memory suddenly began reassembling themselves.
Five years ago... right after that night.
Brad had given me a new phone and taken my old one.
He'd said: "Scarlett, that broke loser sold you out. With me, you'll only have the best."
"Throw away that old phone—it's just a reminder of your painful past."
I was so naive then, so desperate, that I believed his lies.
So while I was switching phones, Dominic was desperately trying to reach me from his hospital bed.
And by the time I tried calling him, he'd already given up and changed his number.
Just like that, thanks to Brad's manipulation, we completely missed each other.
"So..."
My voice trembled, tears blurring my vision.
"You didn't sell me? You didn't write that letter?"
"Am I fucking insane that I would sell you?!"
Dominic roared, his voice breaking.
"I would have died for you back then! I worked myself to the bone building my business, sleeping three hours a night just to be worthy of you! How could I possibly have handed you to that piece of garbage for money?!"
"I thought you'd abandoned me for money and status!"
He yanked out his phone, pulled up the video he'd just received, and thrust it in front of my face.
"Until I saw this just now! Only then did I realize you never went with him willingly!"
On the screen: a dimly lit hallway from five years ago.
I hung limply over Brad's shoulder like a corpse, completely unconscious as he carried me into his hell.
"This is date rape!"
Dominic's voice shook, each word torn from his soul.
"For five years, I've hated you for betraying me, for being shallow and greedy."
"But it turns out... you were violated."
"And last night, I forced you into my bed..."
He suddenly released me and slapped himself violently across the face!
CRACK!
Sharp.
Brutal.
Merciless.
I stood frozen, staring at my unconscious self on the screen, then at the man before me, so remorseful he was harming himself.
So we'd been hating the wrong people all along.
These five years of hell should never have happened.
An overwhelming sense of absurdity and grief instantly engulfed me.
My legs gave way, and my entire body slid downward.
