Kiss The Ground I walk on (The Heiress Revenge)

The night I discovered my life was a lie, I was wearing a wedding gown. Not for a wedding. For a fitting. My mother had insisted — “We want to see you in it, Aurora. Come home tonight. It’s important.” Important. I should have heard the warning in that word. By the time my car rolled down the long driveway of the Kane estate, the sky was a bruised shade of purple. A stormy color. A color that matched the heaviness sitting on my chest — a wrong, uneasy pressure I couldn’t explain. The mansion was dark. The mansion is never dark. I stepped out, the hem of my gown brushing the gravel, the diamonds around my neck cold and uncomfortably heavy. Every instinct hummed with tension. Something was wrong. Terribly, violently wrong. I crossed the porch, pushed the door open— Silence hit me like a slap. No music. No staff. No lights. Just emptiness. Paintings removed. Chandeliers covered. Furniture stripped down to its skeleton. It felt like a house preparing for a funeral. My funeral. “Mom?” My voice trembled. “Dad?” Only my echo answered. I took one step toward the grand staircase— and a gun clicked behind me. I froze. Slowly, I turned. Dominic stepped out of the shadows. Tall. Silent. Danger walking on two legs. His eyes were darker than the night outside. Unreadable. Cold. Beautiful in a way that made my stomach twist. He aimed the gun directly at my heart. My breath stuttered. “Dominic…?” He didn’t blink. “You shouldn’t have come back.” “You’re scaring me,” I whispered. “Good.” He stepped closer, the barrel brushing over the lace covering my chest. A cold circle of death against my skin. Dominic. The man who once kissed me like I was oxygen. The man whose hands had traced my cheek as if memorizing it. The man who disappeared the second my engagement was announced. Everything inside me screamed his name — in fear, in memory, in longing, in betrayal. “What’s happening?” My voice cracked. “You already know.” His tone was flat, but his eyes flashed with an emotion he hid too quickly. “They set you up.” “Who?” “Your parents. Your board. Your fiancé.” His jaw tightened. “Your sister.” My heart stopped. “No. Elias would never— Lila would never—” “Don’t say her name like she’s innocent.” His voice was razor-sharp. “She’s wearing your ring.” I stumbled back. “What?” “She’s pregnant.” The world split open beneath my feet. “No,” I breathed. “Please… Dominic, please tell me you’re lying.” “I don’t lie to you,” he said quietly. “That’s their job.” I felt it — something inside me breaking. Something that wouldn’t ever go back to the way it was. Elias, my fiancé — the man I was supposed to marry in eight weeks— with my little sister. Pregnant. Carrying his child. And they didn’t even bother to hide it from Dominic, of all people. My knees weakened. “Why would they do this to me?” Dominic’s voice dropped to something terrifyingly calm. “Because dead daughters don’t inherit anything.” My blood turned to ice. Before I could speak— before I could understand— glass shattered somewhere upstairs. Dominic’s head snapped toward the sound. “Move,” he ordered. “I—I can’t—” “Move, Aurora.” His voice wasn’t angry. It was survival. I gathered my gown and ran. The skirt tangled around my legs, diamonds bouncing painfully against my collarbone as my breath rasped in my throat. Every step echoed through the hollow mansion. Behind me— Footsteps. Two sets. Not Dominic’s. I reached the back corridor— A figure stepped into view. A man I didn’t know. Smile sharp. Eyes greedy. “Aurora Kane,” he drawled. “Pretty even when she’s about to die.” He raised a knife. My scream never made it out. A gunshot split the silence. The man collapsed in front of me. Dominic emerged behind him, chest heaving, jaw clenched hard enough to c***k. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me close, heat radiating from his grip. He wasn’t looking at me like a man who wanted me dead. He was looking at me like a man who’d kill the world to keep me alive. “Listen carefully,” he said, voice trembling with urgency. “This is only the first.” “The first what?” I cried. “The first hitman they sent for you tonight.” My heart stopped. “T—Tonight?” “Aurora,” he whispered, stepping closer, “they hired four.” Four. Four hitmen. For me. I staggered. Dominic tightened his grip — more than protective, almost desperate. “I’m not supposed to be helping you. I was supposed to…” His voice broke, low and raw. “Let’s just say plans changed.” “What plans?” My voice shook violently. “Dominic, what aren’t you telling me?” He looked at me like he was deciding whether to damn me with the truth. Then he stepped even closer. “The only reason you’re still breathing is because I refused to finish what they paid me to start.” The floor disappeared beneath me. “You…” My throat closed. “You were hired to kill me?” His eyes pinned me in place. “Yes.” The confession punched the air out of my lungs. But Dominic didn’t look cold. He looked tortured. “Aurora,” he said softly, “I am not letting anyone else touch you.” Gunfire crackled from the staircase. Shouts. Footsteps pounding. Doors slamming. “Your family wants you dead before midnight,” he said, pulling me behind him. “And Elias?” My voice barely existed. Dominic hesitated — not at the danger, but at the name. That alone told me everything. “He wants you gone,” he said darkly, “before the baby arrives.” A tear slid down my cheek. And Dominic — trained killer, emotionless shadow, the man I wasn’t supposed to love — reached out with an unsteady hand. He wiped the tear away. Soft. Slow. Almost trembling. “Run with me,” he whispered. “If you want to live.” But before I could answer— The chandelier above us snapped. I looked up just in time to see it fall. Light shattered. Glass exploded. Air punched out of my lungs. And the world went dark.