Ravenna's POV
The glow of my phone screen was the only light in the room. I lay curled on the chaise by the window, the curtains tight as if I could shut out the city—but there's no way of shutting out the internet.
A headline in bold red screamed at me:
"Gold-Digger Bride Humiliates The Armandus Family Second Branch Patriarch."
I scrolled constantly, my thumb numb, my chest hollow. The articles were merciless. Paragraph after paragraph dissected me as though I were some twisted social experiment gone wrong, tearing apart every detail of the night. Lies were spread and multiplied, while the actual events were exaggerated and twisted into a story that would be worthy of a soap opera.
"Last night's banquet ended in disaster as the mysterious young bride of Lucien Armandus, s
