vows of vengeance

chapter 3

Flashback – Three Years Ago

Paris – Blackmore Group Investor Summit

It was the first time she met Victoria after she broke up with Adrian.

Juliette had worn a lavender chiffon. Clean, soft elegance. The color of hope.

Adrian was dazzling that day— a young CEO, rising fast, and introducing his then-fiancée to the board with pride.

Victoria Beaumont.

Victoria walked in like thunder in stilettos. French, gorgeous, razor-sharp. The kind of woman who knew how to kill a room with one glance.

When Juliette offered her hand, Victoria took it—but her eyes didn't smile.

Juliette smiled, though. Because her mother once told her: Don't show your teeth to wolves.

“I’ve heard… so much about you,” Victoria had said in that thick French accent.

“And I’ve heard so little about you,” Juliette replied.

That was the beginning.

And Juliette didn’t know it then, but Victoria had already marked her as a threat.

Present Day – Blackmore Tower, London

The boardroom was cold, sterile, intimidating. Juliette sat off to the side, the way Adrian liked—seen but not heard.

But even silence couldn’t hide what she saw.

Every decision Adrian made today—from the new foreign acquisition to the PR response to the embezzlement scandal—carried Victoria's fingerprints.

Her voice was low but commanding. Her eyes, which seemed to always be watching Juliette. Her seal of approval, something Adrian never seemed to want to lose.

Juliette saw it—the discreet glance he gave Victoria before nodding at her ideas. Not the kind of glance given to an ex.

And then it hit her:

She wasn't just his ex. She was still his partner.

As the meeting closed and the board members poured out, Juliette stayed behind, looking out over the city skyline through the glass.

"Still playing house?" Victoria's voice cut through the air like glass.

Juliette turned. Composed. "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

Victoria walked closer, arms crossed, her perfume bitter and intentional.

"You're exactly where I put you."

Juliette blinked, slowly. "Excuse me?"

The Frenchwoman leaned in, whispering slowly, almost tenderly in her ear:

“Stay quiet, Juliette… or you’ll end up like your father.”

Juliette froze.

She didn’t flinch. But her knees almost buckled.

Victoria pulled back, gave her a final look, and walked out like a queen after delivering execution orders.

Juliette remained alone. But not broken. Not this time.

No. Now… she was listening. Watching. Planning.

Flashback – Five Years Ago

Paris. Midnight by the Seine.

The rain had just begun. Not the kind that poured—but the kind that kissed. Soft drops that shone on skin and made everything feel like it was in a film.

Juliette was giggling in Adrian's arms. It was soon after their graduation ball, and she had stolen his tie and tied it around her wrist.

"Let go," he said, amused.

"Make me," she challenged.

They had danced there under the rain-soaked streetlight, soaked to the skin, Paris sighing around them.

"I'll love you forever," Adrian had whispered, holding her face as if it were a holy object. "Even if you burn me."

She hadn't thought he'd meant it then.

She does it now.

Because years later, he's still burning—and he's dragging her through the fire.

Present Day – Adrian's Penthouse, London. A storm raging outside.

Lightning ripped across the sky as Juliette padded, barefoot and silent, through the cold, modern halls. Her silk robe clung to her, damp from the rain she'd been standing in just seconds earlier. She'd walked to the rooftop, alone, to scream into the wind.

There was no comfort there.

Only his voice.

“You’ll catch a cold acting like a ghost,” Adrian said behind her, his voice low and irritated. He stood at the end of the corridor, sleeves rolled, glass in hand, his eyes unreadable.

“I was trying to remember what freedom felt like,” she said softly, her voice cracking.

He walked past her without a glance. “You signed that away.”

“I signed it to save your sister.”

He halted. Back to her. Jaw tight. "Don't say her name."

The silence that followed was heavier than thunder.

Juliette turned. "Why? Because the truth is bitter?"

He spun on her then—fast, sharp, the glass in his hand thrown and shattering on the wall inches from her.

She flinched.

Not because she was frightened.

But because it was a reminder of how far they'd fallen.

"I trusted you," he growled, backing her into a corner, his whiskey-warm breath bathing her. "I would've torn the world apart for you". " And you," he stepped in closer, "—you made a mockery of me."

"You never even asked for the truth," she whispered.

That halted him. For a moment.

And then, without warning… he kissed her.

It wasn't sweet. It wasn't gentle.

It was fire and ash. Punishment and need. His lips claimed hers like he was trying to destroy her.

She kissed him back.

And when they finally parted, gasping, staring—trembling—

He backed away. Looked at her like she was dirt.

"You disgust me," he said.

Juliette just stood there—silent, shocked, and trembling.

Then she looked down.

Her hand was bleeding. Dark red running down her palm. She had clasped it so firmly around the sharp rim of the glass he'd shattered that it cut right through.

He noticed the blood. Stopped.

And walked away.

Without a word.

Without a glance.

Leaving her standing in the storm. Bleeding. Alone.

In the bloodied sink, she finds a torn receipt for a hotel room… booked under her name, dated 3 years ago, the night Adrian disappeared from her life.

Was she framed even then? What happened that night?

Flashback – Five Years Ago

Oxford University Dorm Room. Adrian's 25th birthday.

Juliette moved stealthily across Adrian's dorm room, a small wrapped box in her hand. She had gone all the way to Paris to find it—a vintage watch he had mentioned in passing once.

He never remembered little things.

She did, though. Especially the things he never mentioned twice.

She hid it beneath his desk drawer, behind an old economics textbook. When he found it later that evening, he kissed her knuckles and said, “You’re going to ruin me with all this sweetness.”

She smiled and kissed him back.

Little did she know…

One day, she would.