VOWS OF RUIN:MARRIED TO THE ENEMY

Soraya Vance pov ​Paris rain doesn’t wash anything clean. It just makes the dirt polished, the cold sharper, and the marble of Père Lachaise, where dead people are buried, look like a mouth full of dead, gray teeth. ​I had been standing in front of my father’s grave for an hour. The freezing November heavy fall of rain soaked through the wool of my tailored black coat, plastering my hair onto my cheeks and spreading through small spaces into the leather of my boots. I didn't open my umbrella. I didn't want the shelter. I needed to feel the bite of the cold. I needed it to keep me awake, to keep the edges of my anger razor sharp.​ Arthur Vance. 1960–2016. A beloved father.​ These written words on a personal gravestone were a very weak summary of a man who had built an empire from nothing, only to have it torn apart from his losing blood. ​I reached up, my fingers were unable to feel physically and hard to move, and followed the faint, rough looking scar beneath my jawbone. It was a conscious control habit whenever I stood here. The scar was a decade old, a parting gift from the night my life ended and this being extremely unhappy, emptied inside existence began. I could still hear the sound of his heavy crystal whiskey glass breaking against the long pieces of wood as he fell down. I could still see the terrified, empty look in my mother’s eyes, a look that had never left her since. ​I followed the raised skin, letting the memory burn away the feeling in my chest.​" Ten years, Dad," I spoke quietly, my voice making a sharp breaking sound, once swallowed by the sound of the rain hitting the walking paths covered with small stone. "It’s been ten years today."​ Ten years since the bank accounts were frozen. Ten years since the men in cheap suits changed the locks on our home. Ten years since, my mother’s mind has broken into a million impossible to repair pieces, leaving me entirely alone in a world that suddenly demands my blood.​ And ten years since the name Theron Sterling became the only religion I practiced.​ Just thinking his name made my stomach twist into a violent, tight feeling. Theron Sterling. The golden boy of the German tech and finance sector. The ruthless, impossible-to-harm billionaire who had swallowed my father’s company whole in an unfriendly takeover in an angry way, so wrong timed, it had caused a strong fatal caused by a stress heart attack in a man who had never been sick a day in his life.​ While my father decayed in the slightly wet Parisian earth, Theron Sterling sat in a protected building of glass and steel overlooking the large river While I spent my teenage years working three jobs just to keep my mother in a basic mental health building. Theron was on the covers of magazines, praised for his ruthless business ability, his striking features, and his deadly ability.​ He was a monster wearing a three-piece suit, and the world worshiped him for it. ​I dropped my hand from my jaw and stepped closer to the headstone. The rain was running down the cut letters of my father’s name like tears.​"I’m sorry it took so long," I said, visible mist from my breath in the freezing air. "I had to be patient. I had to wait until I was someone he wouldn't see coming. But I'm ready now."​I went down in the mud, ignoring the ruin of my expensive trousers. I didn't care. The clothes were just armor anyway. A costume Gareth had paid for so I could blend into the gilded, corrupted world the Starlings occupied.I touched the cold headstone with my bare hand. My heart hurt as tears filled my eyes. ​"I’m going to break him, Dad," I promised.The words came out of me, broken and full of pain. "I’m not just going to take his money or his company. I am going to rip everything he loves away from him.“I’ll make him feel the same pain I felt the night you died. I’ll destroy everything he has built.”and I’ll watch him suffer as everything he built falls apart.” My chest rose and fell as I made my vow, my heart burning with anger.It wasn’t just an angry promise in the quiet graveyard. I meant every word. The quiet was broken when my phone suddenly vibrated against my chest. I blinked and slowly pulled my hand away from the cold stone. I stood up, my joints hurting from the freezing air. My heart still felt heavy. With shaking fingers, I pulled my phone from the inside pocket of my coat. The screen became bright, cutting through the dark graveyard. The ghost protocol is active. The bracelet is armed. Don't try opening it until you're inside the network area.I stared at the message, my heart was beating very fast. For a moment, I was overwhelmed. The weight of what I was about to do felt a heavy emotional pressure in my chest. Bodai Carmichael, my best friend and the only person who truly understood how far I was willing to go, had done his part. The technology was ready. The device was hidden inside the diamond bracelet in my glove compartment. There was no going back now. My thumb stayed on the screen. My hands were shaking, but I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Acknowledged. See you on the other side. ​I slipped the phone back into my pocket and took one last look at my father’s grave. I didn't say goodbye. I wouldn't come back here until the job was done.​ Turning on my heel, I walked away, the sound of my boots on the wet gravel the only sound in the dead city of stone. By the time I reached the strong iron gates of the cemetery, my driver, a silent man provided by my godfather, had already opened the door of the black Mercedes sedan.​I entered into the backseat, welcoming the loud burst of dry, heated air. I took off my soaked coat, turned it onto the opposite seat, and opened the small compartment between the seats.​ Inside rested a thick, heavy envelope made of cream-strong paper. The Sterling corporate seal was pressed into the wax on the back. ​I slid my thumbnail under the seal and snapped it open. My heart was beating a little too fast against my ribs.​ The invitation inside looked so normal, just cold silver letters on thick paper.​ Mr. Theron Sterling requests your presence at the Vanguard Tech Gala. Guest: Ms. Soraya Vance. VIP Access.​ Gareth had begged and bribed half of Germany to get my name printed on this card. It felt heavy in my shaking hands, a ticket that was supposed to be impossible to get. Theron’s parties were locked down tight. No cameras. No normal people. Just billionaires, quiet criminals, and anyone Theron decided he could use.​I felt a wave of fear, but . . . I swallowed it down and took a slow, deep breath. I had to do this. Tonight, I was walking into the lion's den, and I had to make Theron Sterling believe I was exactly what he needed. ​I rested my head against the tinted window as the car pulled away from the edge of the road and joined the busy, rain-soaked streets of Germany. My heart beat heavily in my chest. This wasn’t a game. Theron wasn’t some spoiled rich man I could charm with a smile. He was dangerous. A man who could destroy someone’s life without feeling sorry.I had heard the stories about him. People in the financial world said his eyes could make anyone nervous. They also said he was always ten steps ahead of everyone around him. If he caught me placing a hidden recording device in his private study tonight, I knew I would be in trouble. He wouldn’t just throw me out. He would destroy me. He would find out about my mother. He would find Bodai. And he would tear apart the little life I had spent the last ten years trying to rebuild. My hand slowly moved toward the small storage space. My fingers touched the velvet box holding Bodhi’s hacked bracelet. Fear made my stomach feel tight.I was scared. More than I wanted to admit. But beneath that fear was something darker.I had waited ten years for this moment. Ten years to finally stand in front of the man who killed my father.The car suddenly turned, and the tires hissed against the wet road.I looked ahead. Through the heavy cloud, I saw it. Sterling Tower. A huge building of black glass and steel, rising above the German skyline. My heart skipped. He was up there. Waiting. ​I closed my eyes, my jaw was so tight my teeth hurt.I was walking willingly into the lion’s den tonight. I just had to make sure the lion didn't realize I was the one holding the strap until the band was already tight around his throat. The car slowed to a stop in the line of luxury vehicles waiting outside the private underground entrance of the tower. The flash of security lights painted the interior of my car in harsh reds and blues. My phone made a vibrating sound one more time. A message from Gareth. Remember who you are tonight, Soraya. Don't flinch.I locked the screen. I grabbed the velvet box, snapping the heavy diamond bracelet onto my left wrist. The metal was ice-cold against my pulse.I looked up as the valet opened my door, the extremely loud roar of the German rain filling inside the car. I stepped out into the blinding lights of Theron Sterling's world, knowing with complete, very scary certainty that by the time the sun rises tomorrow, my life would never be the same. The search had begun.