Revenge Wears Red

Alone Again

I couldn’t make sense of the words coming out of his mouth. They were hollow noise compared to the panic ringing in my ears.

He still hadn’t told me why I was in this room, on a bed that wasn’t mine. Probably his.

“I want to go,” I said, voice raspy as I tossed off the covers and swung my legs down.

The headache hit first, blinding and sharp. Then the weakness followed. My knees gave out the moment I stood, and I crashed to the floor with a painful thud.

Pain exploded up my spine. “Ah, damn it,” I hissed through clenched teeth, pressing my palm against the ache in my lower back.

When I looked up, he was still sitting there.

Unmoving.

Watching.

His stare didn’t waver, didn’t soften, not even a flicker of concern. It was like he expected this. Like he knew I’d fall.

Flushing with humiliation, I forced myself to stand again, wobbling on unsteady feet. I didn’t want help. Especially not from him.

“I’ll be leaving now,” I muttered, lifting my chin and walking toward the door even though each step felt like fire.

“You’re done already?” he asked softly. “I thought you wanted to destroy them.”

I froze mid-step.

“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stammered, but the lie tasted bitter on my tongue.

“Really now?” he murmured.

I didn’t dare turn. I heard him rise, each step deliberate, echoing across the room like a countdown. My body tensed as he stopped just behind me, close enough that I could feel the heat of him against my back. His breath ghosted over the side of my neck, slow and calculated.

My fingers clenched tighter around the doorknob.

“Are you sure you want to let them walk away unscathed?” he asked, voice low and dangerous. “A beautiful woman, slumped over in a bar, drinking herself into oblivion... That’s not a pretty picture."

So he was the man from the bar.

And yet... judging from the way my clothes were untouched and my body unmarked, he hadn’t taken advantage. He’d brought me here, wherever here was, after I collapsed.

That should’ve made me grateful. But right now, I didn’t know whether to thank him or run.

“You don’t know anything about me,” I muttered, still not looking at him. “I’ll handle this. Alone.”

“Why handle it alone,” his voice brushed against the curve of my neck, low and smooth, “when I’m offering help?”

I swallowed hard. “What’s your deal?” I asked, trying to sound firm, but my voice trembled.

He didn’t move. “Let me help you destroy them,” he said simply, as if revenge was a gift wrapped in a bow. My hand slipped from the doorknob.

The images came flooding back, Lucas’s cold eyes as he turned his back on me. Veronica’s smile curled with poison. The weight of betrayal that had buried me whole. My chest burned with it, the kind of burn that made you crave vengeance more than air.

But I’d been fooled before. Loved. Abandoned. Ruined. Why trust him?

“Why?” I asked, turning slightly, my voice softer now. “Why would you want to help me? What do you want in return?”

He chuckled—dark, low, and knowing.

“Why should that bother you?” he said, voice dipped in silk and shadow. “I’m no saint. I won’t lie and say this comes free. But I will say this—when I ask for something in return, you’ll give it willingly. Not because I’ll force you. But because by then… you’ll want to.”

His words sent a ripple through my chest. Something about them, about him, didn’t sit right. Like a storm waiting just beyond the horizon.

My fingers curled into my palm. “Thank you… for helping me last night. But I’ll have to decline your offer.”

I turned, opening the heavy door. The cool air outside the room hit my face like a slap. Freedom. Or so I thought.

“As you wish,” he said easily. “Let me walk you out.”

The silence between us stretched as we walked through the lavish, dimly lit corridor. The place was a mansion, grand and chilling, beauty wrapped in danger. Just like him.

We stepped outside the tall iron gates. The wind tugged at my hair, but he stood still, gaze fixed on me.

“What’s the name?” he asked suddenly.

I blinked. “What?”

“Your name, princess.”

“…Anne,” I replied cautiously.

He nodded slowly, then reached into his coat. He pulled out a neat stack of cash and a black card with gold writing I couldn’t make out.

“Here,” he said, extending them to me. I hesitated, staring at the card like it might burn me. But I took it.

“If you ever find yourself alone again, if the world keeps turning its back on you… come back. The address is on the card. I won’t ask you to trust me now. Just don’t forget I offered, when no one else did.”

I stood there frozen, fingers tightening around the card. Something cracked in my chest.

I swallowed hard and walked away, the weight of his gaze trailing me like a ghost. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. My legs moved on instinct, carrying me toward the only person who had never betrayed me—Camilla. My best friend. My sister in everything but blood. If anyone would still have my back, it was her.

Clutching the cash he’d given me, I made it to the main road and flagged down a cab. The ride was quiet, every bump on the road echoing the chaos in my chest. When the cab finally stopped in front of Camilla’s apartment, I paid the fare with shaking fingers.

I knocked.

No answer.

I knocked again, harder this time. Still silence.

A knot twisted in my gut. Was she okay? I tried the door. Unlocked.

“Camilla?” I called softly as I stepped inside.

The place was dim, but familiar. The faint scent of cinnamon candles and vanilla shampoo still lingered in the air. But it felt... off.

Then I heard it. Muffled sounds. Quickened breaths. A low moan.

Confused, I walked toward her room, heart pounding. Was she hurt? Sick?

I pushed the door open, and froze.

Time slowed. The scene before me was blurred at first, my brain refusing to register it.

Then it hit.

Her.

Him.

Camilla. In bed. With Jonathan, my boss.

She gasped when she saw me, yanking the sheet to her chest like it was armor. Jonathan didn’t even flinch, he just turned his head and raised an eyebrow, bored, like I was nothing more than an interruption to his morning.

My body went numb, but the ache in my chest ignited into a wildfire.

Camilla jumped out of bed, slipping into a satin nightgown in silence. Then, without a word, she marched over and grabbed my wrist.

“Come with me,” she muttered, dragging me out of the room.

“Cam—” I whispered, but she wasn’t listening.

She pulled me to the door, shoved it open, and practically pushed me outside. The cold air hit me like a slap.

She crossed her arms, jaw clenched. Her expression was blank at first. But slowly, something dark flickered behind her eyes. Not guilt. Not shame.

Annoyance.

"What the hell are you doing here unannounced?" she hissed. Then her face changed. “Wait… how are you alive?”

I stared at her, the pain swelling in my throat like a scream I couldn’t release. “I thought—I thought you—”

“You what? Thought I’d be waiting around for you to magically show up? Anne, you disappeared. Everyone thought you were dead.”

“Cami…” My voice cracked. “You too? You left me? I thought you—God, and Jonathan? Him?”

She looked me dead in the eye.

“I took your place,” she said quietly. “At the company. That’s what this is. I worked for it. Earned it.”

My breath caught.

“Camilla…”

“Don't look at me like that,” she said bitterly. “You had the life I always wanted, Anne. The job. The husband. You had it easy.”

“You think it was easy watching you live the dream while I scraped by, acting like your shadow? When you vanished, I did what I had to do. I stopped waiting for someone who might never come back.”

Her voice cracked then. Not with sorrow, but with long-buried resentment.

I shook my head, heart breaking into splinters. “Veronica’s with Lucas now,” I said softly. “You knew, didn’t you?”

My hands trembled. “You all left me for dead.”

The silence stretched between us.

Then she shrugged. “Look, just go. You showing up now? It’s only going to complicate things.”

“Camilla, please don’t—”

“Go back to whatever hospital you crawled out of,” she said, eyes cold. “Go back and do what you should’ve done the first time. Close your eyes. Let go.”

She turned and walked back inside without another glance. The door clicked shut.

And I was alone. Again.