Vows of Vengeance

Chapter2: The Bitter Bite

​Sienna

​The reception was a blur of gold-leafed ceilings and clinking crystal, but my focus was narrowed to one thing: the towering, seven-tier architectural disaster in the middle of the ballroom. It was covered in shimmering black ganache. It looked expensive. And to me, it smelled like a crime scene.

I glanced at Maria we both said I smell chocolate at the same time but both for different reasons.Maria loved chocolate and anything chocolate while I one the other hand hated it with a passion and the person responsible for that was standing there staring at me with happiness all over his smug stupid face.

​"Time for the cake!" Cousin Leo yelled, his phone already up. The other "Musketeers" followed suit, their red 'Record' lights glowing like judgmental eyes.

​Julian stepped behind me, his hand settling on my waist with a grip that was entirely too firm. "Ready, Princess?"

​"I’m going to kill you in your sleep," I whispered, my pageant smile never wavering for the paparazzi.

​"Open wide," Julian’s voice snapped me back to the present. He wasn't just offering the fork; he was tilting my chin just a fraction too high. With a slow, deliberate movement, he shoved the fork into my mouth.

​The bitterness was a physical weight. I stood there, paralyzed, the dry cacao coating my throat. My stomach did a violent flip. Across the room, the cousins were vibrating with suppressed laughter. They remembered. They were waiting for the gag.

​I forced my throat to work. I swallowed the ash-like mass, my eyes watering just enough that the press would think I was 'overcome with emotion.' I looked him dead in the eyes. "You have no idea what's coming for you, Vane."

​Julian POV

A black dress"?really?I thought she was gonna get me for real,well my turn I thought to myself almost bursting into a villainous deep laughter that was not fit for this occasion.

​I watched the color drain from Sienna’s face, and for a second, the $20 million ballroom vanished.

​I was eight years old again, standing in the garden with a handful of stolen baking cocoa. Sienna had been acting particularly high-and-mighty in a pristine white sundress that probably cost more than a car. 'Close your eyes for a surprise,' I’d told her. When she did, I didn’t just give her a taste; I practically painted her lungs with it. The way she’d coughed, the brown dust ruining that perfect white silk—it was the highlight of my summer.

​Cousin Leo had caught the whole thing on his first camcorder. The video went viral in our private family circles before 'viral' was even a thing. To this day, the "Cacao Catastrophe" was the Vane family's favorite holiday re-run.

​I knew Sienna was planning something tonight. I’d seen the way she looked at my white tuxedo—like she was imagining it covered in red wine. She’s a Sterling; she doesn’t do "quietly." She does "spectacularly."

​So, I decided to strike first.

​As I shoved that silver fork into her mouth, I felt her jaw tighten. I felt her throat constrict. I knew she wanted to vomit. I knew she was reliving every second of that garden prank. But more than that, I knew she wouldn't break.

​That was the problem with Sienna. She was too proud to lose, even when she was choking.

​"Happy anniversary, Sterling," I whispered, leaning in so close I could see the tiny gold flecks of fury in her eyes. "Tastes like childhood, doesn't it?"

​I expected her to slap me. I expected her to run for the bathroom. Instead, she did something that actually caught me off guard. She grabbed my tie, yanked me down, and kissed me.

​Her lips were coated in that bitter, black ganache. She smeared it against mine, a dark, sticky seal on our "contract." It wasn't a kiss of passion; it was a delivery system. She wanted me to taste my own medicine.

​I pulled back, tasting the bitterness on my own tongue, and caught Leo’s eye. He was grinning, his thumb up. The video was already being uploaded.

​"I'm looking forward to it," I said, wiping a thumb across my lip.

​She thought she was being clever. She thought she was getting even. But I’d been playing this game since I was in short pants, and I wasn't about to let a girl in a black dress take my crown.There can only be one winner and it can only be me.

​