Betrayed Bride, Reborn Architect

gainst my skin. Tonight was supposed to be the culmination of everything, the peak of my entire professional life. My project, "Greenhaven," was about to be unveiled. For

be by my side. We were a team, in work and in life. He was the real estate genius, I was the architect. Togeth

stant, locked in late-night meetings he claimed were about securing final funding. He' d told me to trust h

im. Instead, another figure glided to the stage, someone I knew all too well. Victoria Hayes. My most ruthless competitor. A woman who built her career

e low hum of the crowd quieted

OmniCorp, in partnership with two of the brightest minds in our industry, David Thompson a

in my throat. D

ysian Fields." Then, my designs flashed across the screen. My layouts, my energy systems, my signature atrium design. It was all

ar in my ears. I felt hundreds of eyes on me, whispers starting to rip

crophone, his smile as bright

hearts into 'Elysian Fields.' But tonight,

He looked out at the audience, his eyes

ner in business but has become the

the thieves who had just stolen my life's work and my future. The humiliation was a physical forc

w. You're done. We can't be asso

career. The walls of the ballroom seemed to be closing in. I had to get out. I t

rough my tears. I had nowhere to go. My apartment was our apartment

in almost a decade. A person I' d been told to stay away from. My estranged uncle, Robert. He was a recluse, a brilliant but d

second ring, his

ar

ound of my own voice breaking. "I n

ther end of the line. Then, he

It will be there in twenty min

ok a deep breath, the city air thick with exhaust and rain. This was it. I was leaving my old life behind, a life tha