“Five years ago, my guardian, Fitzgerald Kirk, sent me a video of my childhood horse being led to a slaughterhouse. Then he cast me out, broken and penniless. Tonight, I returned to his family' s annual gala, no longer a helpless ward but a powerful woman ready for my revenge. But he and his fiancée, Cassondra, still saw me as the trash they threw away. She taunted me, asking if I' d run out of money, before "tripping" and drenching my white silk gown in red wine. She looked at me with glee, expecting the broken girl from five years ago to cry. Fitzgerald just watched, a bored smirk on his face as he told me to crawl back to whatever gutter I came from. They wanted a reaction. They wanted the hysterical girl they had destroyed. They had no idea that the memory of my horse' s death had frozen everything inside me, fueling a cold rage that had simmered for half a decade. I didn' t even glance at the stain. Instead, I calmly picked up a full bottle of champagne from a passing waiter' s tray. "Don' t worry," I said, my voice dangerously soft. "Accidents happen." Then I swung the bottle and smashed it against her head.”