Chapter 23%
I uploaded edited photos. Videos with voices dubbed over. Hired influencers to spread it.”
But… Everything got deleted. Not even hours–minutes. Like a ghost swept through the internet and wiped the blood clean.”
The troll accounts I paid? Gone. Banned. Posts? Shadowed.
I screamed so loud the walls shook. Picked up the nearest lamp and slammed it against the marble, shards scattering like my last grip
on control.
And then… I remembered.
I remembered the very first time I hated Savannah Moretti.
I was fifteen.}
Ugly. Greasy hair. Glasses taped in the middle. Wearing secondhand uniforms with my name stitched in crooked thread. I was the weird girl in the back. The one who smelled like cough drops and had a permanent milk stain on her shirt.
They used to call me “Cockroach Girl.”
I never talked back. Just took it. Laughed when they laughed at me. Sat in the bathroom stall during lunch pretending I wasn’t hungry.
And then she showed up.
Savannah.
Perfect face. Soft smile. She didn’t even blink when she saw me crying behind the lockers.}
She just said, “Don’t eat in there…“}
Uremember blinking at her like she was speaking some secret language. Then she handed me this warm bun from a convenience store and said, “Here. It’s still hot. Take it.”
I still remember how it tasted.
She sat beside me the next day too. Talked to me like I was a person. Fought off the girls calling me names. Pulled one of them by the hair once and said, “Talk about her again and I’ll rip your braces out.”}
I thought she was a fucking saint. For a while, we were friends.
Kind of.
She had this tragic little life–dad and mom gone. I pitied her. Thought maybe I could be someone important in her little runaway world. But then he showed up.
Zeus.[
Even his name made my stomach twist.
I’d liked him since forever. Since I was a little thing with broken glasses and an invisible crush. He was always there–tall, lazy–eyed, smirking like the world was a joke only he understood. When he touched your shoulder, you remembered it for weeks. When he looked your way, it felt like sunlight cracked through fog.}
He was mine. In my head, he was already mine.
And then I saw the way he looked at her.
Not me. Her.
Like she was a puzzle he wanted to solve slowly.
I still remember the day she told me.
We were sitting by the bleachers after gym. She had her knees tucked under her chin, hair sticking to her cheek. She looked at me and said, “Zeus asked me out.”
I blinked. “What?”
She smiled. “Twice.“}
And just like that, something broke in me.
I forced a laugh. “You’re not actually thinking about it, right?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s… persistent.“@
I looked away. Bit the inside of my cheek.
“You know he’s not the only one,” I said, voice flat. “He’s got like three girls. I heard him brag about it. He just wants to sleep with you.”>
She looked at me. Quiet. Her mouth opened like she wanted to say something.
I leaned in. “Sav, don’t be stupid. You’re not special to him.”
She didn’t reply. Just nodded slowly. Said she’d think about it. But three weeks later, they were inseparable.
She chose him. She chose him over me.
And the worst part? He didn’t sleep with anyone else. Not a single girl. He stayed with her. Loyal like a fucking dog. Carried her books. Walked her home. Held her hand like she was some delicate glass he’d never shatter.
I couldn’t watch it. So I disappeared.}
Dropped out. Didn’t say goodbye. Left the city like a ghost with a suitcase.
I took my mother’s life insurance money. She died in a car crash. Pathetic. Some people say it was an accident.”
2/2
89.5
They’re not wrong. She did drink too much. I did give her the keys. She did drive off the bridge.”
I didn’t call the police.
And the next day?!
I got the check.
Plastic surgery in Korea. Nose, chin, cheeks, jaw, the works. I paid for my face with her blood and didn’t lose sleep once. But money runs out. Beauty doesn’t come with a guarantee. So I became what I had to be.
A sugar baby.
A luxury whore.
A name in a man’s phone under “Do Not Tell Wife.”
But it paid for more surgery. More skin. More silk.
And now? Now I’m someone Zeus can’t ignore.
And that little stray with broken glasses?
She’s dead.
Savannah buried her the moment she took Zeus from me. And if she thinks crawling back from the dead makes her untouchable? I’ll remind her exactly who the villain of this story is.
And this time, I’m not hiding in the bathroom stall.
to
And then it got worse.
“BREAKING: Billionaire Mafia Engagement–Savannah Moretti to Marry Dominik Salvatore“>
I froze mid–scroll.
The headline screamed from every screen–phones, TV, tablets, even the digital fucking billboard outside my penthouse.}
The Moretti and Salvatore empires. Merging.
Biggest goddamn mafia alliance since the Romanovs.
There they were in the press photos–Savannah in a white silk dress with that death–by–glamour aura, and Dominik… tall, untouchable, sharp in a suit that probably cost more than my entire closet. His hand rested on the small of her back like he already owned her. And her
smile?
Smug. Elegant. Poisonous.
I blinked. But oh… I knew Dominik.
I knew him.
Four years ago, I saw him at that underground auction in Milan. Private crowd. Velvet masks. Billion–dollar handshakes. I was there on another man’s arm, dripping in pearls I didn’t pay for. But my eyes were locked on him the whole night.”
Dominik Salvatore.
The name already came with a crown and a body count.
He didn’t smile. Didn’t talk much. Just watched. Silent. Observing. Like a lion bored of the zoo.
I remember thinking, he’s the one.}
He wasn’t like the rest. He didn’t chase skirts or get sloppy drunk. He didn’t flirt. He didn’t even look at anyone for longer than a second.
Which made him irresistible. He became my first target.”
I watched him from across the room. Timed my steps. Waited until he was alone near the wine display. Then I walked by, “accidentally” slipped, and poured half a glass of red all over my ivory silk dress.
My breasts were practically glistening. My expression innocent. My fall just graceful enough to land in his arms.
He caught me.}
But he didn’t smirk. Didn’t flirt. Didn’t even blink.
He looked at me like I was a problem someone else needed to clean up. Then he let go.
Didn’t even speak.
He just turned and walked away without a word–like I wasn’t even worth a reaction.
I’d never felt so dismissed in my life.”
That night, I swore I’d have him eventually.}
But then I saw Zeus again. He looked up at me like he needed something familiar.”
So I shifted.}
Pivoted.
