Chapter 2 Sent Away

Ashley's Point of View

I wake up knowing something is wrong.

Not because of the pain-though it's there, pulsing dully behind my eyes-but because of the emptiness. A hollow so vast it feels like my soul slipped out of my body while I slept and never found its way back.

The ceiling above me is unfamiliar. Too white. Too bright.

Hospital.

The word forms slowly, sluggishly, like my brain is wading through mud.

When I try to move, my skull protests violently. I gasp, fingers clutching at the sheets.

"Ashley."

My father's voice.

I turn my head an inch. That's all I can manage. Liam Marsh sits beside the bed, his shoulders hunched, his expensive suit wrinkled in a way I've never seen before. He looks older. Smaller.

For a split second-just one-I feel something dangerous rise in my chest.

Hope.

Then I remember.

The altar.

The microphone.

Cole's voice, calm and merciless.

"No."

My breath stutters.

"You collapsed," my father says quickly, as if speed might soften the words. "You hit your head. The doctors said it was exhaustion and emotional distress. You'll recover."

Recover.

As if this were a sprained ankle.

I swallow. My throat feels raw, scraped bloody from screaming I don't remember making.

"How long?" I ask.

"Two days."

Two days while the world tore me apart without me.

My fingers twitch. "My phone."

He hesitates.

I don't look at him. I don't have to. I've known this hesitation my entire life-the pause before disappointment, before avoidance, before he chooses the easier path.

"Please," I say. My voice is flat. Empty.

He hands it to me.

The screen lights up like a weapon.

Notifications explode across it.

My name. My face. My humiliation.

I open the first article without thinking.

REJECTED MARSH HEIRESS FAINTS AFTER EVANS' PUBLIC REJECTION

Below it, a still frame of me standing frozen at the altar, eyes wide, bouquet trembling in my hands. I look small. Breakable.

Another headline.

EVANS CHOOSES MIRA MARSH: THE SMARTER, STRONGER SISTER

I scroll.

Comments pour in endlessly.

She always looked like a mouse.

Marsh blood clearly skipped her.

Imagine fainting like that. Embarrassing.

Mira won fair and square.

My vision blurs.

I keep scrolling anyway.

Because some part of me believes that if I read enough, I'll find something-anything-that says this isn't my fault.

I don't.

My fingers go numb. The phone slips from my hand and lands on the bed.

My father clears his throat.

"You shouldn't read those things," he says.

A laugh claws its way out of me, sharp and humorless.

"They watched it live," I say. "What did you think would happen? Sympathy?"

He rubs his temples. "Ashley, everyone is under a lot of pressure right now."

Everyone.

Not me.

Never me.

"Did you know?" I ask.

He looks up. "Know what?"

"That he was going to humiliate me in front of the world."

"No," he says immediately. Too fast. "Of course not."

"Did Sophia?"

Silence.

It stretches until it hurts.

My chest tightens. "Did Mira?"

"Ashley-"

"Answer me."

He exhales slowly. "There were... conversations. Concerns."

Concerns.

A word so small it feels obscene.

I turn my face away.

The door opens softly.

"Oh, sweetheart."

Sophia's voice glides in like silk over a blade. "You're awake."

I don't respond.

She approaches anyway, heels clicking gently, deliberately. I can almost feel her assessing me-pale, broken, inconvenient.

She sits on the edge of the bed and takes my hand. Her skin is cool.

"You scared us," she says. "Stress can be so dangerous for someone as... sensitive as you."

Sensitive.

There it is.

Behind her, Mira leans against the doorframe, arms crossed. She's dressed impeccably, as always. No sign that she's the woman who destroyed my life forty-eight hours ago.

She smiles at me.

Not wide. Not obvious.

Victorious.

"I told everyone she needed rest," Mira says lightly. "She's always been fragile."

Something inside me snaps.

I pull my hand away from Sophia's grasp.

"I want to be alone."

Sophia blinks, just once. "Of course."

She stands, smoothing her skirt. "Come, Mira. Let your sister recover."

Mira doesn't move right away.

She tilts her head, studying me like I'm a puzzle she's already solved.

"I hope you're feeling better," she says. "The press has been... relentless."

I say nothing.

Her lips curve. "But don't worry. I've been handling things. Making sure the Marsh name stays respectable."

Respectable.

At my expense.

They leave.

The room feels colder without them.

I'm discharged that night.

The drive back to the penthouse is silent, thick with everything unsaid. New York's lights flash past the window, dazzling and indifferent.

When we arrive, reporters linger at a distance, cameras hungry. Security ushers us through a private entrance.

The penthouse doors close behind us.

Sophia exhales like she's relieved to be home.

Mira's phone buzzes almost immediately. She glances at it and smiles.

"Cole," she says casually. "He wants to make sure Ashley is... stable."

Stable.

My hands curl into fists.

I walk past them toward my room.

Halfway down the hall, I hear Mira's voice again.

"Oh-Dad?" she calls.

I stop.

"There's something you should see."

I turn slowly.

Mira stands in the living room, holding up her phone. Sophia is beside her. My father approaches them, frowning.

"What is it?" he asks.

Mira taps the screen and turns it toward him.

"It's been circulating online," she says. "Someone leaked security footage from the hospital."

My stomach drops.

Footage?

Liam's face darkens as he watches.

I can't see the screen, but I don't need to.

"I was disoriented," I say automatically. "I don't even remember-"

"It's not about that," Mira interrupts gently.

She looks at me with something dangerously close to pity.

"It's what you said."

Sophia gasps softly. "Ashley, how could you?"

My heart pounds.

"What did I say?" I demand.

Mira sighs and turns the phone toward me.

The video plays.

It's me. In the hospital bed. Pale. Hollow-eyed.

My father's voice is faint in the background.

And then my own.

"I hate her. I hate all of them. I wish she were dead."

The room tilts.

"That's not-" My breath comes in sharp bursts. "That's cut. I was talking about the situation-I didn't-"

"People don't know that," Mira says softly. "They're saying you threatened me."

Threatened.

Sophia presses a hand to her chest. "This is serious, Liam. If this gets worse-if the Evans family sees this-"

"I didn't mean it," I whisper. "I was in shock."

Liam looks torn. Exhausted.

Then Mira steps closer to him.

"Dad," she says quietly, "I'm scared."

She gestures to her arm.

There's a red mark there. Faint. Finger-shaped.

I stare.

"I didn't do that," I say. My voice shakes. "I never touched you."

"She grabbed me," Mira says, eyes glossy. "When I tried to comfort her."

The lie lands like a gunshot.

Sophia's face hardens. "Ashley, this has gone too far."

My father closes his eyes.

When he opens them, something in him has shifted.

"Ashley," he says slowly, "you need to leave the penthouse."

The words don't register at first.

"Leave?" I echo.

"Just for now," he says. "Until things calm down. This environment isn't healthy-for anyone."

"For me," Mira whispers.

I laugh.

It bursts out of me, wild and broken.

"You're sending me away," I say. "Because she lied."

"Ashley," he snaps. "Lower your voice."

That's when it hits me.

Not the betrayal.

The finality.

He isn't choosing peace.

He's choosing them.

"Where am I supposed to go?" I ask.

Sophia answers smoothly. "We've arranged a hotel. Quiet. Discreet."

A hotel.

I look around the penthouse-the marble floors, the portraits of a family that was never really mine.

"I understand," I say softly.

They all blink.

I nod. "I'll pack."

I don't cry while I pack.

I move mechanically, folding clothes, choosing only what fits into one suitcase. My wedding dress hangs untouched in the closet, sealed in plastic.

I don't look at it.

I find my mother's veil in the drawer and hold it for a moment.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I tried."

No one comes to stop me.

When I roll my suitcase into the living room, Sophia is already there.

"I hope you'll take this time to heal," she says.

Mira doesn't look at me.

My father stands stiffly near the window.

"I'll call you," he says. "When things settle."

I nod.

The elevator doors slide shut.

As the penthouse disappears from view, something inside me goes numb.

Outside, the city waits.

My phone buzzes.

A message.

Cole.

I stare at his name.

Then I turn off my phone.

And step into the night-homeless, nameless, and finally, completely alone.