Chapter 1 The Night It All Began

The Golden Gala,

New York City,

January 2023.

The ballroom glittered like a cathedral built of glass and secrets.

Crystal chandeliers spilled light over polished marble, casting golden halos that danced atop champagne bubbles and expensive shoes. The hall, itself, scented of money, perfume, and power, echoed with polite laughter - the kind that always carried a lie beneath it.

Lily Carrington moved through it all like a ghost in emerald.

She was breathtaking - elegant, poised, dressed in a silk gown that shimmered with every step. The color matched her eyes: striking green, flecked with gold and brimming with unshed pain.

Her long, auburn curls framed a face too perfect to belong in the same world as betrayal, yet here she was - surviving it with every graceful breath.

She was here to smile, to dazzle, and to pretend she didn't hear the whispers.

But then - she saw them.

Across the ballroom, beneath the twin staircase framed in gilded gold, stood Elliot Ashton - her ex husband - and Eloise Carrington - her stepsister.

The devil and his doll.

Elliot looked like every woman's fantasy and every liar's truth: tall, sharp-jawed, with piercing blue eyes and a tuxedo stitched with blood money. His arm was curled possessively around Eloise's waist; his hand rested too low - too familiar - for comfort.

And Eloise... she was a petite blonde in a red satin dress cut high at the thigh and low at the back. Her laugh rang like a bell - clear and musical... but soaked in venom.

She tossed her golden curls and leaned closer to him, eyes locking with Lily's.

The room spun slightly, when their eyes met.

"Lily, darling," Eloise called out with a sugary purr, raising her glass like a weapon.

"You look absolutely stunning tonight. I almost didn't recognize you - smiling and all."

Lily's jaw tightened. She forced a polite smile and approached, heels clicking like war drums.

"Eloise. Still dressing like a villainess in a soap opera, I see."

"And you still wear heartbreak like an accessory." Eloise's painted lips twitched.

Lily's hand clenched around her clutch. She hadn't come here for a war, but she wasn't about to bleed in front of these jackals either.

"Let's not cause a scene," Elliot said gently, his tone a bit indifferent, as if he wasn't the match that lit this fire.

But Eloise wasn't done.

"Tell me, Lily. How's married life? Oh, wait... would you even know?"

The blow landed causing Lily to flinch amid the mocking laughters from Eliose's entourage standing nearby.

"You really have no shame," Lily said through her teeth.

"Shame?" Eloise's smile turned venomous, evilly twirling the wine in her glass.

"You want to talk about shame? Standing here like some tragic heroine in green, when the truth is - " she raised her voice "- you were never enough for him."

"You, b*tch!" Lily took a step forward, now incensed.

"Eloise, don't-" Elliot warned, but too late.

Eloise hurled her wine.

Red splattered across Lily's face and gown, running in rivulets down her collarbone like fresh blood.

Gasps echoed.

Champagne flutes paused mid-air, and conversations stopped.

Lily stood still, breathing hard. She didn't wipe the wine away. She didn't blink.

"Careful," she whispered. "You just spilled your envy for the whole room to see."

"You're pathetic." Eloise's jaw twitched, unremorsefully.

"And you're desperate."

"That's enough! Both of you-" Elliot stepped between them.

But Lily wasn't finished.

"Tell me, Elliot. Did you ever love me, or did you just need a pretty prop until something easier came along?"

He opened his mouth, but she cut him off with a look that could have frozen fire.

"No, save it. Save your half-truths and your sad little apologies for someone stupid enough to believe them."

She turned and walked away.

The crowd parted like water, whispers trailing behind her like funeral dirges.

---

In the Parking Lot,

The cold bit at her skin, but she didn't stop until she reached her car.

"Lily!" Elliot's voice rang behind her. "Lily, please wait!"

She whirled around, arms folded tightly.

"Why? So you can tell me how much she means nothing? That it was a mistake? That you didn't mean for it to happen?"

He flinched, causing her to laugh hollowly.

"You've already killed the marriage, Elliot. Stop trying to revive its corpse."

"I made a mistake," he murmured. "But I still love you."

She shook her head, tears finally spilling - hot, silent.

"Love? You had a funny way of showing it - in her bed."

"Lily," He moved toward her, taking her hands in his. "I need you to understand - "

"No," She cried, shoving him away. "Get lost! You've made it clear that you don't get to need me anymore!"

"You always overreacted." He gritted his teeth. "You made everything about you."

"Because it was about me! I was your wife!"

"You're impossible."

"And you're disgusting."

There was silence, then -

"I'll make you regret this," he snapped.

"No," she said, voice like a razor. "I'll only regret turning back to you. And, you'll regret ever thinking you could break me."

She got in her car and drove, heart thundering as she drove away.

---

An Hour Later

Somewhere along the Hudson Highway

The city lights vanished behind her like the last flicker of a dying star, swallowed by the jaws of a stormy night.

Lily's fingers clutched the steering wheel, bloodless and trembling. Her emerald gown, now darkened by wine and misery, clung to her like a second skin - cold, sticky, humiliating.

Each breath came sharp and shallow, her ribs expanding against the bruising knot of betrayal lodged in her chest.

The road stretched endlessly ahead, empty but for her headlights slicing through the fog like a scream in the dark.

Her foot pressed harder against the gas. The speedometer ticked higher and faster, as if distance could erase the image of Elliot's arm around Eloise.

As if velocity could outrun the sound of laughter soaked in poison.

As if pain could be drowned by speed.

But then, there was a flash.

Not of lightning, but of headlights.

She spotted them in her rearview mirror - like a pair of blinding, predatory eyes, low and wide-set.

It belonged to a black SUV. Silent and Menacing, as it rode close behind her, too close, as if tasting her fear.

She blinked rapidly, wiping her eyes, as she tried to tell herself it was nothing.

But when she changed lanes, it followed.

Again.

And again.

Her heart then jolted in realization, the kind of tremor that made your gut knot and your spine turn cold.

"No... not now," she whispered to herself, fingers tightening around the wheel. "Not tonight. Please, someone should not be trying to kill me."

She pressed harder on the gas, the engine growling beneath her. Her car surged forward, but the SUV remained in her wake, unbothered. The night roared around her, wind howling through the barely-cracked windows.

Then, it hit her.

The impact was brutal - metal meeting metal in a thunderous scream.

Her head snapped forward. Her teeth clacked together, as her vision danced with white spots.

She tried to regain control, but the steering wheel jerked like a living thing.

Then came the second slam.

Harder, this time, and her tires lost grip.

Rubber screeched, as her car spun sideways. The world tilting like Indiana rubber.

A third impact flipped the vehicle like a child's toy tossed across a room.

It rolled... once, twice....

Then came the shattering.

Glass exploded around her, jagged shards slicing through flesh like knives through silk. Her body lurched violently with every roll, her seatbelt the only thing keeping her from becoming airborne.

In the carnage, a tib cracked, her shoulder dislocated with a sickening pop, as her blood splattered the ceiling.

The vehicle landed upside down with a sickening crunch, the roof folding inward, crumpling like a crushed can.

Then came stillness, but not silence.

Somewhere in the wreckage, the car's radio stuttered back to life. A song, ironically gentle, hummed through cracked speakers, distorted and warped, like a lullaby played in a nightmare.

Lily hung suspended.

Her hair, matted with blood, swayed beneath her like vines in the wind, with one eye swollen shut. Her lips were split and bleeding, her body bruised and punctured in a dozen places. The seatbelt cut into her ribs like a blade, and she couldn't tell if the moisture soaking her chest was sweat, blood, or both.

She tried to scream, but all that came out was a choking rasp.

"Help me..."

But nothing answered, just the groan of metal cooling in the night and the soft hiss of a punctured tire slowly bleeding air.

She blinked. Once. Twice.

And then, a figure appeared before her

It stood just beyond the wreckage, cloaked in shadows. Its presence wasn't human.

Her broken breath caught in her throat as she realized that it was not a rescuer, not a passerby, but something ancient... it's ominous intent sending chills down what was left of her spine.

It didn't speak, it didn't blink - it simply stared.

'Could it be Death?' she thought, her body trembled violently.

Every movement sparked agony, like fire licking at her bones. Her throat desperately rasped open.

"Please..." she whispered, voice brittle as shattered glass. "Please don't take me... not yet..."

The figure didn't move, but the air grew colder.

"I can't die here. Not like this. Not broken. Not forgotten."

Blood trickled into her mouth. Her lungs wheezed against broken ribs. Her vision blurred again, fading between darkness and pale light.

"I have unfinished business," she gasped. "They... they did this to me. They all did. Elliot. Eloise. Every last one of them..."

She coughed then, wet and gurgling, as a fresh wave of blood poured from her mouth, sliding down her cheek and pooling on the roof of the car, now the floor of her tomb.

"I need to make them pay."

There was another pause, still, the figure remained silent. But Lily felt something, something ancient, stirring.

The pressure in the air shifted, like the moment before a lightning strike as the figure stepped forward at last, the shape of it becoming clearer.

But no face, only darkness.

She didn't know whether to fear it or welcome it, but her body betrayed her as her eyelids grew heavy.

But just as the dark threatened to swallow her whole... something answered.

Not in words, but in essence.

It was like a spark ignited somewhere deep inside her chest. But it wasn't warmth - it was fury. Pure, molten rage, old as time and deeper than the sea.

It whispered not with sound, but with promise.

'You will not die here.'

The shadows around her recoiled as the pain dulled. The pressure in her chest lifted just enough for her to breathe.

'You will rise.' came the voice again.

It wasn't a suggestion.

It was a binding pact etched into bone and blood.

Lily's eyes fluttered, then opened wider than before. The blood on her skin seemed to burn. Her body still ached, broken and bruised - but her soul had caught fire.

Her lips - cracked and shaking - curled upward, just barely.

Not a smile.

A warning.

They thought this crash would bury her.

But it had rebirthed her.

Not as Lily Ashton, the shattered wife of a traitor.

But as something else... something sharp and unforgiving. Something no one would see coming.

As the dark consumed her once more, she let herself go.

And somewhere, in the night, the figure vanished... but its promise remained.