---- Chapter 14 Anya Warner POV: The walk to the front gate felt a mile long. The night air was cool, carrying the scent of salt and night-blooming jasmine. My father walked beside me, a silent, imposing shadow. When we reached the gate, the scene was stark and brutal under the glare of the security lights. Hamilton was on his knees on the pristine white gravel of the driveway, his expensive suit stained dark with blood seeping from his shoulder and his side. Two guards stood over him, their weapons still drawn but pointed at the ground. His head was bowed. When he heard my footsteps, he looked up. His face was pale and slick with sweat, his eyes hollowed out with pain and desperation. Seeing him kneeling there, broken and bleeding, didn't give me the satisfaction | thought it would. It just felt... pathetic. It was a grotesque parody of his proposal to Kacey, a final, desperate act in a play that was already over. "You have five minutes," | said, my voice as cold and hard as the diamonds on Kacey's finger. "Anya," he croaked, his voice horse. "I'm sorry. | didn't know. | swear to you, | never knew who your father was." ---- "Is that what you're sorry for?" | asked, my voice dripping with disdain. "That you picked the wrong heiress? That your calculations were off?" "No!" he insisted, trying to push himself up but slumping back down with a groan of pain. "I'm sorry for everything. Grant... my grandfather... he manipulated me. He set it all up. Kacey, the Verrattis... he told me you wouldn't be harmed. He said it was the only way to protect you, to protect the company from your past." "My past?" | let out a bitter laugh. "You mean the past where | committed a felony to save your company? The past you swore you'd help me erase?" | took a step closer, my anger a cold, controlled fire. "You didn't send me away to protect me, Hamilton. You sent me away because you were ashamed of me. And because you made your choice. You chose her. You married her." "It was a transaction!" he pleaded, his voice cracking. "A business deal to finalize the merger! My grandfather promised me, after it was all done, we would get you back. That we would be a family. | never meant to betray you." "But you did," | said softly, the words a final judgment. "You stood at an altar and made vows to another woman while | was locked away. What was | supposed to be in this new life of yours? Your secret? The mistress you keep tucked away in a quiet house somewhere? The mother of your bastard child?" He flinched as if | had physically struck him. He had no ---- answer. Because he knew it was the truth. "You never knew me, Hamilton," | said, the realization settling in with a profound sadness. "You never saw me. You saw a convenient genius, a wounded bird you could keep in a gilded cage. You loved the idea of me needing you, but you couldn't handle the reality of me not needing you at all." | turned to walk away. "Time's up." "No, wait!" He lunged forward, breaking through the guards 'loose hold and grabbing the hem of my gown. He clung to it, his face buried in the fabric, his body shaking with sobs. "Please, Anya. Give me another chance. I'll leave her. I'll give up everything-the company, my family, all of it. It's nothing without you. | love you." Tears pricked my eyes, tears of grief for the man | thought he was, for the love | thought we had. "It's too late," | whispered. | pulled my dress from his grasp and walked back towards the house, not looking back. "| love you, Anya!" he screamed from behind me, his voice a raw, desperate howl of pain. | stopped. But | didn't turn around. "Your love, Hamilton," | said, my voice carrying back to him on the night air, "was never brave enough. And it was never, ever, worth the price | paid for it."