The Ruined Bride of Velvet Nights by Brick Moving Ant

Chapter 4

Victoria’s eyes gleamed with venom as she leaned closer. “If I were you, I’d honestly just off myself. It would save everyone the trouble of looking at your fucked–up face.”

She waited eagerly for my reaction, desperate to see me crumble.

But I felt nothing. My heart was a dead thing in my chest. The Dagonet name meant nothing to me

now.

“I’ll leave. Take it all if you want it so badly.”

Victoria let out a high–pitched laugh. “God, you’re pathetic. While you’ve been getting your ass handed to you, I absolutely killed my SAB audition. Got my acceptance yesterday.” She tapped my wheelchair with her foot. “As for you… enjoy rolling around for the rest of your worthless life.”

Her voice dropped to a cruel whisper. “But that’s still not enough. I need them to hate you as much as

I do.”

Before I could process what was happening, she whipped out a small pocketknife and slashed her own cheek with practiced precision.

As she crumpled to the floor in a perfectly executed fall, Victoria hissed in my ear: “FYI, Daddy dearest only wanted those guys to rough you up a little. I’m the one who paid them extra to make sure you’d never dance again…”

Something cold and primal flashed in my eyes.

A heartbeat later, Victoria’s bloodcurdling screams echoed through the hospital.

Dad burst through the door, slamming my wheelchair aside as he rushed to Victoria’s side.

Jesus Christ, what

my doctors: “Help her!

the floor, fresh blood seeping through my bandages.

covered her face, tears streaming down in perfect pathways,

Chapter 4

manufactured fear.

fault! I just wanted to tell Val how s–sorry I was about everything! Please, Val,

expression transformed into pure

Victoria comes here out of the goodness of her heart, and you ATTACK her? What the hell

me with pure disgust. “You really are a psychotic bitch, aren’t you? Maybe those guys didn’t go

job.”

out, rushing her toward treatment as if she were critically wounded, never once

Perfect.

today, we’d be nothing to each

examinations, only remembering I existed after confirming her superficial

and grab some of those raspberry macarons

Dad’s phone lit up.

left some kind of suicide note. And the major shareholders just

my Uber, I watched through the hospital’s security feed as

a passing nurse by her scrubs. “Where

his hand

That girl has suffered

depressed. And I heard what you people said

that poor girl, and now you have the audacity to demand answers? How would I know where she went?”

she was sitting alone, sobbing her heart out while you all coddled that other