Dowry Denied, Destiny Rewritten

Dowry Denied, Destiny Rewritten

Gavin

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The air in the Las Vegas hotel choked with stale champagne and failure. My fiancé, Mark, slumped at the poker table, surrounded by his smirking cousins, Kevin and Brian. A fortune in chips piled before them. Mark' s pile was empty. My heart sank when Kevin announced the amount: "One hundred and eighty thousand dollars." That was my dowry, a fund for our future, our new home. Mark' s mother, Brenda, cornered me, her voice sharp. "You need to fix this, Sarah. It' s a family debt. You have the money. Pay it." My blood ran cold. She wanted my dowry to cover a reckless gambling debt. Mark wouldn' t even look at me, a pathetic man playing for sympathy. "Brenda, that' s... that' s everything we have," I stammered. "What kind of life will you have if your husband is in debt to his own family?" she countered. "Pay it, Sarah. It' s the only way." I looked at Mark, begging him with my eyes to defend us. He just shook his head, a weak gesture of defeat. The pressure was crushing, a trap closing in. My hand trembled as I reached for my purse, numb with shock and a twisted sense of duty. Then, a line of text shimmered in the air, a translucent pop-up. "Kevin and Brian are exchanging triumphant glances. They are predators who just cornered their prey." I blinked, shaking my head, but it was still there. Then another: "Brenda' s eyes are fixed on your purse, gleaming with anticipation, like a hawk watching a mouse." The fog in my brain cleared. This wasn' t tragic loss. This was a performance. A carefully planned scam to steal my money. Seven years of love, crumbling in an instant. The man I was to marry was a conspirator, his mother the mastermind. The devastation felt physical, but a cold, hard anger began to rise. They thought I was a fool. They were wrong. My hand became perfectly steady. I took a deep breath, the air tasting of betrayal. "No," I said, the single word cutting through the tension.

Introduction

The air in the Las Vegas hotel choked with stale champagne and failure.

My fiancé, Mark, slumped at the poker table, surrounded by his smirking cousins, Kevin and Brian.

A fortune in chips piled before them. Mark' s pile was empty.

My heart sank when Kevin announced the amount: "One hundred and eighty thousand dollars."

That was my dowry, a fund for our future, our new home.

Mark' s mother, Brenda, cornered me, her voice sharp. "You need to fix this, Sarah. It' s a family debt. You have the money. Pay it."

My blood ran cold. She wanted my dowry to cover a reckless gambling debt.

Mark wouldn' t even look at me, a pathetic man playing for sympathy.

"Brenda, that' s... that' s everything we have," I stammered.

"What kind of life will you have if your husband is in debt to his own family?" she countered. "Pay it, Sarah. It' s the only way."

I looked at Mark, begging him with my eyes to defend us. He just shook his head, a weak gesture of defeat.

The pressure was crushing, a trap closing in. My hand trembled as I reached for my purse, numb with shock and a twisted sense of duty.

Then, a line of text shimmered in the air, a translucent pop-up.

"Kevin and Brian are exchanging triumphant glances. They are predators who just cornered their prey."

I blinked, shaking my head, but it was still there.

Then another: "Brenda' s eyes are fixed on your purse, gleaming with anticipation, like a hawk watching a mouse."

The fog in my brain cleared. This wasn' t tragic loss. This was a performance. A carefully planned scam to steal my money.

Seven years of love, crumbling in an instant. The man I was to marry was a conspirator, his mother the mastermind.

The devastation felt physical, but a cold, hard anger began to rise.

They thought I was a fool. They were wrong.

My hand became perfectly steady. I took a deep breath, the air tasting of betrayal.

"No," I said, the single word cutting through the tension.

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I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

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