After the birthday party, Damian called me several times, but I didn't answer.

The date for my engagement to Cassius was set: next Thursday.

The timeline was tight, but for the Thorne family, logistics were never an issue.

My mother also planned to use the occasion to formally announce my status as the Thorne heiress.

As it was a Mantel family engagement, Damian was required to attend.

Cassius was more composed than I'd ever seen him, though I caught him adjusting his cufflinks three times in the mirror — the only tell that betrayed his nerves.

"Nervous?" I teased.

"I've faced hostile boardrooms, corporate raids, and your mother's interrogation over dinner," he replied. "But somehow, the thought of standing in front of a room and calling you my fiancée is the thing that gets my pulse up."

I straightened his tie for him.

"Is that a complaint?"

"It's a confession." His eyes softened. "I didn't expect this to feel real."

Before I could respond, my phone buzzed. Seraphina.

"I need to see you before the party. Please, Avery. It's important."

I had agreed to meet her, and now here she was, sitting across from me in a quiet café, her eyes red-rimmed and convincing.

"Sister," she began, reaching for my hand, "I know things have been difficult between us. But I want you to know — I never meant to steal Damian from you."

I let her hold my hand, my expression neutral.

"He pursued me," she continued, dabbing at her eyes. "I tried to resist, truly I did. But love... love doesn't follow rules."

"What do you want, Seraphina?"

Her mask slipped for just a fraction of a second — irritation flickering behind the tears — before the performance resumed.

"I want us to be a family again. Damian and I, you and Cassius. We can all coexist, can't we?"

"We can," I agreed pleasantly.

"Then perhaps you could speak to Grandpa Orson," she said, leaning forward. "Convince him to give Damian another chance. He listens to you."

There it was. The real reason for this meeting.

Damian was losing power, and Seraphina was here to negotiate on his behalf, disguised as sisterly reconciliation.

"I'll think about it," I said, standing to leave.

"Avery, wait—"

"The engagement is Thursday," I reminded her. "Do try to dress appropriately this time. The Thorne family will be there. My mother doesn't appreciate... excessive jewelry."

The engagement party was nothing like the disaster Damian had orchestrated months ago.

My mother arrived with the full authority of the Thorne dynasty — a convoy of luxury cars, a security detail that made the Secret Service look understaffed, and a presence that silenced the room the moment she stepped through the doors.

She was elegant, terrifying, and unmistakably in command.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she announced, her voice silk over steel, "it gives me great pleasure to formally introduce my daughter, Avery Thorne — the sole heiress of the Thorne family."

The room erupted in whispers.

The titans of industry who had once pitied me at Damian's engagement party now looked at me with an entirely different expression: respect. And fear.

Damian stood frozen near the bar, a drink halfway to his lips.

Seraphina clutched his arm, her face drained of color.

They had always assumed I was a nobody — a stepsister clinging to the Vance family name. They had never bothered to investigate my mother's side.

Now they understood.

I wasn't marrying into the Mantel family out of desperation.

I was gracing them with an alliance they didn't deserve.

Grandpa Orson beamed as he officially blessed the engagement.

Cassius slipped the ring onto my finger — a stunning sapphire surrounded by diamonds, a Thorne family heirloom my mother had chosen specifically for this moment.

As applause filled the room, Cassius leaned close to my ear.

"Your mother is scarier than my grandfather."

"I know," I whispered back. "Where do you think I learned it?"

Later that evening, as guests mingled and champagne flowed, Damian cornered me near the terrace.

"The Thorne family?" he hissed, his composure cracking. "You've been hiding this the entire time?"

"I wasn't hiding anything, Damian. You simply never cared enough to ask."

"If I had known—"

"What? You would have stayed?" I shook my head. "That's exactly why I never told you. I needed a man who wanted me, not my inheritance."

He grabbed my wrist. "This isn't over."

Cassius appeared at my side like a shadow materializing from thin air.

"Remove your hand," he said quietly, "or I'll remove it for you."

Damian released me, his jaw clenched.

"You think you've won?" he spat at Cassius. "You're nothing. An illegitimate nobody playing dress-up."

Cassius straightened his cuff with infuriating calm.

"And yet, I'm the one wearing the ring on her finger."

Damian stormed off. I watched him go, feeling nothing.

"He's going to do something reckless," I said.

"I'm counting on it," Cassius replied.