Kaen’s POV
The morning everything truly ends starts with my phone detonating. News alerts, text messages, missed calls forming a digital avalanche I can't escape.
Gia's parents are holding a press conference. Livestreamed across every major outlet like the execution it is.
I watch from my penthouse—the one I moved into three days ago after walking out on my family. Supposedly cutting ties. Supposedly done with their manipulation.
Except I'm still watching. Still caring. Still letting them destroy me from a distance.
Pathetic, really.
"We're terminating all business arrangements with Dareth Industries effective immediately." Mr. Redfern's voice is cold. Professional. The kind of tone that ends empires.
"We were given false financial information, lied to about the company's solvency. The Dareths knowingly misrepresented their situation to secure our daughter's dowry."
The words land like bombs. Each one more devastating than the last.
Gia stands beside her parents. Composed. Done with me and everything I represent.
She looks nothing like the woman I kissed at Maeve's engagement party. That desperate performance feels like years ago instead of days.
"I was told Kael Dareth loved me." Her voice doesn't waver. Doesn't crack. "That we were building a partnership. Instead, I was a transaction to temporarily save a bankrupt company."
She looks directly at the camera. At me, really. Like she knows I'm watching.
"To Maeve Welch—I'm sorry. I didn't know. I was used the same way you were."
The apology makes my stomach twist. Not guilt—resentment. Pure, acidic resentment.
Maeve gets an apology. Maeve gets sympathy. Maeve gets to be the victim while I'm painted as the villain.
Never mind that she's the one who ruined everything. Her identity, her father, her existence—all of it destroyed my life before I even knew what was happening.
My phone explodes again. Group chat with my family lighting up like a bonfire.
Mother: "This is YOUR fault. If you'd just controlled that bitch—"
Father: "Call me. NOW."
Vera: "Thanks for ruining my life. Hope Maeve was worth it."
I watch the messages pile up. Each one more desperate, more accusatory than the last.
They're imploding in real time and somehow it's my fault. Not theirs for embezzling, for lying, for building an empire on fraud.
Mine. For falling in love with the wrong girl.
The Dareth estate is probably chaos right now. Mother screaming at everyone. Father locked in his office with expensive scotch. Vera crying about canceled sponsorships and dead social media accounts.
I left them three days ago. Walked out, cut ties, played the hero finally choosing himself over family obligation.
Except I'm still here watching it happen. Still letting it affect me. Still caring despite knowing I shouldn't.
Weak. That's what Gia called me yesterday. Not bad—weak.
The distinction matters apparently.
My phone rings. Father's name on the screen. I let it go to voicemail. Don't even listen to the message before deleting it.
Mother texts: "This is your fault. You and that whore."
I block her number. Should feel liberating. Should feel like freedom.
Feels empty instead.
I realize something sitting here in my expensive penthouse with my expensive view of a city that doesn't give a fuck about Dareth Industries or dynastic collapse.
I'm free. Actually free for the first time in my life.
No family obligations. No company to save. No pressure to be anyone except myself.
But I'm also alone. Completely, devastatingly alone.
Called Maeve six times yesterday after our... encounter. After she told me to leave, to mail the divorce papers, to never come back.
Blocked. Every single call went straight to voicemail.
Showed up at Welch Industries this morning. Security threw me out before I made it past the lobby. Apparently, I'm blacklisted. Persona non grata in my wife's building.
Ex-wife. Almost ex-wife. Whatever the fuck she is now.
Tried to send flowers to her apartment. Stupid, romantic gesture that felt right at 2am after half a bottle of scotch.
They were returned. "Recipient refused delivery."
She's done with me. Actually done. Chose Caelen Rhys—the honest one, the reliable one, the man who was everything I wasn't from the beginning.
The worst part? She was right to choose him.
Caelen treats her like she's valuable. Like she matters beyond what she can provide. Like she's a person instead of a problem to solve or an asset to manage.
I treated her like... fuck, I don't even know what I treated her like. A possession? A complication? Something to be handled rather than loved?
All of the above probably.
I see that now. Too fucking late, but I see it.
Three years at Princeton feeling like the hero. Like I was saving her from loneliness, from being nobody. Like she should be grateful I chose her over the socialites my mother preferred.
God, I'm a narcissistic asshole. Was a narcissistic asshole. Am still a narcissistic asshole trying to pretend I've changed.
Gia's final words to me at the press conference haunt me. She pulled me aside right before—one last private conversation before destroying my family publicly.
"You're not a bad person, Kael." Her voice was soft. Pitying. "Just a weak one."
She's right. I know she's right.
Doesn't make it hurt less.
Bad I could work with. Bad implies agency, choice, intentional harm. Bad means I had control and used it wrong.
Weak means I never had control. Means I was swept along by stronger personalities—my mother's manipulation, my father's desperation, even Maeve's quiet strength that made me feel inadequate.
Weak means I'm exactly what I've always feared being. Powerless.
Except.
Except I'm not as weak as they think. Not as helpless as I'm playing.
The divorce papers sit on my desk. Unsigned. Maeve told me to mail them. I haven't.
Won't. Not yet.
There's still leverage here if I'm smart. If I'm strategic instead of emotional. If I stop playing the reformed villain and start playing the game properly.
Maeve thinks she's won. Thinks she's untouchable with Daddy's empire behind her and Caelen Rhys at her side.
She's wrong.
They think I'm broken. Pathetic. Weak.
Good. Let them think that. Let them underestimate me while I figure out my next move.
Because I'm done being the victim in this story. Done being the weak one who gets pitied and dismissed.
Maeve wants to destroy my family? Fine. Already happening. Can't stop that train.
But she doesn't get to ride off into the sunset with Caelen fucking Rhys while I'm left with nothing. Doesn't get to win everything while I lose everything.
That's not how this ends.
Gia's words echo: "You're not a bad person, Kael. Just a weak one."
She's right. I know she's right.
Doesn't make it hurt less.