Updated Feb 14, 2026 • ~10 min read
[DUAL POV]
[MARIUS POV]
The hotel room felt different in daylight. Less like refuge. More like temporary shelter before storm.
I stood by window watching motorway traffic while Aspen showered. My phone sat on the bed like weapon. Loaded. Dangerous. Waiting.
One hundred sixty-three notifications.
I scrolled through damage:
Father: Call me immediately. This is unacceptable. You’ve embarrassed the family. Destroyed the merger. Disgraced everything your grandfather built.
Mother: Beta, please call. I’m worried. Whatever happened, we can fix this. Just come home.
Rhys: You’re all over the news. Media outside our house. Father is losing it. But I’m proud of you. Finally chose yourself. Call when safe.
Julius Thornton-Webb: My lawyers will be contacting you regarding defamation, breach of contract, and damages. You’ll pay for this humiliation.
Allegra: Thank you. Genuinely. I know that sounds insane but—thank you. For giving us both an out. I hope you’re okay.
That last one surprised me. Allegra being—grateful. Understanding.
News alerts were worse:
The Guardian: “Society Wedding Collapse: Inside the Scandal”
Daily Mail: “Mystery Mistress Destroys £50M Merger”
BBC: “Khatri-Thornton Wedding Called Off Amid Affair Allegations”
They’d found photos of Aspen. Background research. Her student loans. Her mother’s Alzheimer’s. Her three jobs. Everything Dominic had known, now public.
Comments speculated:
- “Gold digger targeting wealthy groom”
- “She probably made up the affair for money”
- “Khatri family should press charges”
They were destroying her reputation. Making her villain. Making me—victim.
Wrong. Completely wrong. She’d saved me. We’d saved each other.
I needed to protect her. Somehow. But how?
Allegra’s text gave me idea. She’d admitted she didn’t want the marriage either. That was recorded. Viral. Proof this wasn’t Aspen destroying true love. This was Aspen exposing arranged disaster.
I texted Rhys: Need your help. Media is making Aspen the villain. She’s not. I need—we need to control the narrative. Can you help?
Response immediate: Already on it. Calling my documentary contacts. We’ll get real story out there. But Marius—Father is furious. He’s threatening to cut you off completely. Legally disown you. Are you prepared for that?
Was I?
Yes. I chose this. I’ll face consequences.
Then I’m with you. Whatever you need.
Bathroom door opened. Aspen emerged in yesterday’s clothes, braids wet, face clean of makeup. Beautiful in completely different way from the red dress performance.
Real. She looked real.
“How bad?” she asked, seeing my phone.
“Bad. Families are furious. Media is making you the villain. But—” I showed her Rhys’s text. “My brother wants to help. He’s a documentary filmmaker. Has media contacts. We can get real story out.”
“The real story that I was hired to crash your wedding?”
“The real story that we were both trapped in situations we didn’t choose and helped each other escape.”
“That’s still going to sound bad.”
“Maybe. But it’s honest.”
She sat on the bed. “I need to call Dominic. He’s been texting. He sounds—angry. I went off-script. Maybe he won’t pay me now.”
“Let him be angry. You did what he hired you for—stopped the wedding. How you did it doesn’t matter.”
“It might matter to him.”
Fair point.
“Call him,” I said. “I’ll be here. You’re not facing him alone.”
[ASPEN POV]
Calling Dominic felt like walking into ambush. But I needed that money. Ten thousand dollars. The reason I’d done all this.
The reason? Or one reason among many?
I didn’t want to think about that.
I called. He answered immediately.
“Aspen.” His voice was cold. Controlled fury. “Explain.”
“Explain what? I stopped the wedding. That’s what you paid me for.”
“You told him.” Not a question. Statement. “You told Marius about the plan. That wasn’t the agreement.”
“How do you—”
“Because he acted like he knew. His performance was too perfect. Convenient. You conspired with him.”
Shit. I’d underestimated how closely he’d been watching.
“Does it matter?” I asked. “Wedding is stopped. Merger is dead. You got what you wanted.”
“I wanted you to be the villain. The crazy woman making false accusations. Instead you and Marius played it like mutual liberation. Now media is speculating about arranged marriage and family pressure. Now people are sympathizing with you. That’s not what I paid for.”
“You paid for wedding sabotage. I delivered.”
“You delivered half-assed collaboration instead of devastating solo performance. That’s breach of contract.”
“We didn’t have a contract.”
“We had an agreement. You violated it. So I’m adjusting your payment.”
My stomach dropped. “What do you mean adjusting?”
“Five thousand instead of ten. You got the first payment. Consider that full compensation. You’re not getting the second half.”
“That’s not fair! I did what you asked!”
“You did half of what I asked. You get half payment.” His voice dropped. Dangerous. “And Aspen? I’d be very careful about talking to media. About explaining your role. Because I have evidence that you solicited this job. That you’re a professional saboteur. That you—” He paused. “That you offered sexual services as part of your event assistance. Escorting, really. I can make you look very bad very quickly.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it? You posted an ad offering ‘no questions asked’ work. I have screenshots. I have your financial desperation documented. I have—everything I need to destroy you if you make trouble. So take your five thousand. Disappear. And don’t make me regret leaving you with anything.”
He hung up.
I sat frozen. Phone in shaking hands.
He’d just—
He’d just threatened me. Blackmailed me. And cut my payment in half.
Five thousand. Not ten. I’d risked everything for five thousand. For—
For nothing. It wasn’t enough. Rent was paid, facility was paid, but that was one month. I’d destroyed my reputation for one month of breathing room. For—
“Aspen?” Marius was there. Concerned. “What did he say?”
“He’s only paying me five thousand. Says I breached our agreement by telling you. And he threatened—” My voice cracked. “He threatened to frame me as an escort if I talk to media. To make me look like I was offering sexual services as part of the job. He has evidence. Screenshots. Documentation of my desperation. He can destroy me completely if I cause trouble.”
Marius’s expression went dark. “That bastard.”
“He planned this.” Understanding hit. “He planned to screw me over from the beginning. Whether I told you or not. Whether I executed perfectly or not. He was always going to cut my payment and threaten me into silence. He needed deniable pawn. Someone desperate. Someone with no power. Someone he could—” I stopped. “Someone he could destroy to cover his own involvement.”
“Why?” Marius asked. “Why hire you to stop the wedding, then try to destroy you?”
Good question. What did Dominic gain from stopped wedding AND destroyed pawn?
“The embezzlement,” Marius said slowly. “Rhys found something when we were investigating. Dominic’s been embezzling from Thornton Capital. The wedding merger would have exposed it—new accounting, new oversight. He needed the merger stopped before he got caught. But he also needed someone to blame. Someone to take the fall. If you’re the villain, if you’re the desperate gold-digger who destroyed the wedding, then—”
“Then no one looks at why he wanted it stopped,” I finished. “No one investigates his motives. Because I’m the obvious bad guy.”
We stared at each other. Understanding crystallizing.
“He used us both,” Marius said. “You to execute the sabotage. Me to make it look like I was victim. And now he’s positioning himself as innocent party while destroying your reputation so you can’t expose his involvement.”
“What do I do?” I asked. “I can’t fight him. He has money. Lawyers. Power. I have—nothing. Five thousand dollars and a destroyed reputation.”
“You have me,” Marius said. “You have truth. And you have—” He pulled out his phone. “You have evidence that he hired you. You kept his texts, right? His instructions?”
I had deleted them. Per his instructions. “No. He told me to delete everything. I—I did.”
“Emails?”
“Deleted.”
“The money transfer? Bank record?”
“Cash. He paid me cash.”
“Of course he did.” Marius ran his hands through his hair. “Of course he covered his tracks. He planned this perfectly.”
We sat in silence. Trapped. Again. Different cage. Same helplessness.
My phone buzzed. Text from Bailey:
Aspen I saw the news. Where are you? Are you okay? Media is calling me. Your apartment. Your jobs. They’re saying terrible things. Call me PLEASE.
My apartment. My jobs. My life—
“I need to go home,” I said. “Bailey’s probably terrified. And I need to—I need to face this. Whatever this is.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“That’s not a good idea. Media will be looking for us together. If we show up at my apartment—”
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving you alone right now.”
“Marius—”
“Aspen, you risked everything for me. I’m not abandoning you when it gets hard. We’re partners. Remember?”
Partners. In chaos. In destruction. In—
In whatever this was becoming.
“Okay,” I said. “Together.”
We checked out of the hotel. Got in his car. Drove toward London. Toward my tiny apartment in neighborhood his family probably didn’t know existed. Toward—
Toward reality. Consequences. The wreckage we’d have to survive.
Traffic was terrible. Gave us time to plan. Strategize. Figure out—
“We need lawyer,” Marius said. “Good one. Someone who can fight Dominic’s threats. Someone who—”
“I can’t afford a lawyer.”
“I can.”
“With what? Your family cut you off.”
“Not yet. I have trust fund. Grandfather set it up. Father can’t touch it.” He glanced at me. “I have resources. Let me use them to protect you.”
Pride wanted to refuse. Independence wanted to fight alone. But—
But survival meant accepting help. Meant letting someone—
Meant trusting him.
“Okay,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. This is partnership. You protected me first.”
We arrived at my apartment complex at noon. Media vans were already there. Photographers. Reporters. All waiting for—
For me. The villain. The gold-digger. The woman who destroyed society wedding.
“Ready?” Marius asked.
“No. But let’s do it anyway.”
We got out of the car.
Cameras exploded.
“Ms. Colby! Is it true you had an affair?”
“Marius! Are you and Aspen together?”
“Aspen! Did you plan this?”
“Marius! Will your family press charges?”
Marius took my hand. Faced the cameras. “Aspen did nothing wrong. Our families will confirm the marriage was arranged. We both chose freedom over duty. That’s the story. Now if you’ll excuse us—”
We pushed through to the building. Up the stairs. To my apartment where Bailey was waiting, door open, face relieved and furious and terrified all at once.
“You’re alive,” she breathed. Then hit my arm. “You’re alive and I’m going to kill you! What the hell happened?!”
“It’s complicated.”
“The news says you had an affair with him.” She gestured at Marius. “And crashed his wedding. And—” She stopped. Looked at Marius. Then at me. Then at our joined hands. “Oh. Oh this is so much worse than I thought.”
“Bailey, this is Marius. Marius, my best friend Bailey.”
“The groom,” Bailey said. “The one whose wedding you crashed. He’s in our apartment.”
“It’s complicated,” I repeated.
“Everything with you is complicated.” She pulled me inside. “Get in here before more media shows up. You—” She pointed at Marius. “You better have good explanation for this. Because my best friend just became most hated woman on the internet and I need to know why.”
We went inside. Small apartment. Tiny compared to Marius’s world. But home. Mine and Bailey’s. Safe.
For now.
Until consequences arrived.
Until families mobilized.
Until—
My phone rang. Unknown number. I answered. “Hello?”
“Ms. Colby? This is Marshall Lang from Thornton-Webb Legal. We need to discuss your defamation and damages regarding yesterday’s incident…”
Lawyers. Of course. Already calling. Already threatening.
The wreckage was here.
Consequences arrived.
And we’d have to survive them.
Somehow.
Together.
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