The sound of heels echoed like an omen through the marble corridors. Lena Vasiliev - the wife everyone thought was distant, harmless, decorative - was walking through that house again like a shadow that had been summoned from the bottom of an abyss.
Her eyes were no longer the same. The gentleness that once characterized them had been extinguished, replaced by a mixture of rage, pain and contained coldness. That woman who left believing in her husband's love was now returning as a force of destruction.
For love that is betrayed, when it does not die, becomes lethal.
Lena did not scream, she did not break dishes, she did not ask for explanations. Her revenge was not impulsive. It was surgical.
It all started with a meeting. Lena summoned the silent associates of the Vasiliev family, powerful people who pulled strings in the shadows. She did it in the name of the family, with a diplomatic smile and a blood-red dress.
-Lucian has made mistakes," he said in a soft but firm voice. And his lack of judgment could cost us much more than money. He can no longer be trusted.
The words cut across the table like razor blades. Some hesitated, some did not. Lena had planted the seed, and as a good poison gardener, she knew she just had to wait.
Then came the most personal attack.
Ana.
The woman for whom everything had fallen apart. The maid who had become queen. Lena did not speak her name in public, but in the privacy of her mind, she repeated it like a mantra: Ana. Ana. Ana.
She sent an anonymous note to the local press. With intimate details. Scandals made up with truth. Enough to damage Ana's and Lucian's reputations without mentioning either directly.
The small town where Ana had taken refuge soon filled with rumors. Talk in the bakery. Stares in the church. Rejection in the streets.
Ana felt it like an invisible bite. No one knew for sure where the attack was coming from, but the hostility grew, like a silent fire.
And then came the final blow.
Lena contacted Viktoria. Not as allies, but as wounded beasts who, for once, shared a goal.
-I don't trust you," Lena told her. But we hate the same people. That's enough.
It was a pact of ashes. One that sought neither money nor power. Only the destruction of those who broke their souls.
Lucian received the news one autumn afternoon, when the trees were beginning to bleed leaves.
-You have been dismissed," one of the partners informed him, without looking up. The board voted. You are no longer on the board.
Lucian didn't respond. He just nodded. He knew Lena was behind it. He knew his downfall was a consequence... of his own decisions.
And he accepted it.
That night, Lena poured herself a glass of wine and watched the mansion from a distance. Her chest burned. Not with triumph, but with emptiness.
She had won. She had destroyed what was left of her old world.
But deep down... he still didn't feel free.
For revenge does not rebuild the heart. It only leaves it in quieter ruins.
And though her soul was covered in scars, for the first time, Lena wept.
Not for Lucian. Not for Ana.
But for herself.