> "Everyone thinks I died that day. They were wrong. I just buried the version of me that cared."
---
The black heels clicked against marble floors like bullets—sharp, threatening, deliberate.
Amaris Lane didn't rush. She wanted them to feel her arrival before they saw her.
Five years. That's how long it had been since Edenrose Prep expelled her for a scandal she didn't commit. The headline still lingered like a ghost:
> "Golden Girl Caught in Explicit Video Leak—Family Disowns Daughter."
She remembered every face that watched her fall. Every whisper that shredded her.
Her classmates. Her teachers. Her best friend.
Zayden.
Especially Zayden.
Her jaw clenched. She had forgiven a lot of people in her life—but not him. He had the power to stop the lie, and he chose silence. Chose Celeste.
Now?
He was CEO of his father's empire. Engaged to Celeste. Living his perfect life.
While Amaris clawed her way out of the ruins.
But she didn't come back to cry.
She came back to destroy.
---
Edenrose Tower was bathed in champagne light, glass walls stretching high above the city. Amaris walked straight through the lobby in a fitted black dress like second skin. Heads turned.
She looked like power. She was power.
At the front desk, the receptionist gave her a once-over and smiled politely.
"Miss, do you have an appointment?"
Amaris pulled down her sunglasses. The woman paled slightly.
"Tell Mr. Kross," she said, voice cold as diamonds, "Amaris Lane is here to collect what she's owed."
---
FLASHBACK – Five Years Ago
"You believe me, right?" Her voice cracked as she showed Zayden the messages proving the leak came from someone else. Her hands trembled.
Zayden stood in the rain, jaw tight. "This… this doesn't look good, Amaris."
"You think I'd record myself and send it around?"
"I don't know what to think anymore."
She stared at him, heart breaking. "You promised you'd never doubt me."
He didn't respond. Just turned and walked away.
That was the day something in her broke.
And whatever was left of her, she buried.
---
Back in Present – CEO's Office
The glass doors opened.
Zayden Kross looked up from his desk, expecting a meeting with investors. Instead, the woman he thought he'd never see again stepped inside like sin wrapped in silk.
He stood slowly, stunned.
"...Amaris?"
"Miss Lane," she corrected. "You lost the right to call me by my name when you left me in hell."
He stepped around the desk, disbelief etched into his features. "You look... different."
"That's because the girl you knew is dead."
She gave a cruel smile. "You and Celeste made sure of that."
He flinched. "It wasn't like that."
"No?" she whispered, voice like venom. "Then why didn't you stop them?"
He was silent.
Amaris's smile sharpened. "I didn't come here for your guilt, Zayden. I came to remind you—what you bury doesn't stay dead. It rots. And it comes back."
---
Later that night, her fingers danced across a laptop keyboard in her penthouse.
One by one, she pulled up files. Names. Secrets. Weaknesses.
Celeste. Zayden. The principal. The hacker who started it all.
Everyone had skeletons.
And Amaris had learned how to dig.
Elliot's voice crackled through her speaker. "You sure about this?"
She sipped her wine. "I don't want redemption, El. I want justice."
"And if justice makes you the villain?"
She stared out the window, eyes cold.
"Then I will happily be the villain."