Chapter 107\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maya\u00a0<\/p>\n
The invitation card lay on the glass table in front of me like an insult directed toward me. It reminded me of all my failures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had read it at least ten times already, but my eyes kept returning to the same words, as if they might rearrange themselves if I stared long enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cScott Moore and Bella Williams\u00a0<\/p>\n
request the pleasure of your presence\u00a0<\/p>\n
at their wedding\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The location was listed beneath in elegant golden script. It was one of the most exclusive five\u2013star venues in the city. It was the kind of place people like me only dreamed of being invited to unless we were paying through our teeth. The card wasn\u2019t even addressed to me. It was addressed to my stepfather, Jared Williams. There was no mention of his family. Not even my mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That made it worse. Like Bella was insulting me on my face, and challenging me that I couldn\u2019t do a thing about it. It felt like Bella was announcing publicly that she had avoided me on purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something inside me snapped. Fury rose in my chest. I grabbed the lamp from the side table and hurled it across the room with a frustrating scream. It crashed against the wall. The glass shattered and the bulb burst with a sharp pop. The electric sound echoed in the silence that followed. My chest heaved as rage shook through me so hard my hands trembled. I pressed my palms against my thighs, in order to steady myself, but the anger rolled inside me in waves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had done it again. She had won.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bella had always done this. She walked away from everything she was supposed to lose, only to come back and take what she wanted anyway. I had spent years making sure she never got ahead of me, and snatched everything she desired. I took what she was entitled to, what she wanted, what she deserved because why should she have it when I was her equal? I was entitled to everything she was after my mother was married to Jared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
even though y\u2013million\u00a0<\/p>\n
Craig had been the first. Convincing my stepfather to arrange that marriage with Bella had been Bella witnessed me cheating with him. I had convinced our father to marry her to Craig to snatch inheritance. All that money would have flowed through us and secured my future, fashion house be damned. Bella running away had ruined that plan. But I used my sharpness to siphon off the money from Jared\u2019s business for my own living style. However, that well was also running dry. I needed funds. Urgently. Desperately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Bella came back, broken and alone, I\u2019d made sure to stay wo steps ahead of her. I\u2019d done everything in my power to poison Scott against her. I\u2019d watched her struggle, watched her fach, watched her lose. And I enjoyed\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now she was marrying him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not just any man, but Scott Moore. The man who owned Phoen businesses with a single signature. The man I had once convince\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mall. The man whose approval could make or break myself would be my husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I let out a harsh exhale. He was marrying her, while I was still scrambling to keep my life from collapsing\u00a0<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed on the bed, and for a moment I considered isoring it. But I already knew who it would be. The mall management. Again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Phoenix Mall project was a disaster. The shop I was supposed to be setting up was barely half\u2013done. I spent the allotted budget the way I always did. On clothes, parties, expence dinners and holidays. But the money had dried up and the warning emails had turned into formal notices\u00a0<\/p>\n
Please finish the setup in one week or lose the contract. We will old the agreement, and you will pay the penalty\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
20:17 Fri, Dec 19\u00a0<\/p>\n
TG G\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 107\u00a0<\/p>\n
26%\u00a0<\/p>\n
auchern\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that was why I had gone to Jared. This was the last resort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could still hear his sharp voice in my head as he sat across from me in his study. \u201cI don\u2019t have the money, Maya,\u201d he had snapped. \u201cI\u2019m bankrupt.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d stared at him, disbelief turning into panic. \u201cThat\u2019s not possible. What about the inheritance? There has to be some way to grab it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had rubbed his temples like I was giving him a headache. \u201cI was counting on that money when Bella married Craig. But that\u2019s gone now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With desperation in my voice, I said, \u201cWhat about Isla? She could help. She can release it!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jared had laughed bitterly. \u201cEven if she wanted to, she can\u2019t. The money is legally locked until Bella marries.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an emergency, father\u201d I\u2019d insisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s when he\u2019d lost his temper. \u201cThis is because of you,\u201d held shouted. \u201cYour spending, your recklessness. Ever since I fell ill, you\u2019ve run the fashion house into the ground. Had you been sharp, you would have helped me make money, not lose it!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d fired back instantly. \u201cDon\u2019t put this on me. You\u2019re the one who couldn\u2019t keep things afloat. And that bitch daughter of yours is to be blamed! If she hadn\u2019t run away, if she\u2019d married Craig like she was supposed to, none of this would\u2019ve happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was when he\u2019d pulled out the invitation card. He\u2019d slid it across the desk toward me. \u201cThere\u2019s no hope now. She\u2019s marrying Scott Moore. That money will never be ours.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remembered the moment my fingers had brushed the card, the way my stomach had dropped. When I looked at it, I hadn\u2019t said anything then, shocked as hell. I\u2019d just stood up and walked out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now I was back in my room, staring at the same card, knowing that this was it. There was no backup plan. No inheritance. No rescue. Bella had taken everything without even trying. She had ruined us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sank onto the edge of the bed, the hot rage finding me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had always been the quiet one, the soft one. And somehow, he\u2019d walked away with the worl\u00a0<\/p>\n
I clenched the invitation card in my fist until the paper crumple. There was no way out of this. Now there was no money coming. My safety net was going to blow into smithereens. I was left behind, watching from the sidelines, with nothing but a wedding invitation that wasn\u2019t even meant for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I knew I needed urgent help. Would Craig help me just one lastne to destroy her?\u00a0<\/p>\n
AD\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland\u2019s breathtaking cold.<\/p>\n
When Midnight Winds Carry Secrets Toward Worlds Yet Unknown `107 Chapter 107\u00a0 Maya\u00a0 The invitation card lay on the glass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-new-world-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}