6.2%
Chapter 12
Chapter 12
The color drained from Dante’s face.
He opened his phone, then immediately gestured for everyone to back away. “Give me space,” he
ordered, his voice unnaturally tight.
His friends exchanged confused glances. “Seriously, Wolf? You’re worried about privacy now?”
Tyler asked incredulously.
Ignoring them, Dante navigated to his hidden folder with visibly trembling fingers–the one containing three years‘ worth of intimate videos.
Empty.
Everything was gone. Even the trash folder had been emptied.
His mind went blank, like a tower of cards collapsing in slow motion.
“She knew,” he whispered, the realization hitting him with physical force. “She knew everything.”
In that moment, everything clicked into place–her recent quietness, her distant smiles, her careful
responses. That day at the restaurant, she must have heard everything. Every cruel word, every calculated plan.
The date she’d circled wasn’t just her birthday. It was her escape plan.
And despite knowing the truth, despite the magnitude of his betrayal, she hadn’t confronted him. Hadn’t screamed or threatened or exposed him. She had simply… left. Quietly, with dignity. She’d
even managed to delete the videos that could have ruined her, without him ever suspecting.
The grace of her exit made his manipulation seem all the more cruel by comparison.
“She knew everything,” Dante’s voice came out hollow, barely recognizable. “All this time. And she’s
gone.”
His friends exchanged alarmed glances, their faces reflecting shock and growing concern.
“Damn,” Marcus muttered, not grasping the magnitude of what was happening to Dante. “The videos
13:02
The Ultimate Payback When I Married Your Enemy. My Stepbrother
6.34%
Chapter 12
are gone? The whole revenge thing is toast. If Alistair Lima finds out about this-”
“Is that really what you’re worried about right now?” Jason interrupted, watching Dante’s face carefully. “Look at him.”
Dante remained frozen, staring at his phone screen as if he could still see her message. His mind was in chaos, with fragments of conversations echoing through his head:
“Have you actually fallen for her?” “You’re so deeply in love with her that you can’t even admit it to yourself.” “It’s over. I don’t love you anymore.”
The truth he’d been running from for months crashed over him with devastating clarity. It hadn’t been about revenge for a long time. Every gift, every plan for her birthday, every protective
instinct–none of it had been calculated. All of it had been real.
He loved her. And now she was gone.
While his friends continued their frantic discussion about damage control, Dante seemed deaf to
their words.
The guests were growing restless, whispering among themselves about the delayed celebration and
the missing guest of honor.
His friends had no choice but to begin diplomatically dismissing everyone, offering awkward apologies and vague explanations.
When they returned after clearing the venue, they found Dante standing motionless in the center of
the room.
Without warning, he reached for an exquisite crystal vase and hurled it violently to the floor. The shattering sound echoed through the now–empty space.
Next, he grabbed a chair and slammed it against the wall with such force that it left a gaping hole in the plaster.
One by one, he methodically destroyed everything in sight. The expensive decorations, the custom furniture, the imported flowers–all reduced to rubble under his explosive rage.
But the destruction brought no relief. Each shattered object only amplified the hollowness inside him, the realization that no amount of broken things could match what he’d already broken–her trust, her heart, three years of her life.
13:02
The Ultimate Payback: When I Married Your Enemy My Stepbrother
6.5%
Chapter 12
His friends finally snapped out of their shocked trance. “Wolf, stop!” Tyler shouted, moving toward him. “So the revenge plan fell apart–it’s not worth trashing a five–million–dollar venue over!”
Dante paused, his eyes bloodshot and wild. He turned to them, each word deliberate and sharp: “Who said this is about the plan falling apart?”
“Then what are you so angry about?” Jason asked cautiously.
The question hung in the air, deceptively simple yet impossible to answer honestly.
What was he angry about? That his elaborate revenge had failed? Or that he’d wasted three years treating the woman he loved as nothing but a pawn? That he’d been too proud, too stubborn, too afraid to admit what everyone else could see? That by the time he finally recognized the truth, it was
too late?
He opened his mouth, then closed it without speaking.
His mind was a storm of conflicting emotions, his chest so tight he could barely breathe.
He reached for the last intact object-
The multi–million–dollar diamond necklace. The one he’d chosen because he knew it would make her eyes light up. Not because it would make her love him more, as he’d claimed to his friends, but because he’d wanted to see her happy.
He stared at it for one moment, then smashed it against the marble floor.
The sound of shattering diamonds seemed to echo with finality. The revenge plan hadn’t just failed–it had backfired completely. In trying to break Alistair Lima, Dante Wolf had succeeded only in breaking himself.
Amid the devastation, his friends stood silent, hardly daring to breathe.
Dante stood in the center of the destruction he’d created, his eyes hollow, as if something essential had been torn from him.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. He was supposed to discard her when she no longer served his purpose. Instead, she had walked away, leaving him to realize too late that she had become his purpose.
Chapter 13
Chapter 13
