I started to hyperventilate when I looked through the last closet in the mansion and didn't see it. I fought the urge to pull at my neatly curled hair, but it was too much to bear. My wedding gown was missing. On my wedding day.

I sucked in air and breathed hard to try and control myself when one of the help rushed into the room with a sullied look on her face. I rushed to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Tell me you found it, Eliza. Tell me you found my wedding dress."

"I did see your wedding dress, miss, but I'm not sure you should know where it is." She muttered.

I watched her suspiciously before I let go, my eyes softening.

"Where is it, Eliza?"

She wrung her hands, looking away.

"Your wedding gown is already on the altar. Miss Veronica is putting it on. She's at the altar with Mr. James."

I blinked for a few seconds before my legs moved, rushing through the hallways and foyer. When I stepped out of the mansion, my jaw dropped. My guests sat with smiles on their faces as they watched the ceremony unfold, but that was not what caught my attention. It was my best friend of five years, wearing my wedding gown, staring up at my supposed fiancé who held her hand lovingly with pride in his eyes.

Time slowed down. My chest tightened. The pieces didn't fit together, but there they were, standing at my altar like this was always the plan.

I rushed forward, gasps filling the air as I pushed through to the altar.

"What the hell is this?!" I questioned, my eyes darting between Veronica and James.

A look of shock passed through their features, but it disappeared just as quickly.

"Scarlett, you're early." Veronica said, clinging to James' arm.

I fumed, wanting to rip her hand off.

"Why are you in my dress on my wedding day?"

"She's up here because she's the one I'm marrying, Scarlett. Veronica is to be my wife." James replied, locking eyes with me. I scoffed, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"You're lying." This had to be a bad dream.

"I'm not." He stepped down. "Do you really think I would marry you? You're a washed-up nobody."

Blood boiled in my veins.

"We've been dating for seven years, James. Are you really throwing it all away for her?" I queried, pointing at Veronica as tears welled up in my eyes.

James just stared at me, and at that moment, I knew he had been lying to me for the longest time.

"How long has this been going on?"

"What does it matter? You started this first. I only went through with mine." James retorted, a sly smile playing on his lips.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I know about your affair with those men. All those scandalous nights at the office and business dinners. I know what you were truly up to, whore!" His voice echoed over the venue.

I gasped before a slow chuckle left my lips. I couldn't believe it.

He had cheated on me for years, and here he was turning it all on me because there was a crowd. I turned to look at the guests. Sure enough their phones were all out, recording. Murmurs rippled through the crowd. I turned back, my anger barely contained.

"I treated you like my sister, and this is what you do? Betray me in the worst way possible?" I spat at Veronica, who stepped down beside James, her new engagement ring sparkling in the sunlight.

"I'm sorry, Scarlett, but after everything you've done to him, don't you think he should be happy? And what better person than me?" She responded in that sickly sweet tone I always teased her about. I frowned and turned to James.

"I built you from the ground up. I made you who you are."

"You didn't do shit!" James screamed before regaining his composure. "When I found out about your affairs, I made it my mission to strip you of everything. Your accounts, businesses, and assets all belong to me now. Be glad you could use that as some form of apology."

Dread ran up my spine as I remembered all the documents I signed. Every late night when he'd bring me papers, every time he'd distracted me with kisses while I scrawled my signature without reading. Did I just sign away my life?

"No. You wouldn't dare." My voice got shrill as I planned to jump him, but with a snap of his fingers, strong hands wrapped around my arms and locked me in place.

"You've disrupted us long enough. I think it’s time you left." James said with disdain before turning to the men. "Throw her on the streets. I don't want this filth here."

My body lifted off the ground as the men pulled me away. Curses left my mouth, pointed at the two people I trusted with my life. In ten steps, I was thrown out of my own house and onto the street, my knees bleeding as they hit the asphalt.

That's when I cried, my body racking from sobs. I finally opened my eyes, looking around through blurred vision, and that's when I saw it. A car. The horn blew loud, trying to get me out of the road in time, but I was stuck to the ground. In an instant, my world that was so full of color and life turned pitch black.

The sound of beeping reached my ears before I could feel my own hands. I opened my eyes, wincing when the bright light temporarily blinded me and the strong antiseptic smell hit my senses. Still, I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that I was in a hospital room.

I grabbed onto the bed in an attempt to pull myself up and that’s when pain ripped through my body, forcing me to moan out before plopping right back onto the bed.

“Hey, don’t try to move Scarlett. Lay down.” A voice said to me as hands tucked my blanket around me.

I blinked at the voice already knowing who it was. Davon Romanov. My best friend and coworker. I turned to him, my throat dry when I spoke.

“Davon,”

“Whoa, don’t talk yet. Drink this.” He instructed me as his hands put a glass of water to my lips. I did as I was told while he continued to speak.

“It’ll take some time before you get a bit more comfortable with your movements and speech since you’ve been under for three days. Do you remember what happened?”

I pulled my head away from the glass and raised a brow at him, my mind still fuzzy from just waking up. Davon sighed, set the glass down and explained.

“This is going to be a bit much but here goes nothing. You were stood up on your wedding day. Well more like replaced by that bitch Veronica, James embarrassed you and took everything you own, he also ruined your name to the blogs so now you’re the laughing stock of the city. More or less.” He said in one breath, eyes watching me intently to see what I would do.

I blinked, the memories rushing back to me. The wedding. James and Veronica betraying me. Getting hit by a car.

“What? Let me see.” I mumbled almost in disbelief as tears ran down my face but Davon just shook his head, refusing me to see what was circulating about me on the internet.

“No,”

My vision blurred and my body shook with sadness and anger despite the physical pain I still felt. How could they betray me like that? The question rang in my head over and over again. I spiraled trying to make sense of it all but a simple touch from Davon brought me back to reality. I looked down at his hand on mine.

“Don’t you dare cry. Not for anything and especially not for those bastards.” He warned me, his face both stern and concerned.

“DON’T CRY?! I lost my home, Davon. My money. My reputation. Every person in this city thinks I'm a cheating whore because of James. You said that I’ve been here for days. God, do I even still have a job anymore?” I blurted out, rolling my eyes as I sniffled, my world slowly crumbling away.

“You didn’t lose everything cause I’m still here. Plus, your job’s still safe. I spoke to management about it. You’ve got a month off.”

My eyes widened as I stared into Davon’s grey eyes.

“What?”

He chuckled and pulled away from me with a shrug.

“Don’t thank me. You would have done the same for me.”

I wiped away my tears, a bit glad that I had something good going for me when Davon spoke up again.

“What are you going to do now?” He asked me. I frowned.

“I’m not sure anymore.”

“So, James and Veronica go scot free after what they did to you?” He questioned, arms folded with a brow raised at me.

He didn’t need to say what I already knew. I was giving up, conceding to the people who hurt me but I had nothing left, not even my dignity. What the hell could I do? My silence was enough for Davon to get me. He sighed and ran a hand through his jet black hair.

“Giving up is not in your nature Scarlett. You’re a strong woman and I’m pretty sure that your parents wouldn’t like you caving in for some doucebag. So why don’t you get revenge.” He prompted, eyes still on me.

I bit my lip, contemplating. Davon was right. My dead parents would be livid if they found out what happened to me. They would be ripping James and Veronica a new one and here I was feeling bad for myself.

I steeled my mind, silently agreeing with Davon but then it hit me. Even if I wanted to get back at James and Veronica, how would I do that? They had a huge platform and with them blaming me for it all it would be next to impossible to convince the public otherwise.

“I don’t know if I can.” I replied solemnly weighing my options.

“Remember our movie, when Diana doesn’t let what happened to her because of her father get to her. Remember how she moved forward?”

I cock my head at him and in the moment a small laugh escapes my mouth. Davon’s eyes sparkle and he smiles.

“I’m pretty sure Diana from ‘Say Anything’ didn’t have her life thrown upside down like this.”

“Potato potato.” He mused before leaning forward, closing the distance between us. “All I’m saying is you can’t let this get you down. If it makes it any better, I’ll help you.” He offered.

I sat there in silence and smiled at him, a bit taken aback that a college acquaintance turned best friend who stood by my side for years was still willing to help me even if it didn’t concern him in the slightest.

“Are you sure? How would we even afford to do this? And you have work. You can’t juggle it all.”

Davon placed his hand on my hair and ruffled my auburn hair, watching me.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve already made arrangements.”

He pulled away and for the first time in a long time, I felt what it was to be cared for by someone.

Four days in the hospital gave me plenty of time to imagine James' face when I destroyed him.

Now I sat across from Davon in his small apartment, wrapped in one of his oversized hoodies because I had nothing left of my own, not even clothes. I cradled the warm mug of coffee in my hands, needing the warmth.

“I think I know how we can get back at James.” I said getting straight to the point. “When we were together, I remember him talking about making a bid for this huge construction project. He said and I quote, ‘If I get that deal, it’s going to change my life’, so I know it’s a big deal. James was also asking me for money for it. I guess that’s why he took all I had.”

"Meaning he's going all out with everything he has to secure the deal. That's great. We just have to get some money for a higher bid, draft a business proposal and then win at the auction. We'll crush his spirit first before destroying him in the eyes of the public." Davon replied, leaning forward with intensity in his eyes.

My stomach twisted.

"The auction's in two days though. I'm not sure where we're even going to be able to get a huge amount of money for it. Maybe the auction is a dud and we need to find another way to get back at James." I concluded, my eyes settling on my mug.

“How do we actually pull this off?” I asked, reluctantly looking pointedly at him.

Davon did say he had made arrangements after I woke up and I was willing to hear them, especially after he chose to say nothing while I was at the hospital.

Davon sank deeper into his love seat and pursed his lips before talking.

"Okay so don't freak out but first I managed to get some money to help with the supposed plan." He started, interlocking his fingers.

"How much?"

I raised a brow at him and took a sip of my coffee just for me to almost choke to death when I heard the amount he said.

"About three hundred thousand dollars." He said with a shrug.

I set my mug down hard on the glass tabletop and shouted.

"Tell me you did not take out a loan for this Davon. Are you insane?"

Three hundred thousand from the guy who used to steal my fries because he "couldn't afford lunch"? It was either he was a secret millionaire or he just took out a huge freaking loan for me and I was not having that.

"Woah, I didn't take out a loan. Well, not entirely. Calm down." He tried to calm me down with his hands raised up in mock surrender. "I had a trust fund. You know I didn't have a dad in college…"

"Yeah," I reluctantly replied, wondering where this was going.

"My dad came back after twenty years. Died six months later. Left me everything." His jaw tightened. "I've been using the money there to make some investments for my future so I just withdrew it all and also took out a small loan."

"You what?!" I screamed even more, catching him off guard.

I wasn't sure if it was the fact that he had that amount of money saved up and didn't tell me or the fact that his dead dad showed up in his life and he still didn't tell me! I crossed my hands and glared at him, not sure of which to be angry at him for right now.

"I can't accept that and return the loan." I scolded him, my throat tightening. "What happens if we lose and then you can't get back your money or worse you lose it all like me?"

"That won't happen. If you lose the bet then I'll get the money back and return the loan. It's a win-win situation, see?" He said, still trying to convince me.

I sighed and turned away from him, the gears in my head turning for a while before I caved a bit.

"And what if I win the bid? What happens then? How do we get the money back?"

"Then we'll win the rights and payment to carry out the project. Win win."

Davon smirked my way, making me frown and pick up my mug.

"Fine. We'll do this on one condition. If it goes south then I'll pay you back every cent. Deal?"

"Scarlett…" Davon muttered but I wasn't hearing any of it.

"Deal?" I reiterated, my voice leaving no room for argument.

"Okay," He sighed, taking the hint.

"I also have something up my sleeve but that'll be a surprise." He added, perking up.

"Davon," I drawled out his name but he shook his head, adamant about it.

"Just wait and see. I'm pretty sure you're going to love it." He said with excitement before glancing at me from head to toe. "But first we'll have to get you some new clothes."

"I don't…"

"It's non-negotiable. We can't have your first appearance in public not be jaw dropping especially when we're going to cause some problems." Davon's voice went firm but gentle.

"When you walk into that auction, I want James to see exactly what he lost. So, tomorrow morning we're going shopping and I don't want to hear any back talk about it."

He stood up and walked to his room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

My reflection stared back at me from the black screen of his TV. Borrowed clothes. Borrowed apartment. Borrowed money.

I had lost it all. It was a harsh truth but in two days, I'd face James again. In public. With cameras. With witnesses.

My hands tightened around the mug.

And this time, I wouldn't be the one thrown out and disgraced. He would.