Chapter 64 Holy Matrimony

Chapter 64 Holy Matrimony
The world didn't end with a bang. It ended with the rhythmic clink, clink, clink of a silver spoon against a crystal wine glass.

We weren't in the cathedral anymore. The transition had been a blur of Kieran's hand crushing mine, the roar of Elias ordering the doors barred, and the blinding, strobe-light attack of the paparazzi. Now, we were in a room. 

I didn't cry. Tears felt like a luxury for someone who still had hope. Instead, I was slumped on the velvet couch. I felt heavy. Numb. My gaze was fixed on a single loose thread on my bodice, because if I looked up, I'd have to face the truth.

"Someone is going to explain to me what the hell is going on. Now."

Kieran's voice didn't just boom; it vibrated in the marrow of my bones. He was standing in the center of the room, his suit discarded, his white shirt sleeves rolled up as if he were preparing to wash his hands in someone's blood.

Across from him, Kendella sat tucked into an armchair, looking like a queen who had finally claimed her throne. She was sipping a deep red merlot, a small, smirk playing on her lips. She looked at Kieran, then at me, with a look of pure, satisfied triumph.

"Why so tense, Kieran?" Kendella whispered over the rim of her glass. "I thought you wanted a family wedding. I just brought the 'family' part to light."

I finally lifted my head, my neck feeling stiff. My eyes moved to Elias.

The great Elias D'Angelo—the man who had terrified the underworld for forty years—looked like he had aged a decade in ten minutes.

He looked shaken. 

Not furious.
Not calculating.

Shocked.

He sat stiffly in his chair, his spine straight, his hands resting on his cane as though it were the only thing keeping him upright. His gaze was fixed on Kendella, sharp and searching, like he was trying to reconcile the woman in front of him with the blood that shared his name.

Marlies stood beside her husband, her face pale, her lips parted slightly as realization crept in piece by piece. She hadn't spoken since they entered the room. She didn't trust her voice not to betray her.

Kendella's father watched everything in silence, his expression unreadable, eyes moving from face to face like a man memorizing a crime scene.

"Elias?" Kieran's voice dropped to a lethal, quiet register. He stepped toward his father, ignoring the wine-sipping girl in the chair. "Tell me she's lying. Tell me she's just a psycho looking for a headline."

"It's the truth," Kendella said softly. "About the thing you married."

My fingers twitched. 

That was all.

Kieran stepped forward, placing himself slightly in front of me without even realizing he'd done it. "Watch how you speak about my wife."

A laugh bubbled out of Kendella's throat. "Your wife?" She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "No, Kieran. That's the problem."

She set her wine glass down with a decisive clink.

"She's your sister."

Marlies inhaled sharply. 

"Tell them, Mother," Kendella hissed, her eyes darting to her own father before settling back on Marlies. "Tell them how you fled this monster twenty years ago only to crawl right back into his shadow. Tell them how you abandoned Aurielle in the rain to save your own life, then married my father to hide the scent of D'Angelo blood on your skin."

Marlies stiffened.

"Tell them Aurielle is my sister too," Kendella said, her voice sharpening. "Tell them how Elias owned you long before you belonged to my father. Tell them how you were tortured, threatened, broken."

Marlies shook her head. "Stop—"

"Tell them how Aurielle is the rightful heiress," Kendella pressed on. "Tell them how you abandoned her at birth and ran to another city to save yourself. Tell them how even as a wife to another man, you remained Elias's puppet. His pet. His little secret."

Kendella stood up, "Tell Kieran that the 'orphan' he fell for is the rightful heiress. You didn't just let him marry a dancer, Mother. You let him marry his own blood."

Marlies finally lost it. "ENOUGH!"

She turned to Elias, her eyes wide and bloodshot. "I did what I had to do to keep her breathing!" she wailed, the sound raw and guttural. "You told me you'd kill her. You told me she was nothing because she wasn't a son!"

"I gave you a choice, Marliese," Elias said. 

"Choice?" Marliese let out a broken, hysterical laugh. She began to claw at the silk of her collar, pulling it back to reveal the pale skin of her shoulder, then turning her back to us. "Every time I looked at Aurielle, I remembered the torture. I remembered the marks."

She looked at me, her eyes wild with a pain I couldn't imagine.

"He burnt my back with a hot iron, Aurielle. Just because I fainted while he was... while he was taking what he wanted from me. I was a vessel to him. A toy. I knew if I stayed, he would kill me. And if I kept you, he would kill you."

The room felt like it was shrinking. Kieran looked like he was going to vomit, his face ashen as he looked at the man he called Father.

But Marliese wasn't done. The guilt was a floodgate that had finally burst.

"I tried to keep the secret," she sobbed, her voice dropping to a shameful whisper. "But then you came back. You were in the office. You were everywhere. I was so scared Elias would see his own eyes in your face... that I paid Jason. I told him to kidnap you. To take you far away where the D'Angelos could never find you again."

I felt my heart stop. The air left my lungs as if I'd been punched.

"You?" I breathed, the word barely audible. "You orchestrated my kidnap?"

"I was trying to save you!" she cried. "I didn't know Jason had other plans. I didn't know he was a monster too!"

I looked at her—really looked at her—What kind of a fucked up family is this?

Before anyone could speak, Julian—Kendella's father—stepped forward. He didn't go to comfort Marlies. He stepped away from her as if she were a corpse rotting in real-time.

He looked at his wife with a cold, visceral disgust that made her flinch more than a physical blow ever could.

"I can't believe I married you," he rasped, his voice vibrating with pure loathing. "I spent twenty years sharing a bed with a woman who was nothing more than a discarded shadow of another man's sin."

"Julian, please—" Marlies reached out, her fingers trembling.

"Don't touch me." He snapped his arm back, then turned his gaze toward Elias. There was no respect left in his eyes, only the glass of a broken friendship. "I thought we were friends, Elias. I thought we were peers. I came here today to attend your son's wedding."

He let out a short, harsh laugh. 

"And instead, I find out I've been hosting your buried secrets at my dinner table for two decades. Disgusting. The whole lot of you."

He didn't wait for a response. He simply turned on his heel and walked out. 

I watched them—Elias, the monster who wanted me dead; Marlies, the woman who had traded me for a life of silk; and Kieran, the man who was currently my greatest sin.

I stood up. I kept my gaze fixed on Elias.

"Is that it?" I asked, my voice coming out steadier than I expected. "The big D'Angelo secret? You tried to kill a baby because she didn't have a dick."

"Aurielle—" Marliese started. 

I turned on her, my glare so sharp she actually recoiled. "Don't. Don't you dare speak to me. You're not a mother. You're a coward in a designer gown."

I walked over to the velvet couch where Adrien was curled up. I reached down and scooped him up, tucking his head into the crook of my neck.

Even with the layers of lace and the diamond-encrusted bodice digging into my skin, I held him tight. He was the only thing in this room that wasn't rotten.

I turned toward the door, but then I stopped. I felt the power shifting in the room—a cold, dark current that belonged to me now.

I looked back over my shoulder, my eyes landing on Kieran. He looked broken, his hand still reaching for me in the empty air. I didn't feel pity. 

"You wanted a Donna, Kieran," I said, my tone dripping with a venom that could stop a heart. "Well, here she is."

I shifted my gaze to Elias, then back to the man I had just promised to spend my life with.

"I give you forty-eight hours," I said, the words cutting through the air like a guillotine. "Forty-eight hours to sign every property, every shell company, and every cent of the D'Angelo empire over to my name. All of it. Legal, binding, and absolute."

Elias's jaw dropped. "You're insane. You have nothing—"

"I have the bloodline you're so obsessed with," I snapped, silencing him. "And I have the scandal that will bankrupt you by Monday morning if I talk to the press."

I looked Kieran dead in the eye.

"And you," I whispered, the word cold enough to freeze the blood in his veins. "I need you to step down as CEO. Effective immediately. If I'm the 'rightful heiress,' then I'm the one who sits in that chair. Not you."

"Aurielle, please," Kieran rasped, his voice breaking. "We can talk about this. We're still—"

"We're nothing," I interrupted. I adjusted Adrien in my arms and stepped toward the door. "You have two days. If those papers aren't signed, I don't just leave. I burn this empire to the ground with all of you inside it."