"Ouch..."
Sienna woke to a dull ache that throbbed through her entire body, a deep soreness as if she’d been thoroughly bruised. She looked down, her breath catching at the constellation of dark marks scattered across her skin.
The engagement ceremony. It was supposed to be yesterday. Preston’s call… What happened to the engagement?
“Damn it, the engagement,” she whispered, scrambling out of bed to find her clothes.
The sudden movement was too much. Her legs gave out from under her, and she crumpled onto the plush carpet with a soft thud.
"Damn..." she cried out, the pain sharp and immediate.
Pushing herself up, she took in her surroundings. She was in a presidential suite, a cavern of polished wood and gleaming surfaces. A lingering trace of expensive cologne hung in the air, mingled with the heady scent of the night before.
Fragments of memory surfaced—a fevered haze of passion—but the details remained frustratingly out of reach. She could only recall a frantic, desperate need, and how she had met Preston's unstoppable demands with her own.
"Preston," Sienna called out, her voice hoarse as she scanned the vast suite.
But the room was empty. She was completely alone.
As a wave of confusion washed over her, her cell phone buzzed on the nightstand. The screen read Arthur, her family’s longtime butler.
"Arthur? What happened? The engagement with Preston last night, did it go okay?" Sienna asked, her words tumbling out in a rush. She had so many questions, starting with why she was here by herself.
"Miss Sienna, thank God I reached you. Whatever you do, don't come home. You never came back after you left the hall yesterday. Now Preston… he’s calling off the engagement. He and Chloe…"
"What?" Sienna was lost. "Preston was the one who told me to leave. What does Chloe have to do with this?"
"Miss Sienna, you should just… turn on the news. And please, stay away from the house for now. Your father is furious."
The line went dead. Sienna stared at the phone, a single sentence echoing in her mind.
Preston is calling off the engagement?
Why? He was the one who told her to come to this room.
Dragging her aching body across the suite, she switched on the television. The Preston family was a titan in the national real estate market, so it was no surprise to see them holding a live press conference.
"I, Preston, am here to formally announce to the media that my engagement to Sienna Vance, the second daughter of the Vance Family, has been cancelled." The man on the screen was handsome, his expression coolly composed. "After leaving the ceremony yesterday, Sienna spent the night with another man. I will have nothing more to do with a woman capable of such infidelity and impropriety."
Standing right beside him was Chloe Vance, the eldest daughter of the Vance family.
A reporter directed a question to the immaculate woman at his side. "Miss Vance, will the Vance family be offering an explanation to the Preston family regarding Miss Sienna's affair?"
"This is Sienna's personal matter. It has nothing to do with our family." Chloe stood close to Preston, a polite, serene smile fixed on her face. "Although Sienna is our adopted daughter, she has always maintained a life of her own outside the family home. We have little influence over her daily affairs. However, the shares held in Sienna’s name have been reclaimed, and my father is deeply disappointed in her. It is possible we will be severing all ties."
Watching the broadcast, Sienna felt the world tilt on its axis.
Preston was accusing her of cheating? And the Rockwells were taking her shares?
Her mind flashed back to the glass of wine Mrs. Vance had given her last night… to the documents Chloe had her sign while she was dizzy and intoxicated. Was that it? The transfer of her shares?
A sickening realization washed over her. With trembling hands, Sienna dialed Preston's number.
"What else is there to say?" His voice was a stranger's, stripped of all its former warmth.
"Preston, what is this?" Sienna demanded. "What are you talking about, an affair? You were the one who asked me to—"
"Room 8607," he cut in. "That's where I told you to go. So where were you?"
"What?"
"You're even more despicable than I imagined, Sienna Vance," he said, his tone dripping with contempt. "I called you last night, and a man answered. After refusing my advances a million times, it turns out you’re more desperate than anyone. You're disgusting! I suppose those rumors about you and the Vance twins were true after all?"
Stung by his sarcasm and humiliation, Sienna wrapped herself in a bath towel and stumbled to the suite’s entrance. She wrenched open the door and stared at the gilded plaque. It read: 8807.
"No, that wasn't… I drank too much, I went to the wrong room," she stammered, shaking her head in desperation. "I don't know what happened!"
"There's no need to make excuses. In fact, this makes things much easier," Preston said. "I was going to tell you last night anyway. I never wanted to be engaged to you. The person I love, the one I've always wanted to marry, is Chloe. I only asked you out in the first place because I mistook you for her."
"Preston, what… what did you just say?" Sienna clenched her fists, her knuckles white. "You and Chloe Vance… you two…"
Preston laughed, a low, cruel sound. "We've been together for a long time."
You disgusting couple! The three words screamed in her mind.
"Aside from that pretty face, Sienna Vance, you could never compare to Chloe."
"You act so high and mighty at home because your foster father, Harrison Vance, dotes on you. Did you really think I could ever like someone like you?" Preston sneered, his words relentless. "I stayed with you for one reason: to get Harrison Vance to approve the Monarch Group merger. Because he loved you, I had to be with you. But now that you’ve cheated, he can’t blame me for leaving. Chloe and I don't have to hide anymore. And you? Just wait for the Vance family to throw you out on the street."
The abrupt click of the disconnected line echoed in the silent room. A profound chill seeped into Sienna’s bones.
Slowly, she lowered her head.
She slid down, her back against the door, until she was sitting on the floor. A bitter smile touched her lips.
It turned out Preston had always been in love with Chloe. Had she really stumbled into such a cheap, worn-out melodrama? He had only been with her to gain control of Vance Holdings.
"So… who was the man last night?" The question struck her with the force of a physical blow. Sienna wiped the tears from her eyes, her gaze sweeping across the room. It stopped on the king-sized bed, the tangled sheets a silent testament to the night she couldn't remember.