My Destiny Found in Betrayal's Wake

On my 24th birthday, my boyfriend of five years, Jackson, threw me a surprise party.

The surprise was his wedding to another woman, Campbell. He claimed she was dying of cancer.

In front of everyone, he denied our entire relationship, calling me his "little sister."

When I confronted him, his violent shove caused me to lose our unborn child.

I lost my love, my baby, and my job, all for a lie. Because Campbell wasn't dying. Her cancer was fake.

But as they tried to destroy me, a powerful man named Cole Smith stepped in.

At a charity gala, with his help, I played the security footage for the entire room to see-the footage of him pushing me, of me bleeding on the office floor.

I held up the proof of her fake illness.

"There's your truth, Jackson," I said, as his world came crashing down.

Chapter 1

Alycia Kennedy POV:

The taste of champagne was like ash in my mouth the moment I saw him, Jackson, my boyfriend of five years, standing at the altar with another woman. It was my 24th birthday, and the "surprise party" he'd promised me was actually his wedding reception. My heart didn't break; it shattered into a million tiny, jagged pieces, each one carving a new wound inside me.

My vision blurred, the opulent ballroom twisting into a grotesque mockery of joy. Just an hour ago, I was so excited, picking out the dress Jackson had hinted at, believing this was the night he' d finally make our love public. Instead, he made his vows to Campbell Cook, his high school sweetheart, a woman I only knew from the framed picture on his office desk.

A cold wave washed over me, leaving me breathless. Five years. Five years I' d spent loving a ghost, a secret, a placeholder for someone else' s past. Every whispered promise, every stolen moment, every future plan we' d meticulously crafted felt like a cruel joke, played out for an audience I didn' t even know existed. The air left my lungs, replaced by a hollow ache that settled deep in my chest.

Jackson's eyes, usually so intense and focused on me, flickered with an unfamiliar guilt when they met mine across the crowded room. He walked towards me, a forced smile on his perfect face, Campbell clinging to his arm like a trophy. "Alycia," he said, his voice dropping to a low, apologetic murmur, "I know this is a lot to take in. But Campbell... she's sick. Terminal. I had to do this for her." The words were an attempt at an explanation, a flimsy shield against the tidal wave of betrayal threatening to drown me. But all I heard was the sound of my world collapsing.

Campbell, a smirk playing on her lips, tightened her grip on Jackson' s arm. Her eyes, cold and triumphant, drilled into mine. "Terminal cancer," she drawled, her voice sweet and laced with venom. "It's a shame, really. Such a beautiful