REBORN AS A RUTHLESS HEIRESS

Celeste's POV

Standing at the edge of the bridge, my breath coming in sharp gaps as I turn to face the two people I had trusted the most- Noah Harrington, my devoted fiance, and Sophie Raynes, my childhood best friend.

Except now, their faces are twisted into something unrecognizable.

Looking at Noah's hazel eyes, there is no love, neither is there any warmth for me. Instead, they hold a chilling detachment, as if he was already looking past me, this moment, and even past my existence.

Sophia's usual playful smile is absent, replaced with a satisfying smirk as she plays with the ends of her designer coat. The moonlight created eerie shadows over her face, making her look more like a threat than the friend I had known for years.

My heart pounded heavily in my chest. The realization is a slow, agonizing knife twisting inside me.

"Noah?" My voice wavered, disbelief lacing every syllable. "What ... What is this?"

Noah sighed as if I was nothing more than an inconvenience. "Don't make this harder than it has to be Celeste."

Sophia stepped closer, the clicking sound of her heels echoing on the concrete. "You should have known better, darling. You were never meant to have everything."

My breathing hitches in my throat. The betrayal burns like acid in my veins.

I had loved Noah with all my heart. Given him my trust, my devotion, my future.

What else could he possibly want from me? I don't deserve this kind of betrayal.

Before now, I have always stood by Sophia's side, defended her, and even cherished our friendship a million times.

And yet--- this betrayal is deafening.

"Why?" I ask with a voice barely above a whisper, "After everything we've been through..."

Sophia let out a laugh, light and airy as if I just asked an absurd question. "Because you were always in my way." She said flatly.

I took a step back, my heels scraping against the bridge's stone edge. The river roared beneath me, and the dark abyss stretched infinitely below.

"In the way?" I repeated, my mind spinning. "How is that?"

Sophia's smirk widened. "Noah and I... We've been together for a while now."

The words hit me like a hammer to the chest. My lungs seized, the world around me seems to stop rotating.

No! No, it can't be true.

Noah and Sophia?

I searched Noah's face desperately, holding on to hope that this may be some cruel joke, a misunderstanding. But his expression says otherwise, it remains impassive.

"You never questioned why I never truly look at you, Celeste?" Noah's voice was smooth, almost mocking.

"Why I never really touched you the way a man in love should touch his woman?"

I felt my stomach drop at that instant.

"I never loved you," he continued, his tone brutally calm.

"You were just... Convenient."

Tears burned in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

"And what about you, Sophia?" I asked, forcing myself to