Too Late to Reclaim His Queen

I was wiping away an angry tear when the terrace door opened.

The sound of heels on marble. I didn’t have to look.

“Valerie,” Rebecca’s soft voice said behind me. “I’m so sorry. I know you’re upset.”

I turned to face her. She glided toward me, wearing that fake, pitying smile I knew so well.

“I’ll give you some credit,” she said, her voice dripping with false pity. “You helped.”

I laughed coldly. “Fine. Go tell Miles what you did to my assistant.”

The smile on Rebecca’s face froze.

“Tell him how you’ve been stealing my credit for years, sabotaging my work,” I said, stepping toward her. “Go on, Rebecca. Tell him what your ‘special talents’ really are.”

She was silent for a beat. Then, her syrupy-sweet act evaporated.

Rebecca scoffed. “I was just being polite. You didn’t actually believe that, did you?”

Her eyes flashed with triumph. “Everything I have, I earned. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Earned?” I was floored by her nerve. “Stealing my intel is earning it? Sabotaging my deals? Bribing my staff?”

“So what?” Rebecca’s voice turned sharp. “No matter what you do, you’re just setting the stage for me. The credit is mine. And Miles believes me.”

She lifted her chin, smug. “No one in this family will ever believe in you. You’re just Miles’s pretty little fiancée. A placeholder. They’ll kick you out eventually.”

“And sooner or later, Miles will be mine, too.”

As she spoke, she deliberately raised her wrist, showing off an antique bracelet.

It was engraved with the Falcone family crest.

My blood ran cold.

It was his mother’s. The Falcone family heirloom. Reserved for the future Donna.

“Where did you get that?” I snapped, stepping forward to get a closer look.

But as I reached for her, Rebecca took a clumsy step back, as if startled, and lurched right into me.

“Ah—!” she shrieked, flailing her arms.

I heard a sharp snap.

I looked down. The chain on my father's pocket watch was broken.

The ancient silver watch fell to the ground. The case popped open, the glass shattering with a sickening crack.

Rebecca’s stiletto heel came down right on top of it.

CRUNCH. The delicate gears inside were crushed. The tiny photo of my father holding me as a little girl—mangled. Unrecognizable.

“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry. I’m so clumsy,” Rebecca said, clutching her chest, pretending to be startled.

But I saw the flicker of triumph in her eyes.

That was the only thing I had left of my father.

When he died fifteen years ago, I’d cried all night, clutching that watch.

The photo inside was the last one we ever took. Him holding five-year-old me, his smile so warm.

Now it was destroyed. I couldn’t even see his face.

“You…” My voice trembled.

“I’m really so sorry, Valerie,” Rebecca said, feigning guilt. “It’s just a stupid watch. I’ll buy you a new one.”

Buy me a new one?

Did she think money could replace everything?

All the blood rushed to my head. I snapped.

I slapped her. Hard.

The red wine in my hand went with it, splashing across her face.

“Get. Out.” I snarled, each word a blade.

Rebecca clutched her cheek, red wine dripping down her face, staining her silver dress.

Tears welled in her eyes as she stared at me in disbelief.

I didn’t have time to wonder why she wasn’t fighting back. My mind was blank.

Just then, an iron grip seized my wrist.

Miles’s voice was laced with ice. “Valerie, have you lost your mind?”

Miles had rushed over to see Rebecca, crying and holding her face.

“Miles!” she sobbed, collapsing into his arms. “I was just trying to comfort her… but I tripped on my dress and… and I broke her watch…”

“And she hit me!” Rebecca cried, the red handprint on her cheek making her look utterly pathetic.

Miles’s rage turned on me. His cold eyes were like daggers. “Valerie! Is your jealousy so out of control you’d attack someone at your own party?”

“She did it on purpose!” I pointed at the crushed pieces of metal on the floor, my voice shaking with fury. “That was the only thing I had left of my father!”

Miles didn’t even glance at the wreckage. He just shook his head in disgust. “Was a broken watch worth acting like a damn maniac?”

His voice grew colder. “I thought you knew how to handle yourself. I guess they were right. You’re not cut out for this life.”

“You’re not fit to be the Donna of this family.”

I looked at the deep disappointment in his eyes, at the way he sheltered and protected Rebecca.

Something inside me died.

Miles wrapped his arm around Rebecca and led her off the terrace, leaving me alone.

I knelt and picked up the pieces of my father’s watch, each shard a new cut in my heart.

As I walked back through the ballroom, a figure appeared in front of me.

Rebecca’s friend, Sarah.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” she sneered, blocking my path. “Done throwing your little tantrum, your highness?”

I tried to step around her, but she moved with me.

The moment I turned, she stuck out her foot.

“Ah—!” I lost my balance and crashed right into the champagne tower behind me.

CRASH!

Dozens of glasses toppled over, drenching me in champagne.

Shards of glass flew everywhere. A sharp piece sliced my palm open, and blood welled up immediately.

“Oops, clumsy me,” Sarah said, feigning surprise. “Everyone, look! Valerie took a tumble!”

The entire hall turned to stare.

The whispers started, a wave of venom.

“Is she drunk?”

“First she hits Rebecca, now this. So embarrassing.”

“What does Miles even see in her?”

“Look at her. A complete mess. And she wants to run this family?”

I struggled to my feet, covered in alcohol and broken glass.

Just then, Miles walked past, his arm wrapped protectively around Rebecca. He looked right through me.

It was like I was invisible.

Amid the jeers and laughter, I pulled myself up and walked out.

Each step crunched on broken glass.

I made my way back to our bedroom, hand bleeding.

This place I once thought was our sanctuary now felt like a gilded cage.

I finally understood.

My five years of loyalty meant nothing against their twenty years of history.

His trust in her was an instinct I could never defeat.

Staying here wouldn’t just break my heart. It would break me.

I went to the vanity and opened the drawer, pulling out the first-aid kit Miles had put there for me.

I froze.

I remembered when I first moved in. I’d gotten a small papercut while restoring a painting.

Miles had panicked, ordering his men to place first-aid kits in every room of the estate.

“My woman doesn’t get a single scratch,” he’d said then.

Now, my hand was sliced open and bleeding, and he couldn’t even be bothered to look.

Everything had changed.

He didn’t trust me anymore.

I mechanically cleaned the wound and wrapped it in a bandage.

Then, I packed a small bag. Just a few of my own clothes and the shattered pieces of my father’s watch.

The jewelry, the designer bags, the car keys—I left everything else behind.

Finally, I walked to the bed and pulled the ten-carat diamond engagement ring from my finger.

It glittered under the lamp, its light as cold as Miles’s eyes had been.

I placed it on the nightstand.

The ring that marked me as the future Donna of the Falcone family. It meant nothing to me now.

Without love, it was all meaningless.

I grabbed my suitcase and walked out of that golden cage that had held me for five years and didn't look back.