The drive felt endless.
Rain hammered against the black car while Selina lay trapped across the backseat floor, wrists burning against the ropes binding them. Her muffled breaths came unevenly beneath the gag as the city lights blurred past the windows.
No one spoke.
Not the men beside her.
Not Adrian.
Not Elara.
As though her fate had already been decided long before tonight.
Eventually, the car slowed.
Selina lifted her tear-filled eyes toward the towering building ahead.
The Vale Grand Hotel.
Her chest tightened painfully.
The empire she had spent her entire life protecting.
The place where she had quietly built success for others while remaining unseen herself.
And now—
it would become the place where everything ended.
The men dragged her through a private service entrance and into an elevator reserved for executives. The ride upward felt suffocatingly silent.
Floor numbers climbed higher.
20.
21.
22.
Penthouse level.
Then finally—
Terrace Access.
Cold wind struck her immediately as the rooftop doors opened.
The city stretched endlessly below, glittering beneath the storm like shattered stars. Rain lashed violently across the terrace, thunder rumbling overhead.
And standing there waiting for her—
Damian.
Livia.
Rowan.
Her family.
Selina stopped struggling entirely.
Because somehow this hurt more than the ropes cutting into her skin.
Livia's eyes were red as if she had been crying, but she still didn't move toward Selina.
Didn't comfort her.
Didn't save her.
Damian stood cold and composed beneath a black umbrella.
Rowan looked unable to meet her eyes at all.
Selina made a broken sound behind the gag.
Why?
Why were they all here?
Elara stepped beside her calmly. "Take the gag off."
One of the men obeyed.
The second it loosened, Selina gasped shakily.
"Please..." Her voice cracked instantly. "Please tell me this isn't real."
No one answered.
Rain soaked through her clothes as she looked desperately between them.
"You raised me," she whispered at Damian. "You watched me grow up..."
Damian's face hardened slightly.
"And we fulfilled our responsibility."
The words hit harder than the storm itself.
Selina stared at him in disbelief.
Responsibility.
Not daughter.
Not family.
Just responsibility.
Livia finally spoke, her voice trembling. "Selina... things became complicated after you and Elara grew older."
Selina laughed weakly through tears. "Complicated?" she repeated painfully. "I loved all of you."
Her gaze shifted toward Rowan.
"You were my brother."
Rowan looked away silently.
That hurt almost worse than the others.
"You always chose Elara," Selina whispered shakily. "Even when I gave everything to this family..."
"Because she's a real Vale," Damian said sharply.
The terrace fell silent.
Selina felt something inside her finally break beyond repair.
All those years of trying harder.
Loving harder.
Sacrificing more.
And none of it mattered.
Because blood had decided her place before she was even old enough to understand it.
Elara walked closer slowly, rain dripping from her silver coat.
"You know," she said softly, "I used to hate standing beside you."
Selina looked at her numbly.
"You made everything effortless," Elara admitted bitterly. "Even when people praised me, I knew you were the reason things succeeded behind the scenes."
Selina's lips trembled.
"So I wanted something that was truly mine."
Her eyes moved toward Adrian.
"And that included him."
Selina turned toward Adrian slowly.
He stood near the edge of the terrace, expression unreadable beneath the rain.
The man she had trusted.
The man who had made her believe she was worthy of being loved.
"Was any of it real?" she whispered.
For the first time that night, Adrian hesitated.
And that hesitation hurt more than a lie.
Finally, he answered quietly:
"It started real."
Selina's breath caught.
"But loving you would've destroyed everything."
She stared at him, shattered.
"So you destroyed me instead?"
Adrian said nothing.
Because there was no defense for what he had become.
Thunder cracked violently overhead.
The assassins stepped closer behind Selina.
Fear finally surged through her again.
"Elara..." she whispered desperately. "Please... I'm still your sister."
Elara's expression turned cold.
"No," she said softly. "You were just the girl living in my place."
And then—
someone shoved her forward.
Selina stumbled violently toward the terrace edge, barely catching herself before falling. Wind roared beneath her as the dizzying drop stretched below.
Her heart pounded wildly.
She turned back one last time.
No one moved to save her.
Not Damian.
Not Rowan.
Not Livia.
Not even Adrian.
The rain blurred her vision as tears streamed endlessly down her face.
For one horrible second, she understood the truth completely:
She had spent her entire life begging for love from people who had already decided she would never deserve it.
Elara stepped forward quietly.
"Goodbye, Selina."
And with one final push—
Selina fell.
The world vanished beneath her scream as darkness swallowed the girl who was never truly a Vale.