“You’re the one who planned the kidnapping and broke my leg, Jeffrey? ”
He had the nerve to smile. “Thank you, honey. I love you.
”
I was lying in a hospital bed, my leg shattered, the eve of the biggest ballet competition of my life ruined. And my husband was confessing to it like he was telling me he’d bought me flowers. “Let’s get you back,” he said. “The championship is coming and you need to focus on practice.
”
Practice. With a leg that had been deliberately broken by thugs he hired to please his mistress. I had fought my father for this man three years ago. My father had said, “Alicia!
If you leave now, you are no longer my daughter. ” I chose Jeffrey anyway. I chose love. And now this was what love had done to me.
I didn’t move when he brought in the best doctors. I watched him play the devoted husband while I listened to him speak French to the surgeon on the phone. He thought I couldn’t understand. “I told them to do the best they could,” Jeffrey said into the phone.
“Why did it fail? ”
The doctor’s voice came through. “Every surgery carries a risk. It’s unavoidable.
I’m sorry, Mr. Turner. ”
I understood every word. He wanted my leg to fail.
He wanted me crippled so his precious Roxy could take my place on that stage. He didn’t know I heard him. I smiled behind his back. If it was a game he wanted, I would play it better.
Jeffrey’s mistress came to visit me in the hospital. Roxy was beautiful, cruel, and smug. “I heard you’re crippled now. How sad.
Does that mean you’ll never dance again? ” She flipped her hair. “I’m going into the final round of the ballet competition. Such a pity the cripple can’t compete.
I would have loved to crush you in front of everyone. ”
I told her to get out. But I didn’t just let her go. I managed to grab her leg and twist it until she screamed.
When Jeffrey came running in, she was crumpled on the floor. “Alicia, how could you be so vicious? Apologize immediately. ”
“In your dreams,” I said.
He helped her up and carried her out, fawning over her. That was when I knew exactly where his loyalty lay. The nurse came in. She was supposed to change my medication, but instead she spoke to me in a whispered voice as she pulled a phone from her pocket.
“I’m so sorry for everything. Please. Use this. ”
I dialed the only number that could save me.
“Jared. I need you to come pick me up from the hospital. ”
Within hours, my father walked in. He was the richest man in West City, and I was his daughter.
He had never stopped loving me, even after I’d walked out on him for Jeffrey. “What did that bastard Jeffrey do to you? ” He looked at my leg and his face turned to stone. “I’m going to teach him a lesson he’ll never forget.
”
“No, Dad. Please. I want to do this myself. ”
He nodded.
“Let’s get you home. ”
The nurses watched us leave. “Wasn’t that the richest man in West City? ” one of them whispered.
“Could it be Alicia is his daughter? ”
Jeffrey didn’t know anything. When he came to the hospital later, I was gone. The day of the competition arrived.
Roxy was ready to claim her victory. The judges announced that contestant number six had failed to arrive and was officially disqualified. Roxy smiled. Then I walked in.
I was walking on my own leg, thanks to the best surgeons my father’s money could buy. I had told no one. “Alicia? How can you dance with a crippled leg?
” Jeffrey stammered. “A specialist? Seriously? ” I looked at him.
“I think you would rather actually have me stay in the wheelchair for the rest of my life. ”
The judges let me perform. I danced better than I had ever danced in my life. Every movement was fury and grace.
The final score was a perfect ten, something unprecedented in that competition’s history. Roxy’s face crumpled. But she wasn’t done. “I accuse Alicia of cheating in this competition!
” she shouted. Jeffrey backed her up. “Alicia, you brought this on yourself. You shouldn’t have gotten in Roxy’s way.
”
“Actually,” I said, holding up my phone, “I have proof that the music changed in the middle of my performance. And I know exactly who changed it. ”
I played the recording. Roxy’s voice, bribing the sound engineer.
Her face went white. The judges declared her results void. She was permanently banned from the National Ballet Theater. Jeffrey looked at me with cold rage.
“Alicia, you regret this. I promise you. ”
After the competition, he cornered me. “Apologize to Roxy now.
”
“Why would I apologize to her? ”
“How dare you want to divorce me? ” He was screaming now, the mask completely gone. “I can make you end up on the street.
Even if you get into the National Ballet Theater, I can still destroy you. ”
“We’ll see about that,” I said. Back in my father’s headquarters, I made a phone call. “Eric, set it up.
I want a full boycott of Turner Group. We need to wipe them out. ”
Within days, the Turner Group lost every major investor. Jeffrey was desperate.
He came to my office building, begging to see the heiress of the Oasis Group. He didn’t know that was me. “Miss Neville, I’m here to apologize in person. What happened at the ballet competition had nothing to do with us.
It was all Alicia’s doing. I’ll divorce that despicable witch soon. Just give Turner Group one more chance. ”
I let him grovel.
Then I walked in and took my seat behind the desk. “Alicia? ” His face drained of color. “Are you the heiress of the Oasis Group?
”
“Sign these papers,” I said. He tried to rage, tried to scream that I was impersonating the heiress. My father’s assistant escorted him out by force. He sent me a message.
“Alicia, I want a divorce. Meet me at the Royal Cafe in 30 minutes, or else. ”
I agreed. At the cafe, I slid the divorce papers toward him.
“Jeffrey, you should be the one who loses everything and ends up on the streets, not me. ”
His eyes bulged. “Alicia, you’re not going to get out of here alive. ”
Before he could touch me, a man stepped between us.
“Stay out of this, you two-bit hero,” Jeffrey snarled. “Who is only the heir of Charles Group,” the man said calmly. Alone with me afterward, he smiled. “I’m glad to see you haven’t changed, Alicia.
”
“Do I know you? ”
“Forgotten me so soon? So heartless. ”
Then I remembered.
Adam. My fake husband from a high school game years ago. The boy who’d called me his fiance as a joke that had never really been a joke. “Mr.
Charles, that was many years ago in high school. Our fake little marriage doesn’t make you my fiance. ”
He laughed. “Pity.
I thought I was going to marry you since I was sixteen. Anyways, how about we grab lunch? ”
As it turned out, Adam had never forgotten me. And he had a plan of his own.
At the National Theater’s student representative event, Roxy stood on stage and pointed at me. “Everyone, this is not the real Miss Neville. She’s not the heiress to the Oasis Group. She’s just a fraud who sleeps for favors.
”
“Can you prove what you just said? ” I asked. “I can,” Roxy said. “The real Miss Neville will be here any minute, and she’s going to pay for her lies and deceit.
”
Then Adam Charles walked on stage. “Good evening everyone. I am Adam Charles, CEO of the Charles Group. And now let’s give the floor to this year’s student representative, Alicia.
”
The crowd gasped. It was me. Miss Neville. The billionaire’s daughter.
Roxy’s face twisted in disbelief. But she wasn’t done. When practice for the legendary Infinity Nocturne Gala began, all the other dancers fell sick with stomach pain. Only I was fine.
“She must have poisoned the coffee beans so she could be the only dancer on the Infinity Nocturne stage! ” Roxy screamed. A reporter stepped out of the crowd. “I caught this.
” He showed footage of Roxy doctoring the coffee beans. “Those photos are fake! ” Roxy cried. “I just sent them to the Charles Group technical team,” Adam said.
“They’ll prove the photos are authentic and untouched. ”
Roxy was banned permanently. She screamed as security dragged her out. “I’M THE ONE THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DANCING WITH INFINITY.
”
The night of the Infinity Nocturne Gala finally came. I was the solo performer. I danced with everything I had, every gram of grief and fury and love my body could hold. Then something sharp pierced my foot.
I stumbled. A nail. Someone had put a nail in my dance shoe. I looked out at the audience and saw Roxy.
She’d somehow gotten in. She was smiling. I pulled off my shoes and danced on bare, bleeding feet. The crowd erupted in applause.
Afterward, I confronted her. “It was Roxy. She put a nail in my shoe. ”
“Liars!
” she screamed. “This is absolute slander. Call the police! ”
“I have a witness,” I said.
And I did. The witness walked forward. Then another. The men who had kidnapped me and broken my leg came forward too.
“Sir, please, I’m so sorry,” one of them said. “I had no idea that she was your daughter. The kidnapping had nothing to do with me. It was Jeff.
He made me do it all. ”
Jeffrey’s face went white. “Shut up! They’re actors she hired to say these things.
”
Then I said the words that shattered him. “Jeffrey, you really think I don’t speak French? I heard you tell the doctor to sabotage my surgery so that I would never dance again. And you didn’t know I heard that, did you?
”
Roxy broke then. “You promised me that I could get a spot in the theater! It wasn’t my fault, okay? You did this.
It was all Jeff. It was all of his ideas. ”
They turned on each other like starving dogs. I left them to their fate.
The doctor said my foot would heal and wouldn’t affect my dancing. My father brought me a ring he’d ordered three years ago, with my name engraved on it. He’d had it ready the day I walked out on him for Jeffrey. He just never got the chance to give it to me before I left.
Adam looked at me after everything was over. “The shoes you got me,” I said softly. “I left them in the ward. ”
“I’ll go get them.
”
“Adam,” I said. “Let’s get married. ”
His eyes widened. “Are you serious?
”
“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my whole life. I want to get married for love. True love. And I don’t want one failed marriage to ruin that for me.
”
He took my hand. “I love you, Alicia. ”
I had walked through hell, had my leg broken by the man I loved, had my name dragged through mud, had danced on bleeding feet to claim the dream my mother never got to finish. And somehow, in the wreckage, I had found the love I’d been pretending to have all along.
Ladies, never lose faith in love. The man who is meant for you will brave all storms just to reach your side.
