Deal! Let’s Get Our Revenge, Mr. Nemesis Novel – “Miss Ward, we’ve found a body. The features matches your mother. We need you to come in and identify it.” My smile, reflected in the bridal shop mirror, shattered with a single phone call. When they pulled back the sheet, her body was barely recognizable. Her eyes—gone. Her organs—ripped out. I collapsed, screaming and the world turned black. When I came to, my fiancé, Colin Marks, was sitting by my side.
He gently wiped away my tears and kissed my forehead. “They caught the murderer who did it,” he whispered. “I made sure… he paid for what he did to your mom.” He swore that, for the rest of his life, he’d love and protect me the way she used to. But that night, jolted awake by another nightmare, I caught something outside the bedroom. Through the crack in the door, I saw Colin holding my half-sister, Piper Ward, in his arms. She was sobbing into his chest, her whole body trembling.
“If she ever finds out the truth… she’ll kill me.” Colin cupped her face, gentle as ever. “Hey, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know those guys were scammers. You’re a victim too.” The chill in my bones cut deeper than any winter wind. I could hardly breathe. So this was it. My mother died… because of Piper. And the man who swore to protect me was shielding her. Colin finally sent Piper home and turned around—only to see me, collapsed on the floor. His expression flickered—guilt, frustration—then hardened.
“So you heard everything?” His tone turned cold, like I was the problem. “Don’t blame Piper. Your mom got greedy, okay? She kept pestering Piper to help her ‘invest’—she brought this on herself.” He tossed a blank check on the table like it meant nothing. “Write whatever number you want. But forget what you’ve heard. Let’s pretend nothing happened for the meantime. The wedding’s in five days. We’ll go through with it—peacefully.” I stared at the man who once swore he’d love me for the rest of his life.
Now, he felt like a stranger. I wiped the tears from my face. If my wedding was doomed to become my mother’s funeral, then five days from now… I’d return the favor—with interest. —— I said nothing. He grew impatient, yanking off his tie and tossing it on the nightstand. “If you get it, then go to sleep.” But something snapped in me. The grief, the rage—it all poured out, raw and shaking. “Pretend? Are you fucking serious?!” “You knew. You knew my mother was the only family I had. And you knew how much it meant to her to see me walk down the aisle in white.
And Piper fucking destroyed it!” Did he really not understand why my mother was desperate to make money? Colin’s family had looked down on us from the start. His parents barely tolerated me. And my mother—God, she tried so hard to make me worthy in their eyes. That’s why she went to Piper, thinking maybe this time, things would be different.