The night before the ballet competition, I was grabbed by strangers in a parking garage. They dragged me into a van, laughing while I screamed for help. One of them took a bat to my leg. I felt the bone snap before the pain even hit.
I passed out knowing my career was over. When I woke up in the hospital, my husband Jeffrey was there, holding my hand with a look of fake concern. He told me he’d hired the best orthopedic team from Paris. He said everything would be fine.
He said he loved me. But I heard him. He spoke French to the doctor, thinking I couldn’t understand. He told the doctor to make sure my leg never healed properly.
He wanted me crippled for life. He did all of this so his mistress, Roxy, could take my place on stage. I didn’t say a word. I just lay there and listened to the man I gave up everything for plan my destruction.
I wasn’t always helpless. Three years ago, I fought my father to marry Jeffrey. My father, the richest man in West City, told me if I left, I was no longer his daughter. I chose Jeffrey anyway.
I thought love was worth the cost. I was wrong. In the hospital, I called my father. He came immediately.
When the nurses saw the richest man in West City walk in to pick up his daughter, the rumors started spreading. Jeffrey and Roxy heard about it, but they convinced themselves it was a coincidence. They couldn’t believe someone like me could be that wealthy. I went home with my father.
I got the best doctors. I recovered in secret, practicing every day until my leg was stronger than before. On the day of the championship, Jeffrey stood at the registration desk and told the judges I had an accident and wouldn’t compete. Roxy was already there, smirking, ready to take my spot.
The judges disqualified me for not showing up. Then I walked in. “Alicia, what are you doing here? ” Jeffrey’s face went pale.
“You can’t dance with a crippled leg. ”
I didn’t answer him. I walked past him and took my place on stage. When I danced, the crowd went silent.
I moved better than I ever had. The judges gave me a perfect score. It was unprecedented. I won the championship.
Roxy was furious. She accused me of cheating. She claimed I bribed the judges. But I had evidence of her real crimes.
I pulled out photos showing her bribing the sound engineer to change my music mid-performance. She was banned from the National Ballet Theater permanently. Jeffrey tried to defend her. He demanded I apologize.
I told him I wanted a divorce. “If you divorce me, you’ll lose everything,” he said. “Even if you get into the National Ballet Theater, I can still make you end up on the street. ”
I smiled.
“We’ll see about that. ”
I was the heir to the Oasis Group, one of the most powerful companies in the city. My father had built an empire, and I was his only daughter. When Jeffrey tried to destroy me, I destroyed him instead.
I ordered a full boycott of Turner Group. His investors fled. His partners abandoned him. He was drowning in debt.
Jeffrey came crawling to my office, begging for mercy. He didn’t recognize me at first. When he realized I was the heir to Oasis Group, he couldn’t believe it. “You’re just a broke nobody from the slum,” he screamed.
“What are you doing in that chair? ”
I had him thrown out. He tried to fight back. He spread rumors that I was a fraud, that I seduced my way to the top.
He showed up at the theater gala and accused me of impersonating the real Miss Neville. But my father was there. He stood up and said, “Alicia is my precious daughter. How dare you lay your hands on her?
”
Jeffrey begged for another chance. He said he still loved me. I had him removed. Then Roxy tried to sabotage me one last time.
She put a nail in my dance shoe before the Infinity Nocturne Gala, the most prestigious ballet event in the world. I stepped on it during rehearsal and felt the metal pierce my foot. But I had witnesses. I had evidence.
She was arrested and banned from the ballet world forever. Jeffrey was arrested too, for hiring the men who broke my leg. The evidence was airtight. After everything, Adam Charles was there.
He was the heir to the Charles Group, and he’d been my fiancé years ago, before I ran off with Jeffrey. He never stopped caring about me. He gave me the ballet shoes that belonged to my mother, who died before she could perform at the gala. “I remember a girl who swore at her mother’s funeral that one day she’d take the stage of an internal gala to perform the performance her mother never could,” he said.
“I’ll be here with you every step of the way. ”
I looked at him and realized I still had a chance at happiness. I didn’t want one failed marriage to ruin my belief in love. “Adam, let’s get married,” I said.
He smiled. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my whole life. I love you, Alicia. ”
I loved him too.
And this time, I was choosing someone who would never break me.
