Chapter 6

Colton Ashford had always been the kind of man who never looked back.

After that last refusal, I assumed he'd disappear for good.

But on the eve of the wedding, he found me anyway.

He walked in and threw a thick stack of photos onto the floor between us. Vivienne — exposed, humiliated, the exact mirror of what had been done to me. A scene playing out in broad daylight on a public street.

The memory surfaced without warning.

"I already got your revenge for you."

His eyes were red when he looked at me.

"Does this help at all?"

I gathered the photos and tore them across the middle, then threw the pieces into his face.

"You think Vivienne was the only one who wronged me?"

He stared at me, suddenly uncertain.

I stepped toward him.

"Do you honestly think Vivienne alone could've destroyed me like this? Are you genuinely this blind — or are you pretending? Without you, she'd have had nothing. Nothing."

The slap landed before he could brace for it.

Colton Ashford. A man who had never in his life been struck.

The shock in his eyes said everything.

I stepped back and turned to leave.

"Clara!"

A rough shout.

I turned.

He was on his knees.

"Tell me what it takes. Whatever you want me to do — as long as you don't marry Adrian Thorne."

I paused.

The door on the far side opened. Adrian stood in the doorway, watching us both.

I picked up the paring knife from the table and tossed it onto the floor in front of Colton.

"Three stabs. All the way through. Can you do that?"

He looked up at me — stunned.

"If you can't even commit to that, don't talk to me about doing anything."

I turned away and walked past him.

"Clara!"

A shout from behind me.

I looked back.

The blade was already buried in his side. He'd done it himself.

"One..." he said.

His voice was quieter now. Blood at the corner of his mouth.

The blade came out. He coughed blood onto the floor.

"Clara... three stabs means you can't marry him..."

Another thrust — the second one, harder than the first.

Adrian's eyes went wide.

Colton's hand closed around the handle one last time. Adrian was already shouting when the third went in.

"Stop!"

Colton held the knife still, blood tracing down from the corner of his mouth. He pulled the blade free and held it out to me — smiling, somehow.

"Three. Clara. I did it."

"You—"

Adrian's jaw was tight, his hands shaking.

I put a hand on his arm.

I looked at Colton.

"Who said completing the challenge meant I owed you anything?"

Colton stared.

I let myself smile.

"You played the breakup game with me ninety-nine times. Three stabs is only the first round — what's the rush?"

Adrian looked at me.

The tension left his shoulders all at once.

Then he laughed.

"You terrified me."

"Did you really think three stab wounds would be enough to stop me from marrying you?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"You've always been someone who keeps her word."

I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek.

"Only to people who keep theirs."

"Clara — cough—"

Colton reached for me — and collapsed. His body hit the floor with a dull thud.

I looked back at him.

In those desperate eyes, I saw the five years I'd spent with him — every version of myself that had loved him, hated him, waited for him.

All of it had made me who I was standing here now.

I turned away and left the room with Adrian's hand in mine.

Adrian never forgot his promise.

He spent everything he had on dismantling Colton Ashford — systematically, methodically. But before the work was finished, he was gone first.

The Ashford Group's business began to collapse. Colton was committed to a psychiatric facility.

He kept getting hold of blades — no one could figure out how. Each time he was stabilized, he'd do it again.

When they found him, he was already gone.

They said his last session with his psychiatrist ended with one question:

After ninety-nine times — she'd forgive me then, right?

I was standing in a wedding hall when the news reached me.

I tore the death report in half and walked forward, into the light.

He had saved that love for five years.

He just saved it for the exact wrong moment.

[End]