Vanessa took another deep, shaky breath, her voiceced with bitterness and resentment. "I fell in love with your brother the moment I saw him. I knew I wasn''t good enough for him, so I worked my ass off to be someone worthy of standing by his side. But Eleanor? All she did was look after him for a year while he was in aa, and she got to marry him. On what grounds? Just because of that debt of gratitude?"


    Vanessa seemed to realize she was losing herposure, but she couldn''t stop the flood of grievances she needed Serena to hear.


    "She used that obligation to force your brother to marry her, effortlessly getting everything I had ever dreamed of. Is that fair? Serena, if you were in my shoes, what would you do? You loved Xavier Vaughn; you know the pain of having Eleanor take someone from you. You of all people should understand."


    Serena watched her impassioned rant with cold eyes, puffing out her cheeks. "Even so, that doesn''t give you the right to destroy their marriage."


    "I wasn''t destroying it. I was fighting for what was rightfully mine," Vanessa shot back, her eyes growing sharp and wild.


    "And what was rightfully yours? My brother?" Serena let out a sudden, mockingugh.


    Vanessa froze, a shiver running through her as she stared at Serena.


    Serena''s lips curled into a cold sneer. "With the money and all the support my brother gave you, you could have livedfortably for the rest of your life. And you still wanted more?"


    The realization hit Vanessa like a physical blow. She stared at the intense, icy contempt on Serena''s face, and her stomach dropped.


    Had she been set up? Panic and rage surged through her. "Serena, what did you really bring me here for?"


    "Nothing much. I just wanted to see for myself how shameless and despicable you really are," Serena spat, the anger she''d been suppressing finally erupting.


    Vanessa''s expression turned to ice. "How dare you, Serena? The money and resources your brother gave me were payment for my services-payment I earned with my health. Without me, your mother would have been dead ten years ago."


    "So you were just supposed to take the money and resources? No, you got greedy. You wanted the title of Mrs. Goodwin. You venomously broke up my brother and Eleanor''s marriage. You used your status as the world''s sole donor to threaten and ckmail my brother, all while pretending to love him and deceiving me." Serena stood up, ring down at her. "Vanessa, from start to finish, your rtionship with my brother has been nothing but calction and possessiveness. You don''t love him. You love the glory, status, and wealth that being Mrs. Goodwin would bring you. You''re a vile, despicable person, and you don''t deserve to love my brother."


    "Serena, you—" Vanessa''s face went pale, then twisted into a cold sneer. "Who are you to act so high and mighty? You think your hands are clean when ites to hurting Eleanor? You were my aplice, weren''t you?"


    The words were like a knife, twisting into the nerve of Serena''s deepest regret.


    Serena''s chest heaved, but she regained herposure in a matter of seconds. She nodded, admitting her fault. "You''re right. I was a fool. I


    let you use me as a pawn for years. I was an aplice. Why," that''s today, I finally see how hateful a I


    snake like you truly is. You''ve made me realize my mistake, and now I know how I''m going to make it up to Eleanor."


    Vanessaughed coldly. "You think Eleanor will ever forgive you?"


    "She doesn''t have to," Serena shot back, her own smile frigid. "I can''t even forgive myself for the pain I caused her. But I know that for the rest of my life will do everything I can to be good to her and atone f my mistakes."


    Vanessa stared at Serena in shock. She never imagined Serena could say something like that. Was this the same arrogant, prideful Miss Goodwin who had despised Eleanor?


    Done with her, Serena turned and walked toward the door. She crossed the street and entered the lobby of theboratory building.


    She took out her phone and yed the recording she had just made. Finally, she had proof, in Vanessa''s own words, that she had deliberately destroyed her brother''s marriage. She had admitted that the jewelry


    the vi, and the sports car were all a ploy to mislead Eleanor?


    Serena knew her brother. He might never confess all of this to Eleanor-or


    perhaps he''d be too ashamed to.


    In that case, his little sister would have to do it for him.


    As Vanessa left the coffee shop, she felt a burning mix of humiliation, rage, and a


    creeping, indefinable panic.


    Serena must have recorded her.


    This time, she had been yed.