### THE NIGHTMARE’S END
The ballroom was dead silent, save for Sara’s agonizing sobs. Eric tenderly wiped the thick chocolate away, his breath hitching when he saw the dark crimson mixing with the brown icing. A deep, jagged gash ran across his sister’s cheekbone.
Chloe scoffed, crossing her arms. “Oh, please. It’s just cake. She’s faking it.”
Eric didn’t look at his bride. Instead, he reached into the ruined chocolate on the floor and pulled out something glittering and coated in blood: a jagged, razor-sharp piece of platinum and gemstone.
“It wasn’t just cake,” Eric’s voice dropped to a lethal, icy whisper as he stood up, towering over Chloe.
He held up the shattered remains of the **Crimson Heart**—the legendary $20 million family ruby, passed down from their late mother.
“Sara isn’t a waitress,” Eric announced, his voice echoing through the microphone, commanding the entire room. “She is my younger sister, the co-owner of this hotel empire. And as a master pastry chef, she spent three days secretly baking this surprise cake just to present you with our mother’s priceless heirloom.”
Chloe’s smug expression dissolved into pure horror. Her jaw unhinged as she stared at the bloody ruby, then at the girl she had just humiliated.
“You didn’t just assault my sister,” Eric snarled, leaning in so close Chloe could feel the fury radiating from him. “You destroyed the only thing I had left of my mother. And you drove the sharpest edge of it right into my sister’s face.”
“Eric, I—I didn’t know!” Chloe stammered, stepping back, her pristine dress trembling.
“The wedding is over,” Eric commanded, his eyes dead and merciless as he signaled his security team. “Throw this trash out. And have my lawyers draft the assault charges.”
Chloe froze, trapped in her own nightmare, as security dragged her away in her $50,000 gown—leaving her with nothing but the taste of bitter chocolate and total ruin.