Chapter 2

Bianca POV:

The sting of Hunter' s cruel words was a constant prod. Every nerve ending seemed to vibrate with the memory of the video, of his chilling admission. My dream, my ballet, became my only escape. I poured every ounce of my shattered being into it, dancing until my muscles screamed, until exhaustion offered a temporary reprieve from the gnawing pain.

I worked. I worked until my body ached so profoundly that my heart had no room left to ache. It was a form of self-flagellation, a way to numb the humiliation that clung to me like a shroud. Sleep, when it came, was fitful and brief, haunted by his laughter, by Ashley's innocent face.

One afternoon, just as I was finishing a grueling rehearsal, Ashley Wynn appeared at the studio door. She was dressed in a soft, pastel dress, her porcelain skin and wide, innocent eyes painting a picture of pure fragility. She looked like a fresh bloom, utterly out of place in the sweat-stained, gritty ballet studio.

My stomach clenched. I gripped the barre, my knuckles white.

"Bianca," she chirped, her voice light, like a tinkling bell. "Can we talk?"

I didn't turn around. "I have nothing to say to you."

"Oh, but I have something to say to you," she persisted, her tone shifting, gaining a subtle edge. "It' s a bit... sensitive for here, though. Too many ears." She gestured vaguely at the few remaining dancers stretching in the corners.

I rolled my eyes. The girl was a master of manipulation, cloaking her intentions in a veil of polite inconvenience. I didn't want a scene, not here, not now. My patience was already threadbare.

"Fine," I snapped, turning to face her, my expression as cold as I could make it. "My office. Five minutes."

She beamed, a saccharine smile that didn' t quite reach her eyes.

In my small, cluttered office, Ashley settled into the guest chair, crossing her legs demurely. She smoothed her dress, her movements slow and deliberate.

"I saw the video, Bianca," she began, her voice soft, almost apologetic. "The one you sent me." She made it sound like I was the aggressor, I was the one who was wrong. "It was... unsettling."

A harsh laugh escaped my lips. "Unsettling? You think that was unsettling? You were practically reenacting it with him, Ashley. Don't play coy."

Her eyes widened, a picture of wounded innocence. "I don't know what you mean. Hunter was just... teaching me. Guiding me. He said you were so good at it, at making people comfortable." A slow, knowing smile spread across her face. "He said you were a great teacher."

The words were a calculated blow, striking precisely where they would hurt the most. He had used my own strengths, my perceived ability to connect, as a weapon against me.

"He also said," she continued, leaning forward conspiratorially, "that you liked to play games. That you enjoyed being in control." Her gaze dropped to my chest, then flickered back up, assessing. "He said you were quite... provocative."

My blood ran hot. The calm facade I' d tried so hard to maintain shattered.

"What is it you want, Ashley?" I demanded, my voice tight. "Are you here for a trophy? To gloat?"

She pouted, a perfect picture of wounded innocence. "No, not at all! I just... I wanted to understand. He talks about you a lot. Even now. It' s like... you' re still there, between us." She paused, letting the implication hang in the air. "He said you had a way of... whispering things. Things that got under his skin."

The memory of those whispered taunts, those intimate moments I thought were ours, twisted in my gut. He had shared them with her. He had replayed our story for her amusement.

"He said you would always loosen his tie," she continued, her voice light and airy, but each word a hammer blow. "And sometimes, you' d even nibble at his earlobe, just to see if you could make him lose control."

My vision blurred. This wasn't just gloating; it was psychological warfare. She knew details, intimate details, that only Hunter could have shared. He was torturing me through her, twisting the knife.

A primal scream tore through me, though no sound escaped my lips. My hand shot out, grabbing a heavy glass paperweight from my desk. I hurled it at the wall, just inches from her head. It shattered with a deafening crash, fragments raining down on the floor.

Ashley shrieked, but her eyes, wide with feigned terror, held a flicker of triumph. She wasn' t scared. Not really. She was enjoying this.

"He told me about your secret place," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the ringing in my ears. "That little hidden nook in the library. With the old, dusty armchair. He said you loved to draw there. And that's where you two... would often find privacy. He said it was your place." Her gaze lingered on me, mocking. "He said he' d found me there, just this morning. We were talking for a while."

The library. Our sanctuary. The place where we first truly connected, where I would sketch and he would read, where our forbidden passion first ignited. He had taken her there. He had tainted our sacred space.

I pictured them there, in that dusty armchair, his hands on her, his lips whispering my words. The images spun in my mind, a grotesque carousel of betrayal. He hadn' t just betrayed me; he had desecrated our shared history. He had offered up our private world for public consumption, for her to revel in.

My carefully constructed walls crumbled. My heart, which I thought was already shattered beyond repair, broke anew. The raw, searing pain of his betrayal consumed me. There was no going back now. No hoping for reconciliation. He had meticulously destroyed every last vestige of our past. I had to let go. I had to bury him.

"I have to get back to rehearsal," I said, my voice distant, almost detached. "You can see yourself out."

She nodded, a small, satisfied smile playing on her lips, and glided out of the office. Her victory was palpable.

I sat there, surrounded by the shattered glass, the bitter taste of betrayal coating my tongue. Hunter had truly turned the tables. He hadn't just taught me a lesson; he had set fire to my world and stood back to watch it burn. But I would not burn down with it. I would rise from the ashes. I had to.

I stared at the crumpled paperweight fragments on the floor, my own reflection distorted in their sharp edges. Bianca Caldwell, the passionate dancer, the one who found solace in control, was now just a shell. But I would not stay a shell. I would rebuild. I would dance. I would live. Without him.

When I finally dragged myself back to the penthouse that evening, exhausted and emotionally drained, Hunter was waiting. He stood in the opulent living room, arms crossed, his gaze hard.

"What did you do, Bianca?" His voice was cold, accusatory. "Ashley came to me, shaken. Crying. She said you attacked her."

My shoulders slumped. This again. The endless cycle of his deception, his manipulation.

"She provoked me," I said, my voice flat. "She knew exactly what she was doing. She was gloating."

"She's a sweet, innocent girl," he snapped, his jaw tight. "She looks up to me. She told me she just wanted to clear the air between you two. She's new to the company, she doesn't understand your history."

"Our history?" I laughed, a hollow, bitter sound. "You mean the one you've been meticulously rehearsing with her? The one where I was the foolish teacher and she's the new, eager student?"

He took a step closer. "You're delusional. You're projecting your own insecurities onto her. She's nothing like you." He paused, his eyes raking over me with disdain. "She's pure. Untainted."

The words cut deeper than any physical blow. Pure. Untainted. He was comparing her to me, the 'corrupting influence.'

"You mean," I said, my voice trembling with suppressed fury, "she's everything I'm not. Everything you pretend to value." I took a deep, shaky breath. "You're calling me a whore, aren't you, Hunter? You're saying I'm soiled."

He didn't deny it. His silence was deafening.

"She's not capable of performing at the level this project demands," I said, my voice regaining some of its steel. "You know that. You're putting our crucial sponsorship at risk just to spite me."

He smirked. "Perhaps. But she'll learn. I'll teach her. And if the project suffers, then so be it. It's a small price to pay." His eyes gleamed with a chilling satisfaction. "Consider it a lesson for you, Bianca. A lesson in consequences."

"You're a monster," I whispered, my voice thick with revulsion. "You're just like your father."

His face darkened. "Don't you dare mention my father. This is about you. About your mother. And about what you both took from my family."

"You're destroying yourself along with me," I warned, my voice low and fierce. "You think you're powerful, Hunter, but you're just a broken boy playing a man's game."

He simply stared, his eyes cold and empty.

I turned away, the fight draining out of me. There was no point. No reasoning with a man consumed by such cold, calculated hatred. I retreated to my room, the silence of the penthouse amplifying my despair. The tears came then, hot and stinging, burning trails down my cheeks. I cried for the love I thought we had, for the future that had been so cruelly snatched away. I cried for the girl I once was, the one who believed in a broken boy, only to discover he was a weapon.

I would leave him behind. I had to. This life, this family, this toxic love – it was all poison. My dreams of Europe, of dancing on the great stages, they were my only salvation. I would cling to them with every fiber of my being.

I would make sure that crucial sponsorship came through, no matter what. I would not let him win. I would not let him destroy my dance studio, my sanctuary, just to spite me. I would prove him wrong. I would dance again, on my own terms.