Rising from the Ashes The Heiress They Tried to Erase Novel

Chapter 287: He stumbled back a step, his eyes wide in shock as he stared at Maia. "You… What did you say?" he rasped, his voice cracking with disbelief.

Maia calmly repeated her words, her voice unwavering, as though she had just stated the weather. "I said, I'm already married. I have a husband, and we're very happy together. Please, leave me alone."

Vince lunged forward, grabbing Maia's wrist with a frantic grip, his voice raw with panic. "No! This is impossible! I don't believe you! You're lying, aren't you? You're just saying this to get back at me, aren't you?"

His eyes were bloodshot, his face contorted with desperation, his voice rushing out like a torrent of emotion. "Don't joke like this, Maia! I'm serious about you! Look!"

Vince's fingers fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a bracelet with trembling hands, as if it were a lifeline - a desperate gesture to keep his crumbling world together.

It was a limited-edition Two Tied Hearts bracelet, the same style he had once given to Rosanna.

Vince thrust it into Maia's hand, his bloodshot eyes burning with feverish desperation, his voice now a frantic plea. "You were angry that I gave the bracelet meant for you to Rosanna, so I bought you an even better one! This one's a limited edition, worth over two million. You'll love it, won't you?"

Inside the grand banquet hall, the atmosphere shifted the moment Vince unveiled the limited-edition bracelet. All at once, every gaze snapped to Rosanna's wrist.

The bracelet she had paraded so proudly, flaunting it like a badge of honor, now clung to her skin like a brand of humiliation.

Rosanna felt the weight of their stares - curious, pitying, some even glinting with cruel amusement. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and though no one spoke openly, their glances screamed louder than words.

On the livestream, the floodgates of mockery burst open.

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"Wow! Vince gave Rosanna a bracelet worth barely over four hundred thousand, but he handed Maia one valued at more than two million! If love is measured in carats, we all know who wins."

"Turns out Maia is Vince's true love. Rosanna? Nothing more than a pawn in a marriage alliance - a clown in designer heels."

"If I were Rosanna, I would dig a hole and never come out. She treasured that bracelet like it was gold, only to discover it was someone else's discarded trinket."

Thousands of ruthless comments piled in by the second.

Rosanna fought to keep her composure, but her carefully built façade cracked. A sharp pain twisted through her chest, as if her heart itself were splintering. Without thinking, she clutched her wrist, desperate to shield the bracelet from view.

That glittering band, once a source of boundless vanity, now felt like a dagger slicing her open, each shimmer a fresh wound.

Hatred boiled up inside her - swift and merciless. Somewhere deep within, a dark, simmering wish took root - she would make Maia pay dearly for this humiliation.

Meanwhile, in the hotel suite upstairs, Maia regarded the diamond-encrusted bracelet resting in her palm. Her fingers curled around it once before she pushed it back toward Vince, her movements calm and detached.

"I do not like it," Maia said coolly, her voice slicing through the tension like a blade. "No matter how expensive your gifts are, Vince, I will never accept them. Because I do not like you anymore. You and everything from you only make me sick."

Vince stiffened, as if her words had struck him with physical force.

For a heartbeat, he stood there, stunned, silence hanging heavy between them. Then, without warning, he laughed - a hollow, disbelieving sound.

"You… do not like me anymore?" His voice wavered between anger and desperation. "Then who do you like? That so-called husband of yours?"

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