Karma's Ultimate Payback My Success, Their Downfall novel Chapter 23

Chapter 13

Recalling the disastrous fate of that previous business partner, Michael silently calculated how many hours he’d need to update his resume after today’s inevitable implosion.

He inhaled deeply, steeling himself for the tempest of Luigi’s rage.

To his absolute shock, Luigi not only picked up the tickets but examined them with unexpected interest, his fingers tracing the embossed lettering with something approaching tenderness.

The tickets were elegantly minimal–clean black typography on heavy cream cardstock, containing only essential information without a single decorative flourish.

The stark simplicity transported Luigi to a moment he’d spent years trying to forget.

Ariana, curled up on their bed three years ago, sketching ticket designs on her tablet, her hair piled messily atop her head. She’d been so alive then–passionate, determined, completely herself.

“Look at this,” she’d said, holding up a clean, minimalist design. “Don’t you think this actually communicates more than all that cluttered nonsense they keep asking for?”

He remembered how she would return from her internship at Boston Ballet, dramatically flopping onto their couch with entertaining impressions of the marketing director.

“It needs more pizzazz,” she’d mimic in an exaggerated voice, gesturing wildly. “Make the font bigger! Add sparkles! People won’t know it’s art unless we hit them over the head with it!”

Luigi had laughed then–casually, carelessly, not appreciating how perfect those ordinary moments were. How

erfect she had been.

If he hadn’t destroyed everything with his revenge plot, would they be sharing those moments still? Would she be designing minimalist tickets for performances he attended proudly as her husband?

The thought sliced through him with surgical precision.

Something about these tickets felt like a sign–an impossible, irrational signal that he should attend. A whisper in his mind suggested that perhaps, somehow, he might find a trace of Ariana there, some echo of what he’d lost.

Without fully understanding his own impulse, he carefully slid the tickets into his jacket pocket and addressed his stunned assistant: “We’re going. Tonight.”

Inside the theater. Boston’s elite buzzed with pre–performance excitement. Various executives and society figures made obligatory pilgrimages to Luigi’s front–row seat, attempting to secure a moment of his

Chapter 13

increasingly rare public attention.

Luigi acknowledged them with minimal effort–a slight nod, a disinterested “sure“-until they retreated, sensing the invisible wall surrounding him.

As the lights dimmed, Luigi tensed reflexively. Dance performances had become emotional landmines since Ariana’s death.

The curtain rose to reveal a solo dancer in a blush–pink costume, frozen in elegant repose. When the music began, she unfurled like a flower opening to sunlight, her movements transcending mere choreography.

Her raven hair caught the stage lights as she turned, creating the impression of liquid shadow following her movements. Despite the pearl–white half–mask concealing her features, her artistic expression radiated through every gesture.

Luigi, who had been enduring rather than watching, found himself inexplicably drawn to her performance. There was something in her movement quality that struck a chord of deep recognition

A memory surfaced with painful clarity: Ariana dancing in their apartment, barefoot on hardwood floors, demonstrating a phrase she’d been working on. “Watch this transition,” she’d said, executing the exact same distinctive port de bras he was witnessing now.