Karma's Ultimate Payback My Success, Their Downfall novel Chapter 33

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

In stark contrast to Ariana’s unexpected calm, Luigi was visibly unraveling beside her.

He still couldn’t believe this moment was real–standing at the altar with Ariana Collins, the woman he’d once believed forever lost. After her “death,” he had spiraled so deeply into grief that he’d seriously contemplated holding their wedding ceremony with her “ashes” present. It had taken his family threatening their own lives to finally dissuade him from this disturbing fixation.

Now, the impossible had happened. His deepest wish had materialized before him–the woman he’d come to love with consuming intensity was becoming his wife. As they stood together, he made a silent, desperate vow to himself. I’ll spend every day making up for the past. I’ll never hurt her again. I’ll protect her from everything, including myself.

When the officiant prompted them for their personal vows, Ariana unexpectedly passed the microphone to Luigi first, breaking with tradition.

Despite commanding boardrooms and investor meetings his entire adult life, Luigi’s hands visibly trembled as he accepted it. All his meticulously prepared declarations of devotion evaporated, leaving only the raw truth:

“Ariana,” his voice cracked with emotion, “I love you–until my dying breath.”

Something shattered in Ariana’s expression as tears began streaming down her face. Luigi immediately reached out, gently wiping them away with his thumb, relief washing over him at this display of emotion.

But what he mistook for joy was actually grief. Ariana was mourning for the woman she once was–the naive, loving girl who had chased after him for years, who would have given anything to hear those words and mean something to him. That girl was gone now, destroyed by the same man who now professed his love with such apparent sincerity.

In some alternate timeline where those ninety–eight calculated humiliations had never happened, perhaps today would have been genuine. Perhaps they would already have built a life together, maybe even started a family. But that possibility had been deliberately, systematically destroyed–by him.

Taking a steadying breath, Ariana accepted the microphone, her expression resolving into something

unreadable.

“Luigi,” she began, her voice surprisingly steady, “I’ve prepared a special wedding gift for you that I’d like everyone to see right now.”

His face lit up with genuine excitement and anticipation. “You didn’t have to-”

Before he could finish, a staff member appeared, took the flash drive from Ariana’s hand, and inserted it

19:24

The Black Swan’s Final Revenge Pirouette: The 99th Ga

All Alogy.

16.8%

Chapter 23

into the event’s multimedia system. The massive screen dominating the reception hall flickered to life.

As the footage began playing, Ariana felt every wound reopening inside her–each calculated humiliation, each deliberate cruelty that Luigi had orchestrated over those three years. The physical pain, the psychological torment, the systematic dismantling of her self–worth–all of it projected in high definition before hundreds of stunned witnesses.

For Luigi, the experience was entirely different. Watching his past self orchestrate these “pranks” with such calculating cruelty made his stomach turn. The man on screen was a stranger–cold, indifferent, treating Ariana’s suffering as entertainment. Everything he had convinced himself was justified vengeance now played back as naked sadism. The truth of what he had done–what he had been–was undeniable.

“TURN IT OFF!” he shouted, lunging for a nearby floral arrangement to hurl at the screen. “SHUT IT

“Why?” he asked simply. “Why now, when I finally understand what you mean to me?”