A Vow of Deception, A Vow of Revenge novel Chapter 42

The next afternoon, a few colleagues came to visit Winona at the hospital.

They were all teammates from the project Winona had poured her heart into, and they respected her deeply, fully aware of the sacrifices she'd made. Guilt also lingered beneath their concern—when Celia had nearly stolen the project, none of them had dared to openly take Winona's side. So now, each of them arrived with their arms full of gifts, hoping to make it up to her in some small way.

"Secretary Thorne, please get some rest and don't worry about the project. We've got everything under control," one of them assured her.

"If anything really comes up that we can't handle, we'll reach out," another added quickly.

"You've worked yourself ragged lately. You really need a break."

Winona smiled. "Thank you all for coming."

One of them waved her off. "Oh, it's the least we can do. But… what happened, anyway? How did you end up in the hospital with a concussion? Was it really—"

They exchanged uneasy glances before one finally dared to ask, "Was it true? Did Miss Goodwin push you—was this her doing?"

Winona looked at them in surprise. "How did you know?"

She hadn't planned to hide what happened, but she hadn't told anyone at work the details yet.

"It's all over the office," someone said, lowering her voice. "Everyone's saying Miss Goodwin was jealous and did it on purpose. But we don't know who started the rumor."

"So it was her after all? That's just awful…"

"She didn't even show up at the office today."

"That explains it—when we told Mr. Goodwin we wanted to take time off to see you, he agreed right away. Normally, he's never that accommodating."

"Maybe he feels guilty about what happened to you."

Winona let out a cold laugh.

Tyson, feeling guilty? More likely, he just thought she was being dramatic and causing trouble again.

After chatting for a while longer, her colleagues said their goodbyes, not wanting to tire her out.

Once they were gone, a nurse came in to tidy up the gifts they'd left behind.

She clicked on the video.

Sure enough, the star of the performance was Celia.

Winona's grip tightened unconsciously around her phone as she watched Celia spin across the stage.

The piece was "Nocturne of the Eternal Night."

Back in the day, Winona had stunned the world with that very dance at an international competition, taking home the championship and earning the title "Queen of the Dance."

Celia had always been praised in the dance world, but everyone agreed she still fell short of Winona.

But now…

Winona could never dance again.

And Celia had taken her place—she was the new Queen.