Chapter 1 — The Tenth Wedding

Serena Vale came through the chapel doors soaking wet, just as Julian Cross lifted the ring toward Evelyn Hart's hand.

"Stop the wedding!"

Her scream tore through the string quartet. Every guest turned. Rainwater streamed from Serena's pale gold dress and pooled beneath her heels as she stumbled down the aisle.

It should have shocked Evelyn.

Instead, she felt tired.

This was the tenth wedding she and Julian had attempted in eight years.

At the first, Serena had climbed onto a hotel roof and threatened to jump. At the second, she had staged her own kidnapping. At the third, she had locked Evelyn in a dressing room until the ceremony was over.

There had been a sudden illness, a fabricated family emergency, and even an anonymous bomb threat. Each time, Julian had promised the next ceremony would be perfect.

Now Serena seized his wrist before he could put the ring on Evelyn's finger.

"I died," she gasped. "My car went into Lake Michigan last night. My heart stopped, and I saw what happens after you marry her. I came back because I have to save you."

A murmur rippled through the chapel.

Serena pointed at Evelyn.

"She doesn't love you. She wants Crosswell Technologies. Once she controls the company, she'll strip it apart and leave you and your mother with nothing."

Evelyn almost laughed.

"You saw all of that while you were clinically dead?"

"I saw everything."

"How convenient."

Evelyn turned to Julian. Beneath the chapel lights, he looked exactly like the man she had loved at twenty—the sharp jaw, dark hair, and gray eyes that had once made her believe honesty lived in them.

"Are we getting married or not?"

His jaw tightened.

"Evelyn—"

"It's a simple question."

Serena clung to him. "Check her messages. She's been meeting Adrian Shaw behind your back. Shaw Capital has been trying to get control of Crosswell for years."

For one fragile second, Evelyn expected Julian to tell Serena to leave.

Instead, suspicion cooled his face.

There it was. The answer she should have accepted nine weddings ago.

Julian took the microphone from the officiant.

"I'm sorry," he told the guests. "The ceremony is postponed while I resolve a private matter. Evelyn and I will choose another date."

Humiliation moved through the room in whispers.

Evelyn removed her veil. She laid it on the white roses at her feet, then slipped off the engagement ring and placed it beside the altar candles.

Julian stared at her. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure there isn't an eleventh wedding."

She walked toward the bridal suite without waiting for permission.

Eight years earlier, she had left a penthouse on Fifth Avenue with one suitcase and less cash than she used to spend on a single dinner. Her grandfather had called Julian an ambitious scholarship student who loved opportunity more than he loved her.

Evelyn had defended Julian. She had promised Arthur Hart that if Julian failed to marry her within eight years, she would return to New York and accept her place at Hartwell Group.

The deadline expired tonight.

Inside the suite, she traded the wedding gown for a cream sweater and trousers. Her phone rang as she zipped her suitcase.

Adrian Shaw's voice came through, dry and familiar.

"Ten attempts. I admire your commitment to statistical certainty."

"Don't start."

"Your grandfather knows. He's sending the plane."

Evelyn looked at the abandoned gown.

"I lost the bet."

Adrian went quiet.

"Say what you mean, Evie."

"I'm coming home."

Before he could answer, the phone disappeared from her hand.

Julian stood behind her, Serena at his shoulder. Serena opened the recent calls and smiled when she saw Adrian's name.

"I told you. She ran straight to your biggest rival."

Julian did not even look at the call log. He looked at Evelyn as if she had already confessed.

"Everyone told me you wanted what I could give you. I defended you for eight years."

"What you could give me?"

"This life. The house, the company, the name people respect."

Evelyn took back her phone.

"Then keep all of it. We're finished."

She reached the door, but two security men stepped into her path.

"Let her through," she said.

Neither moved.

Julian's voice came from behind her. "So you can run to Adrian with company information? No. Until I know what you've shared, you're staying where I can find you."

"You're detaining me because your mistress told a ghost story at our wedding?"

"Serena isn't my mistress."

Serena's victorious smile said otherwise.

Evelyn faced him. "When you had nothing, I worked three jobs. I slept in a basement studio with mold on the walls and split two-dollar noodles with you. I brought in the first customers Crosswell ever had. If money was what I wanted, why would I have chosen that life?"

Julian's expression hardened.

"Maybe what I had was enough then. People get greedy."

Something inside Evelyn became perfectly still.

"Yes," she said. "They do."

She returned to their house under the watch of Julian's security team. At the front door, the guards took her car keys and informed her she could not leave without Julian's approval.

She did not argue. She photographed their faces, recorded their orders, and uploaded everything to the encrypted account Adrian had created for her years earlier.

Then she opened the locked cabinet in her study.

Inside were Crosswell's original operating agreement, her stock certificates, and the records of every dollar she had put into the company. Julian liked to tell people he had given her half the company out of love.

The documents told the truth.

She had earned it.

At two in the morning, Julian returned drunk with Serena supporting him. His collar was open, and a streak of Serena's lipstick marked his throat.

"Sorry," Serena said sweetly. "He was upset. I was the only person who could calm him down."

"Then you can take care of him."

Evelyn turned toward the stairs.

Serena followed. "You don't have to pretend it doesn't hurt."

"It did hurt. The first few times."

Evelyn glanced back at Julian.

"But after ten canceled weddings, even humiliation becomes repetitive. You wanted him, Serena. Congratulations."

Julian pulled away from Serena.

"You're giving me away now?"

"You made your choice."

"I said I would investigate. If you're innocent, I'll give you a wedding twice as grand."

"Investigate everything," Evelyn said. "Every expense. Every contract. Every night I worked beside you. Find out exactly what I wanted from you."

She continued upstairs, then stopped on the landing.

"Maybe at your eleventh wedding, you should finally choose the right bride."

The next morning, voices woke her.

Julian's mother was in the living room below.

"You've wasted money on ten ceremonies for that woman," Diane Cross snapped. "End it. Serena's son turns four today. The boy needs your name, and Serena needs a ring."

Evelyn's fingers tightened around the banister.

Son.

Then Diane said, "You can't keep hiding your own child forever."