Chapter 1

1.

The wedding was set to take place at The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. I was standing alone in the bridal suite, dressed in a custom Vera Wang gown, clutching a bouquet I’d painstakingly chosen. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I watched the bright afternoon sky fade into a glittering night.

The guest seats were long empty. Our glamorous friends and business partners had all trickled out, their whispers turning from excitement to awkward pity. The wedding planner had already called three times, asking for an update.

My hope had curdled into despair. Dorian Croft was a no-show. He didn't even send a text.

I had become the biggest joke in New York high society.

My mother, Margaret, who suffered from a severe heart condition, couldn't handle the humiliation and the shock. Right at the moment the wedding march was supposed to play, she collapsed in the lounge from heart failure.

The wail of an ambulance siren became my wedding music. The paramedics did everything they could, but she was gone before we ever reached the hospital.

I was in the hospital morgue, my hand shaking so badly I could barely hold the pen to sign the paperwork, when my phone buzzed. It was a notification from Instagram for a user I followed closely.

Sloane Ramsey, the “best friend” who had always been a shadow between us, had just posted a photo.

In the picture, she was nestled in Dorian’s arms, the background clearly the waiting room of a veterinary hospital. Her caption read: “You’re the only one who can put me back together when I’m falling apart. #blessed #myman”

My body trembling, I screenshotted the post and sent it to Dorian. My only message: “Is this why you ghosted me at our wedding?”

His reply didn't come until after I had finished all the arrangements for my mother's body.

“We can reschedule the wedding. Sloane had a breakdown. She needed me.”

In that moment, something inside my heart broke and died.

…