Introduction

My Thanksgiving engagement party was supposed to be the start of my perfect life.

My fiancé, Ethan, beamed, arm around me, announcing our future to millions of live-stream followers.

He presented a shimmering "10-carat" diamond and a suitcase supposedly stuffed with $250,000 cash, a dream come true.

But days later, that dream shattered.

I walked into our new apartment and found him with Chloe, my best friend, my maid of honor.

They weren' t even sorry.

The "engagement gift" cash? Mostly prop money, "FOR MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY" stamped on the bills.

Then they flipped the script.

They screamed I was the thief, that I' d swapped the money.

Their brutal social media campaign painted me as a gold digger, a liar.

Legal fees bankrupted me, friends vanished.

The world turned its back.

Anxiety became my shadow.

In a desolate, snow-covered parking lot, Ethan' s radicalized fans, convinced I had destroyed their idol, emerged from the swirling snow.

The last thing I felt was the cold, then a sharp, searing pain, then nothing.

A life unjustly stolen, a future erased by a con artist and a betrayer.

I woke with a gasp, heart hammering.

Sunlight streamed through my old bedroom window.

The date on my phone: Thanksgiving morning.

The day of the engagement party.

The trauma was real, but so was the second chance.

This time, I wouldn't be the victim.

This time, they would pay.