Chapter 1

Isabelle "Izzy" Valois stood near the French doors, the cool night air a small comfort. She was the heir to Eldoria, a European principality with quiet but immense power. Her mother, an Eldorian royal, had passed years ago. After that, Izzy mostly grew up in America with her Aunt Patricia. Patricia had married into the Kensingtons, a political machine of a family. Izzy had her own money, a lot of it, and Eldoria’s influence was hers to wield.

Tonight was a Kensington gala, grand and suffocating. It was the night Senator Alistair Kensington, the family patriarch, would make an announcement. He planned to say Izzy, cherished and strategically vital, would choose her future husband from a list of men connected to the Kensingtons. It was about alliance, about power. Izzy knew.

A wave of dizziness hit her, not from the champagne she barely touched, but from a memory so sharp it felt like a physical blow. A past life. In that life, she had poured everything into Ethan Kensington, the eldest son. Her Eldorian influence, her wealth, all to fuel his run for governor. He won. Then he changed. He became obsessed with a woman named Chloe Hayes. Chloe was ambitious, from nothing, and Ethan saw her as a victim of Izzy's world. He blamed Izzy for every slight Chloe felt, every career stumble. So Ethan orchestrated Izzy's ruin. A smear campaign, vicious and public. Economic attacks that bled Eldoria. Her life ended alone, disgraced. Ethan had told her, his voice cold, that it was her punishment for meddling with his love for Chloe. He said she deserved it for making Chloe "suffer." The memory was a brand on her soul.

And now, she was back. Reborn at this exact gala, the starting point of that old, terrible path. The air still hummed with Senator Kensington’s earlier words about her choosing a partner. A choice to solidify power. A choice that, last time, led to her destruction.

Aunt Patricia, her mother's sister and Liam’s mother, approached her. Patricia was a quiet force in the Kensington family, always a subtle supporter of Izzy. She held out a velvet box. Inside, a vintage sapphire brooch, a significant Kensington heirloom. "For your choice, my dear," Patricia said softly, her eyes knowing. The room buzzed with anticipation. Ethan Kensington, the golden boy, stood across the room, a smug look on his handsome face. He expected her. Chloe Hayes was there too, a junior campaign aide only because of Ethan’s pull. Chloe watched Izzy, her expression a perfect picture of tearful, hopeful innocence. Izzy remembered Liam, Ethan’s younger brother, her cousin. In that past life, Liam had rushed back from an overseas diplomatic mission, too late. He found her already gone, destroyed. He had mourned, his voice raw with pain, "Izzy, I should have fought harder to keep you away from Ethan." That memory, Liam's grief, was a lifeline now.

Izzy took a breath, ready to move, to change everything. But Ethan, ever the showman, stepped forward. He raised his voice, capturing everyone's attention. "Before anything else happens," Ethan declared, his voice ringing through the ballroom, "I need to say something." He turned to Chloe, his eyes blazing with a possessive fire. "Chloe Hayes is the only woman I will ever love. The only woman I will ever marry."