Chapter 1: The wrong place at the wrong time
“Tell me you’re joking.”
Elowen Virelli stared at her phone, unable to believe the words she had just heard.
“I’m not.”
Her fiancé's voice was unusually calm.
Too calm for a man who had just cancelled their wedding three hours before the ceremony.
“You're not coming?” she asked.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
He hesitated.
“Because I'm with someone else.”
she was short of words, she couldn't speak.
Then she laughed.
It wasn't because anything was funny.
“You're with someone else?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Another pause.
“Serena.”
Elowen's smile disappeared.
Serena.
Her cousin.
The same Serena who had helped her choose her wedding dress.
The same Serena who had hugged her last night and told her how lucky she was.
Elowen slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the bed.
“You're sleeping with my cousin?”
“I didn't mean for this to happen.”
“You didn't mean for it to happen?”
Her voice became aggressive.
“You've been sleeping with her for six months!”
“Elowen, please...”
“No.”
She stood again.
“Don't tell me to calm down. Don't tell me you're sorry. And don't you dare ask me to understand.”
“I was going to tell you after the wedding.”
She shook in surprise.
“After the wedding?”
“Yes.”
“So you were going to marry me while sleeping with her?”
He said nothing.
That silence answered everything.
Elowen ended the call.
She stared at her wedding dress for another few seconds before walking toward the bathroom.
She had exactly three hours before the wedding.
And she had just become a woman without a groom.
Across the city, a black Rolls-Royce stopped outside a private courthouse.
Cassian Moretti stepped out.
The moment his shoes touched the ground, two men in black suits followed behind him.
His expression was unreadable.
“Where is she?” he asked.
His assistant inhaled deeply.
“She hasn't arrived.”
Cassian checked his watch.
“She has seven minutes.”
“Sir, we've tried calling her.”
“And?”
“Her phone is off.”
Cassian's jaw tightened.
He had spent the last two weeks arranging a marriage he didn't want.
He wasn't about to let the woman he had chosen disappear now.
His grandfather had given him one condition to keep control of the Moretti empire.
Get married before midnight.
Cassian had agreed.
Not because he believed in marriage.
Because losing his family's empire wasn't an option.
“Find her,” he said.
"Yes, sir.”
Cassian turned toward the courthouse entrance.
Then he stopped.
A woman in a white wedding dress was walking toward the building.
Her makeup was slightly ruined.
Her eyes were red.
And she looked furious enough to kill someone.
Cassian watched her as she walked.
She walked straight past him.
Then stopped.
“Excuse me.”
Cassian looked at her.
Elowen pointed toward the courthouse.
“Is this where people come to get married?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Yes.”
She glanced at the empty space beside him.
Then at his suit.
Then back at him.
“Are you getting married?”
Cassian said nothing.
Elowen sighed.
“Never mind.”
She turned to leave.
“Wait.”
She stopped.
Cassian looked at her for some while.
Then he asked her a question.
“Are you still willing to get married?”
