I should have known it would end in blood.
The halls of Oak Street’s event hall were eerily quiet as I stood there, my hands shaking, my pulse roaring in my ears. I could still hear Dottie’s words, that soft, careful voice that had always been so good at pretending.
Asher and I are getting married.
The room had spun then, like the ground had been ripped out from under me, but I had forced myself to stay still. To listen. To watch.
Because I knew.
I knew.
Dottie wasn’t just betraying me.
She had been doing it for years.
And Asher—Asher had let it happen.
I exhaled slowly, dragging my gaze across them. Dottie, with her innocent little smile. Asher, with his stiff, unreadable expression. It was like a f*****g play, and I was the fool who had been cast in the losing role.
“You knew,”
