Chapter 3

Julian frowned.

"Didn't I tell her to postpone it?"

Chloe scrolled and laughed.

"She has no shame."

Vivian leaned over to check the date.

"It really is the eighteenth. She's that desperate."

Julian called me again.

I was sitting in the living room of the riverfront mansion.

Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the river stretched out across the view.

"Amelia."

His voice was tight with anger.

"I told you I'm not marrying you on the eighteenth. Take that post down."

"Julian," I said. "Look at the groom's name."

He went silent for a moment.

Then he sounded even angrier.

"Amelia Ashford, what the hell kind of tantrum is this? I'll cancel every vendor you booked. Take some time to cool off."

He hung up.

For the next ten minutes, my phone kept buzzing.

The officiant: "I won't be able to make it. Sorry."

The photographer: "Sorry."

The makeup artist: "Sorry."

I replied to each one.

"Okay."

My new fiancé had already lined up a better team for me anyway.

I opened another window.

The apartment's live security feed.

On the screen, Chloe was perched on the dining table, swinging her legs.

"Julian, are you really not going to marry Amelia?"

"She's going to cry, you know."

Julian poured himself a drink.

"Vivian, the baby's still so little."

"I'll make it up to Amelia when he's older."

Chloe bumped his shoulder with hers, laughing.

"You already have a baby with Vivian. What does that make Amelia? The other woman?"

Vivian laughed.

Julian was quiet for a few seconds.

"I was drunk that night."

"Vivian and Amelia look so much alike. I thought she was Amelia."

"I never meant to get involved with Vivian, but..."

"Now I love them both. I'll take care of both of them. I owe Vivian too much."

I closed the feed and went to the bathroom to throw up.

Then I drove to the Ashfords' house.

I wanted answers about the apartment.

No one was home, but the study light was on.

An open folder lay on the desk, the Hale Group emblem printed on its cover.

Next to it was a note.

"Richard, finalize Amelia's marriage arrangements next week. -E.H."

I opened the folder.

The first page was a trust transfer record from twenty-one years ago.

The Ashford family trust had paid $1.8 million to a company that had since been dissolved.

The signature was Richard Ashford's.

The second page documented the reimbursement.

Hale Group had covered the missing $1.8 million.

The third page was a memorandum.

The Ashford family would settle that debt through a marriage between Amelia Ashford and Julian Hale.

The fourth page listed the beneficiaries of the Ashford family trusts.

One name had been circled in red.

Vivian Ashford.

At last, I understood why we'd been treated so differently our whole lives.

When I finished first in my class, they said, "Vivian would do better than you if she cared about school."

When I washed a sink full of dishes until my fingers blistered, they praised Vivian.

"She never has to lift a finger. What a lucky girl."

On her birthday, they took her to Disney World.

I got a slice of her leftover cake.

I wore the dresses she didn't want until I was eighteen.

I'd spent my whole life trying to prove I deserved to be loved.

They'd saved every scrap of their love for Vivian.

I photographed all three documents, page by page.

Just as I was about to leave, my mother called.

Her voice was shaking.

"Amelia, somebody beat up your father at the casino. Get over here now."

When I arrived, the door was ajar.

I heard my mother's hushed voice inside.

"Make it convincing, or Amelia will keep pushing Julian to marry her."

"Vivian still needs him to take care of her for the next few days."

My hand froze against the door.

A second later, a man behind me kicked it open.