Chapter 1 - The Wedding

"Dearly beloved," the officiant said solemnly.

Everybody was looking at the bride and groom expectantly and these two words were spoken. As if anticipating something to go wrong.

And it did…

Three months ago this had all been a contract, it was just a job. A fake dinner and a gala, that was it. Nothing more.

"If anyone objects to this union," the officiant continued.

"Speak now, or forever hold your peace."

Silence.

Mira had planned two hundred and eleven weddings. She never thought she would plan hers and least of all have hers crumble to pieces.

Why did her hands feel like ice now? Her dress was perfect. The venue was perfect. Adrian stood at the altar in a black tux, looking like a fantasy she used to plan for other people but never for herself.

Mira remembered the night on the terrace, a kiss she didn't mean until everything stopped being fake?

Had it?

Was any of this ever fully real? Or was she so good at making fake happiness for other people that she convinced herself that her wedding was happy too.

The silence continued. Until a phone buzzed, then another, then a dozen at once, one could hear the sound of movement ripple through the two hundred guests.

Mira looked for Bea in the front row. Bea wasn't smiling, she was staring at her phone, her face white and her thumb frozen on the screen.

That wasn't right.

Adrian reached for Mira's hand. His fingers were warm and steady.

"You okay?" he mouthed. She wasn't sure anymore.

Harold was the first to stand up.

"Adrian." His voice cut the solemnity of the officiant like a blade. "You need to see this."

Delphine was already on her feet, phone in hand, her composure cracking for the first time since Mira had met her.

"This changes things," she said quietly. "This changes everything."

Every phone in the room, every one of the two hundred guests, was looking at the same image. A grainy photo, timestamped, taken from a distance weeks ago.

It was the two of them on her fire escape, laughing, it was the night of their engagement announcement but the caption on it was:

EXCLUSIVE: The Cole Engagement Was Never Real. Inside the Contract That Started It All.

Mira's stomach dropped straight through the floor.

Guests started whispering. Somewhere behind her, a guest gasped loudly. Another said something she couldn't fully hear. The whole room shifted in just ten seconds. The wedding now felt like a trial.

Adrian's hand tightened around hers.

"Mira," he said, low and urgent. "Whatever they're saying, it changes nothing. It doesn't change what's real."

"Not for me."

Mira wanted to believe him.

She wanted to believe so many things in the last three months. The dinner, the terrace, the kiss that broke so many clauses and the boundary she placed around her heart. More than she wanted to admit, even to Bea, her best friend.

Right now, she wasn't sure anymore, if she still could.

"Sorry to interrupt," a woman from the back of the room spoke up. From her voice and tone she wasn't sorry though. She started walking down the aisle, holding her phone like a weapon. She was smiling like she had been waiting for this moment. For three months, she had been waiting to walk up to them and say:

"But I think everyone deserves to know how all of this started."

Bea stood up immediately. "Who invited you?"

The woman turned to address the room as if she had rehearsed it.

"Nobody. I invited myself."

"Why don't we ask the groom. Let's ask him what clause nine used to say?"

The room started to whisper, louder this time as their confusion and demand rose.

"Mira." Adrian's face had gone pale white, never had Mira seen his face become this way, not during the scandal, not during Harrow, and not even the night the company's stock dropped eleven percent in just four days.

"Look at me, Mira. Whatever happens next, I need you to know that every word I've said since that terrace is real. All of it."

The woman lifted her phone higher for everyone to see, the phone lit up the front row.

Mira didn't look at the screen but continued to look at Adrian for a suspended moment. She was no longer sure what story or version she was in, the fake story, the real one or another option that they didn't have a contract for.

The officiant cleared his throat, not sure whether to continue or to just call the whole thing off. At the back of the room, Mira caught sight of a wedding coordinator she had trained herself, she was now frozen, unsure whether her job now was to manage the chaos that was unfolding or just become a witness of it.

Bea slowly moved to her side. "Whatever you decide, I'm not going anywhere."

Adrian was still holding her other hand while Bea slowly placed hers in the other.

Mira almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. She was in the middle of the worst moment of her professional and personal life. She had planned two hundred and eleven weddings and never once had she planned for this particular disaster.

There were two hundred guests. A hundred phones. A single question that nobody in the room could answer yet.

Was any of it real?