My Fiancé Betrayed Me, I Married My family's Enemy

"Julian, I can't breathe."

I gripped the edge of the fitting platform, the corset crushing my ribs. This was the wedding gown of the century, the one Julian claimed he'd spent five years making to my exact measurements.

"Hang in there, Chloe." Julian flipped through a fabric swatch book without even looking up. "Couture was never meant to be comfortable. As the future Mrs. Vane, you have to be perfect."

"This isn't about comfort." I fought through the pain. "Are you blind? It's far too tight under my bust. Are these really the measurements you took yourself a year ago?"

Just then, someone yanked the fitting room curtain open.

My best friend, Mia, was leaning against the doorframe in a semi-sheer slip dress.

The moment I saw her, I instinctively looked to her for comfort.

Mia was the person I trusted most.

In college, I'd covered her tuition and rent when she couldn't afford them.

When she couldn't find a job after graduation, I'd gotten her one at Julian's studio.

We'd sworn to be each other's only bridesmaid.

But this time, she didn't fuss over me the way she usually did.

She looked me up and down, taking in the mess I was. I'd never seen such a cruel, mocking look on her face.

"I told you, Chloe, you need the right figure for this dress. Squeezing a straight-up-and-down body like yours into it is such a waste."

My mind went blank.

Julian, who'd been so impatient a moment ago, looked at Mia with a warmth I hadn't seen in his eyes in a long time.

"She keeps insisting I got the measurements wrong."

"Want me to fill it out for her?" Mia teased as she sauntered over.

Before I could say no, Julian stepped up, grabbed the zipper at my back, and yanked it down.

The zipper bit into my skin, and I winced.

It all happened so fast that I didn't even have time to process how sickeningly in sync they were.

Without so much as a glance at me, Julian slipped the gown he'd peeled off me onto Mia.

Five minutes later, the gown that had nearly cracked my ribs hugged Mia's curves like a second skin. A perfect fit.

Then I understood. His story about spending five years lovingly making the wedding gown of the century for his fiancée had been a lie from the start.

It had been made to Mia's exact measurements.

My best friend and the man I loved most had been sleeping together for a long time.

Five years of devotion had been one giant joke.

"God..." Julian's eyes were full of awe and obsession as he wrapped his arms around Mia from behind, not caring who saw. "Now it has the soul it was meant to have."

My phone suddenly rang, breaking through the suffocating tension.

It was Robert Klein, our family lawyer, and he sounded desperate. "Ms. Winslow, the court just issued the liquidation order! Someone has been shorting us and buying up all our debt to drive us under. If we can't come up with forty-eight million dollars by nine tomorrow morning, we lose the Winslow family home and the money keeping your father alive in Switzerland."

My ears rang. "Who did this?" My voice shook.

"It was... Killian Valentine."

Killian. My family's sworn enemy for ten years.

When I hung up, I looked over at Julian. He was nearby, his head bent as he straightened Mia's skirt.

"Julian, my family's debts have just caught up with us."