The Wedding I Already Died For

The first thing I heard was the wedding march.

The second was my father’s trembling voice.

“Elara, are you ready?”

My eyes flew open.

I stood before two enormous oak doors, my hand resting on Gideon Mercer’s arm. White roses covered the entrance to the ballroom, their fragrance mingling with the expensive perfume of the guests waiting beyond it. Crystal chandeliers shone through the narrow opening between the doors.

I looked down at myself.

A white silk gown hugged my waist. A diamond necklace rested against my chest. In my hand was a bouquet of lilies tied with a silver ribbon.

No.

This was impossible.

I knew this dress. I knew these flowers.

I knew this day.

“Elara?” Father asked. “What’s wrong?”

I turned toward him so quickly that my veil shifted.

Gideon Mercer stood beside me, alive.

His silver-streaked hair was neatly combed, and his dark ceremonial suit made him look stronger than he had during the final months of his life. There were no hospital bruises on his arms. No shadows beneath his eyes. No tremor in his fingers from the poison that had slowly destroyed his heart.

My bouquet slipped from my hand.

“Father.”

His brows drew together. “What is it?”

I seized him, wrapping both arms around his body.

He stiffened in surprise, then held me gently.

“My little star,” he whispered. “You’re frightening me.”

A sob rose in my throat.

I had buried him two years after this wedding.

I had stood had stood alone beside his grave while rain filled the cemetery and Lucien Vale told me he was too busy to attend. Three months later, I discovered that my husband had helped transfer Mercer assets into shell companies while my father was dying.

Then Selene showed me the photographs.

She and Lucien had been together before the wedding, throughout my marriage, and during every night I had waited for him to come home.

They had taken my family, my inheritance, and finally my life.

I still remembered the freezing water surrounding me after my car broke through the bridge barrier. I remembered fighting the locked seat belt while river water flooded my lungs.

And I remembered the man standing above the road.

Caelan Voss.

The ruthless heir to Voss Industries had watched from the bridge as my car disappeared beneath the black water. His face had been pale, his coat soaked by the storm. He had shouted my name, but I had never learned whether he had come to save me or make certain I died.

Now I was here.

On my wedding day.

Again.

“Elara, look at me.” Father held my shoulders. “Do you want to stop the ceremony?”

The music continued beyond the doors. Hundreds of influential guests were waiting to witness the union between the Mercer and Vale families.

In my first life, I had smiled and walked toward Lucien.

That single walk had carried me to my grave.

“Yes,” I said.

Father stared at me. “Yes, you want to stop?”

Before I could answer, the doors opened.

The guests rose from their seats.

At the end of the aisle stood Lucien Vale, handsome in a black tuxedo, wearing the tender expression that had once convinced me he loved me. His blond hair was perfectly arranged, and the silver cuff links I had given him shone beneath the lights.

For one foolish second, my heart remembered him.

Then I saw Selene.

She stood near the altar in a pale-blue bridesmaid’s dress. My younger cousin smiled at me, but I could now recognize the triumph hidden inside that smile.

Her left hand rested over her stomach.

In my first life, Selene had claimed she was unwell throughout the wedding reception. Eight months later, she secretly gave birth to Lucien’s son.

My grip tightened around Father’s arm.

Lucien stepped forward. “Is everything all right?”

His voice was exactly as I remembered—warm enough to deceive anyone who had not heard it become cold.

I studied the face of the man who had ordered my driver to take the bridge road during the storm.

The man who had inherited what remained of my family’s fortune after my death.

The man who had kissed Selene in my bedroom while I stood outside the door.

“Elara?” he prompted.

“I can’t marry you.”

The ballroom became silent.

Lucien’s smile vanished. “What did you say?”

“I said I can’t marry you.”

A murmur spread through the guests. Father turned toward me, but he did not release my arm.

Selene hurried down the aisle. “Elara, you’re overwhelmed. Every bride gets nervous.”

She reached for my hand.

I stepped away from her.

Her expression faltered.

Lucien descended from the altar, lowering his voice when he reached me. “Whatever this is, we can discuss it after the ceremony.”

That had always been his method. Smile in public. Threaten in private.

“There will be no ceremony,” I said.

His fingers closed around my wrist.

“You will not humiliate me in front of everyone.”

The words were quiet, but the menace behind them was familiar.

I looked down at his hand and remembered those same fingers signing the document that transferred my shares to Vale Holdings.

“Let go of me.”

“Elara, stop behaving like a child.”

Father moved between us. “She told you to release her.”

Lucien immediately removed his hand. His mask of concern returned as he faced my father.

“Mr. Mercer, Elara is clearly distressed. Give me five minutes alone with her.”

“No,” I said. “You’ve already taken enough from my family.”

A flicker of alarm crossed Lucien’s face.

Good.

Let him wonder what I knew.

Selene touched my shoulder. “Please don’t ruin your future because of a misunderstanding.”

I faced her. “Are you worried about my future or your child’s?”

The colour drained from her face.

Lucien’s head snapped toward her.

Father stared at us. “What child?”

Selene withdrew her hand. “I don’t know what she means.”

I had gone too far too quickly. In this timeline, I possessed memories, not evidence. If I accused them now, they would deny everything and become more careful.

“I mean the future children everyone expects Lucien and me to have,” I said calmly. “Selene has spoken about them so often that one might think they concern her personally.”

A few guests laughed uneasily.

Selene’s panic turned into hatred for one unguarded moment.

Then applause sounded from the back of the ballroom.

Slow. Deliberate. Mocking.

Every head turned.

A tall man stood beside the last row of chairs, dressed entirely in black. He had arrived without an invitation, yet no one dared order him to leave.

Caelan Voss.

Even in my first life, his name had frightened men who controlled banks and governments. He was the unwanted grandson whom Octavian Voss had transformed into a weapon. The press called him merciless. His rivals called him worse.

His dark eyes settled on me.

My breath caught.

He looked exactly as he had on the bridge—the same severe face, the same unreadable expression.

But something was wrong.

He was not surprised that I had stopped the wedding.

It was almost as if he had been waiting for it.

“What are you doing here?” Lucien demanded.

Caelan walked down the aisle, ignoring him. Guests moved out of his path without being asked.

“I came to witness a merger,” he said. “It appears the bride has cancelled it.”

“This is a private family matter,” Lucien replied.

Caelan stopped a few feet from me. “Not anymore.”

His gaze dropped briefly to my bare wrist, where Lucien’s fingers had left a red mark. His jaw tightened.

I remembered the contract announced three weeks after my wedding. Voss Industries had nearly acquired the Vale Group, but Lucien had escaped the takeover after receiving confidential information from an unknown source.

At the time, I had believed Lucien had defeated Caelan.

Years later, I learned Selene had stolen the information from my father’s private files.

Caelan’s arrival offered me something I had not possessed in my first life: a powerful enemy of the man who destroyed me.

Perhaps fate had not returned me merely to survive.

Perhaps it had returned me to fight.

“Elara,” Father whispered, “we should leave.”

He was right. I needed time to understand how I had returned and how much of the future could still be changed.

But leaving quietly would allow Lucien to control the story. He would tell the world I had suffered a breakdown. The Vale family would pressure Father, and Selene would continue poisoning us from within.

I needed to break the alliance permanently.

I looked at Caelan.

His eyes held mine with an intensity that made the crowded ballroom disappear. There was no confusion in his expression. No curiosity.

Only recognition.

A dangerous thought entered my mind.

Lucien gave a humourless laugh. “Don’t imagine Voss came here for you. Men like him don’t rescue abandoned brides.”

“No,” I said. “They negotiate.”

Caelan’s gaze sharpened.

I released my father’s arm and walked toward the man I had last seen standing above my grave.

Each step felt like a rejection of the life that had killed me.

When I stopped before Caelan, I lowered my voice.

“You wanted the Mercer alliance Lucien was supposed to receive today.”

A murmur passed through the ballroom.

Caelan studied me. “And?”

I removed the engagement ring Lucien had placed on my finger and let it fall onto the marble floor.

Then I held out my hand to the most dangerous man in the room.

“Then marry me instead.”