Chapter Two

Eleanor 

The ballroom smelled like roses and old money. Every table was draped in ivory silk, every chandelier dripping with crystals that caught the late afternoon sun. It should have been beautiful. It should have felt like a dream because this was my dream wedding. 

Instead, it felt like the stage for an execution.

Mine or theirs. I hadn’t decided which one yet.

I walked down the aisle on legs that didn’t belong to me. Every eye turned to watch, soft sighs echoing through the hush. My father stood at the altar, his expression pinched with the strain of pretending this marriage was more than a transaction. He nodded to me, the silent command clear: Be perfect. Be compliant. Be a good girl. 

Adrian waited beside him, impossibly handsome in his custom tuxedo. His dark hair was slicked back, his jaw freshly shaven. He looked exactly the way I’d once dreamed he would on our wedding day. For one fleeting, stupid heartbeat, my chest clenched with longing. Some fragile part of me still wanted this all to be a misunderstanding. A nightmare I’d wake from, sweaty and crying, but still whole.

But reality had already carved its scars across my heart.

I reached the altar, my bouquet of peonies trembling in my hands. Adrian’s smile was polished and false. His fingers brushed mine as he took the bouquet, and I forced myself not to flinch.

“You look beautiful,” he murmured, leaning close enough that only I could hear. “I can’t wait to make you mine forever.”

My stomach lurched. You already made your choice. My gaze flicked to the projector screen mounted behind us. The videographer stood ready in the corner, his face pale. He caught my eye and gave a subtle nod.

I turned back to Adrian, curling my lips into the sweetest, most docile smile I could conjure. “I’m sure you can’t.”

The officiant cleared his throat and began the vows. His voice was a low drone in my ears as the crowd watched with expectant warmth. They all believed this was the fairy tale they had come for. The perfect merger of wealth, beauty, and power of two families. 

My father’s board members were lined up in the first rows, their wives decked in diamonds. Aurora wasn’t among them. I supposed she hadn’t wanted to risk me noticing the nail marks she’d left down Adrian’s back. Or maybe she was hiding somewhere, content to let me marry the man she was already screwing behind my back.

“Do you, Eleanor Whitestone, take Adrian Cole to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I’m so sorry,” I interrupted, my voice ringing through the ballroom. “Before I answer that, there’s something I would like to share with our guests.”

A ripple of confusion passed over the crowd. My father stiffened. Adrian’s hand closed around mine in warning. “Eleanor,” he hissed, “what the hell are you doing?”

I didn’t answer him. Instead, I looked toward the videographer. My heart beat in my throat as I lifted my chin.

“Now,” I said.

For a moment, there was only a blur of shifting lights and shadows. Then the screen flickered to life.

The first image was Aurora, naked and panting beneath Adrian, her red nails digging into his shoulders as he drove into her with a rhythm that made polite gasps break out across the room.

“Oh my God”

“Is that?”

A strangled noise erupted from my father. Adrian lunged toward the projector controls, but I sidestepped him, blocking his path. The video continued to play, the audio loud enough to fill every inch of the vast ballroom.

“You know she’ll never fuck you like this,” Aurora moaned, her voice unmistakable.

Adrian’s voice followed, rough and eager. “Let me get through today. The merger with her father’s company closes at midnight. After that, she’s nothing.”

A woman in the third row slapped her gloved hand over her mouth. Another leaned to her husband, her voice sharp with scandal.

“Did you hear that? He’s marrying her for the merger!”

“She’s nothing,” another guest repeated in a shocked whisper.

Adrian’s face turned the color of wet clay. “Turn it off,” he barked, rounding on the videographer. “Turn that goddamned thing off now!”

“No,” I said, my voice cold and bright. “Let them see exactly what you are.”

Adrian looked at me as though he’d never seen me before. “You vindictive little bitch”

“Better a bitch than a fool.” My hands shook, but I kept my gaze locked to his. “You could have left me. You could have been honest. Instead, you lied to me. You lied to everyone here.”

My father finally found his voice. “Eleanor, this is enough. Stop this nonsense immediately”

I turned to face him. The man who had raised me to be an accessory, to be sold off like a pretty trinket if it meant securing another billion dollar contract. “No, Father,” I said, my voice cracking. “This isn’t nonsense. This is the truth you were all so desperate to ignore.”

The video ended on Aurora’s shuddering climax, the screen going black. The silence that followed was deafening, filled with the collective discomfort of three hundred people who’d just witnessed the ugliest truth laid bare.

I drew a shuddering breath. “I won’t marry a liar. And I won’t be part of a merger that requires me to pretend I don’t see what’s right in front of me.”

Gasps. A few scattered claps from somewhere in the back. The sound startled me, until I realized it was applause. One woman dabbed her eyes, nodding at me with something like respect.

“You ungrateful little whore,” Adrian hissed, grabbing my arm. “You think you’ll walk away from this unscathed? You’ve humiliated me in front of everyone”

I yanked free of his grip. “You humiliated yourself.”

From the crowd, someone called out, voice dripping with scorn, “Looks like the groom already got his wedding night.”

Another voice: “And with the maid of honor, no less!”

Laughter broke out, brittle and mean. Adrian’s face contorted with rage. He looked like he might hit me. For one terrifying second, I braced for the blow. But then he turned away, jaw clenched, and stormed down the aisle to a chorus of murmurs and condemnation.

I swallowed the tears burning my throat. My father was speaking, something about damage control, about how this could be salvaged but I didn’t hear him. All I could feel was the rush of something fierce and unfamiliar. Something dangerously close to freedom.

I gathered the skirts of my wedding dress in both hands. My bouquet lay crushed on the marble floor behind me, petals strewn like casualties. I didn’t look back.

As I reached the doors, I turned to face the sea of staring faces. “Enjoy the rest of your afternoon,” I said, voice steady. “And please make sure to send my sister your congratulations. She and Adrian deserve each other.”