Chapter 1

The moment I stepped out of my bedroom, counting started quietly inside my head.

One… two… three…

Right on cue, the television volume lowered.

Hesitating near the living room entrance, my hands smoothed nervously over the blue dress clinging to my body. Almost forty minutes had been wasted arguing with myself about whether to wear it before finally giving up.

Noah’s eyes lifted from the business channel playing on the television and landed directly on me. A deep frown formed on his face.

“Nora. Remind me again why you’re still dating this guy.”

A sigh escaped me as I walked further into the room. “Because he’s kind, supportive, and he loves me.”

Noah scoffed. “The lies you tell yourself.”

“Can we please not do this?”

But his attention had already dropped to the dress. “He picked that, didn’t he?”

“It was a gift.” My gaze moved over the material. “He said I’d look good in it.”

The truth was, the dress didn’t even feel like me. The fabric sat too tightly around my waist, and blue had never really been my color.

But Damien liked it.

“It’s not that bad,” I muttered. “Drop it, Noah.”

“No.” He stood abruptly and started pacing in front of the television. “Can’t you honestly see the problem here?”

“What problem?”

“The fact that everything is always about him.” He turned toward me sharply. “What he likes. What he wants. What makes him happy.”

“That’s not true.”

“Really?” His hand gestured toward my dress. “You hate that color, Nora.”

My eyes dropped to my knees, suddenly unable to hold Noah’s gaze anymore.

Dad had been wearing a blue shirt the night he died in the hospital. Since then, blue was a color I could never bring myself to wear.

“Love is about compromise,” I said quietly.

Noah looked at me with the same tired expression he had been wearing a lot lately before finally sitting back down and turning his attention to the television again.

Releasing a quiet breath, I dropped beside him on the couch. “Why do you hate him so much? Do you know how terrible it feels knowing my twin brother can’t stand my boyfriend?”

“You know why.” His attention remained on the news playing on the television. “You stop being yourself whenever he’s around.”

“Could you at least try to tolerate him?” I murmured. “For me.”

“Emotional blackmail won’t work this time, Nora.”

“Please?”

Noah shook his head again. “It’s pointless. Just go.”

My phone vibrated before another word could be said.

Damien: I’m outside.

The message had barely appeared before I stood.

As I reached the door, Noah spoke again. “My prayer for you,” he said quietly, “is that one day you realize you deserve better.”

My steps slowed.

“Nora.”

Turning back slowly, my eyes met his.

“Say amen.”

An unwilling smile pulled at my lips. “Amen.” Mostly so he would let me leave.

*******

Getting into Damien’s car, he leaned over and kissed me.

“You look beautiful.” His eyes moved slowly over the dress. “I knew that color would look perfect on you.”

“Thank you.”

He drove us to his favorite restaurant, the same place he always claimed had the best food in the city. Personally, the portions felt too small, and the food somehow always tasted strange to me, but Damien loved the place, so pretending to enjoy it became part of the routine.

We had barely started eating when he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.

A small gasp escaped me, my hand flying to my mouth.

“Nora.” He opened the box carefully between us. “Will you marry me?”

The ring sparkled beneath the restaurant lights while my heart nearly burst inside my chest.

“Yes!” A smile broke across my face as I nodded quickly. “Of course.”

Damien smiled softly before reaching across the table for my hand, gently sliding the ring onto my finger. “I’m going to be an amazing husband.”

A laugh slipped out of me as I admired the ring on my finger. “It’s so pretty,” I murmured. “Thank you.”

“Shit,” he suddenly muttered under his breath.

“Excuse me for a second,” he said quickly, already pushing back his chair. “I need to speak to someone.”

Looking up in confusion, I followed his line of sight toward the restaurant entrance. He rushed off before I could ask anything, disappearing deeper into the restaurant.

Damien was barely gone when his phone started vibrating nonstop against the table.

My eyes moved toward the screen just as another notification appeared, asking if I had said yes, followed by a laughing emoji.

Normally, touching Damien’s phone wasn’t something I ever did. He had always been strangely protective of it. But we were engaged now. Soon, we would be husband and wife. There shouldn’t be secrets between us anymore.

My fingers hovered over the phone before finally picking it up. The screen unlocked with a swipe.

At first, the messages didn’t make sense. Then slowly, painfully, everything started connecting together.

The woman texting Damien was his real fiancée.

The proposal had been her idea because she was tired of waiting for Damien to sleep with me so their little game could finally end.

My vision blurred with tears as I kept scrolling, hands trembling so badly the phone nearly slipped from my grip. Every message hurt worse than the last.

They had been laughing at me the entire time.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

My head jerked up at the sound of his voice.

Damien was standing beside the table again, breathing hard like he had rushed back the second he saw me with the phone.

His eyes locked onto it in my trembling hands before he snatched it away immediately.

“This is exactly the problem with you, Nora.” Anger rose sharply in his voice. “You never listen. Why would you go through my phone? Why is it so difficult for you to respect simple boundaries?”