Chapter 1

"Alice, Luke has treated you really well all these years. Are you sure you never once felt anything for him?" Miranda Green, the friend of my fiancee, Alice Moore, asked her.

My breathing stalled when Alice didn't answer right away. For those brief two seconds, I felt an absurd dash of hope. Perhaps…

"Nope," Alice responded decisively. "Cole Jenkins has always been the only man I loved."

The hope that bubbled up inside of me popped.

Miranda seemed to have more to say. She sounded worried when she said, "You're seriously playing with fire right now. Aren't you worried that things might blow up in your face? To think that you pulled something like this right before the wedding. Luke and the Sheltons must be humiliated! Luke's parents—"

"Humiliated? Well, he deserves it!" Alice snapped shrilly, her voice laced with venom. "You have no idea how awful it is to be with a man as controlling as Luke! He tries to stick his nose into everything I do and meddle in every part of my life. I feel like I'm about to suffocate, okay?

"I want the whole wide world to know that I gave my first time to another man! I want Luke and the entire Shelton family to become the laughingstock in all of Northvale!"

After a pause, she added smugly, "Thankfully, he's been hopelessly in love with me all these years—like a lovesick puppy. He believes everything I tell him. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dared to do something like this."

I closed my eyes. There was a tightening feeling in my chest that made it almost impossible to breathe.

When Alice's family, the Moores, had been on the brink of bankruptcy, her mother came looking for mine and cried up a storm.

At first, I didn't want to form a marriage alliance with the Moores. It was Alice who tugged on my sleeve and tearfully begged me not to reject her.

I took pity on her and gave in.

Throughout these years, I pumped money into Moore Corporation. I personally taught Alice how to evaluate business opportunities and negotiate business deals. I stayed up with her through multiple all-nighters.

It was I who dragged the failing Moore family back to glory and helped them reestablish themselves among the elite circle in Northvale.

But in her eyes, this was just me being a controlling man?

I turned and walked away without a sound.

Once I got back to the living room, I pulled out my phone and clicked on a group chat that had been dead for ages. All the participants were wealthy scions I'd known since childhood.

My fingers flew across the screen, and moments later, I sent a message to the group.

"I need a bride for the wedding ceremony in three days. Who can help me find one to put on a show?"

Immediately, messages flooded into the chat.

"What the heck? Did your account get hacked, Luke?"

"Luke, are you being serious right now? What about Alice?"

I was in no mood to explain the situation, so I simply replied, "I'll share the whole story later. Keep this a secret for now."

Alice came out of the bathroom with a sweet and pleasant smile. It was as if the vicious woman I'd overheard just now had only been a figment of my imagination.

She came over and looped her arm through mine with familiar ease. "It's getting late, Luke. You can head to bed first. I want to spend the night with Miranda."

Ever since that "ordeal" of hers, Alice kept coming up with all sorts of excuses to avoid being alone with me. All along, I thought that she simply needed time to recover from the trauma she'd suffered.

But from the looks of it now, it was simply because she didn't want to see me.