Semua Bab The Vows We Fake : Bab 1 - Bab 10

The conference room blurred around the edges. Blood rushing behind my eyes distorted my view. I told myself it wasn’t real. Perhaps the lack of sleep had gotten to me. Perhaps I was crazy. But there he was.Zane Blackwood stood by the table, his back partially turned away from the door. He was taller than I remembered. Sharper. Colder. His hair was even darker, nearly black instead of dark brown. His suit molded perfectly to his frame. He wore black on black with no tie. Zane never cared what anyone thought. Not about his dressing, not about his tastes, not about him. He commanded the room, the kind of presence that was to be helming empires, not haunting my present and past. Zane turned, and I stopped breathing.Five years hadn’t softened him, hadn’t dulled him. His face was more chiseled now, mouth flatter. And his eyes, God, those dark eyes! His gaze swept across the room. He took in Leah first. Then Mr. Wade. Finally, he looked at me. My heart thrummed in my chest. I stared righ

The morning after my first meeting with Zane leaves a sour weight in my chest, like a nightmare I can’t fully get over. I was going over flower arrangements with Leah who was a bit chatty, but her words went right through my ears. I nodded when I was supposed to, smiled when I should. Acted like everything is okay. Gave Zane’s pretense a run for his money.Because how could he not remember me?Was it perhaps a trauma response? Like when you want to forget something so bad you manipulate your brain into forgetting it. I could understand that. But the accident-induced amnesia storyline? I won’t fall for that.I closed the binder and excused myself. I stepped out into the balcony of the hotel suite that I was lodging at during the planning period. The skyline stretched out in the distance, a wide expanse above Manhattan. It was a thousand feet away from who I used to be.It had been five years.Five years since I set fire to my old life with one desperate choice and helplessly watched ev

Sera Voss walked into the room, cool and poised in all white. Her auburn hair was styled in a flawless bob. Her shoes worth more than my rent. I knew she was Sera Voss, Zane’s fiancée, despite not seeing any pictures of her beforehand. Some presences are not hard to decipher. And also… I knew her. Sera Voss. A change of name didn’t change the fact that I knew her. I got up from my seat in shock. My legs felt like jelly. Another reunion five years in the making. My belly turned. I felt like throwing up. “Sera,” Zane said, standing up. “I didn’t think you would come.” She smiled. The air in the room shifted. My chest felt tight. She looked right at me. “Oh, I didn’t know we hired outside help.” The audacity. “Amara Ibe,” I responded with as much cool I could muster. “Wedding planner.” She smiled wider. Innocent. I won’t fall for that. “Brilliant. I believe we would work together perfectly.” It all made sense – why Zane said the bride insisted on hiring me, why I was the weddin

There was something different about the way people looked at Zane Blackwood. Not just with admiration. With lots of caution and reverence, as if he was fragile and made of glass. Every assistant paused when he passed. Every glance lingered a second too long. No one corrected him. No one contradicted him. And then, the rumors. The elephant in the room. There were whispers everywhere. “He doesn’t remember anything before the accident,” one of the coordinators whispered to another when they thought I was out of earshot. “Total blackout. Poor man.” “He’s lucky he doesn’t remember the scandal,” the other whispered back. “Imagine waking up to your entire legacy in ruins.” “And the wedding planner, isn’t she the one who…” the voice cut off. “Yeah. The Nigerian lady, right? She did all that to him and then she comes back into his life five years later? So shameless.” “I heard Ms. Voss hired her as payback. She gets to watch the love of her life get married to her former best friend. Tha

Still reeling from my meeting with Zane, I needed to distract myself so I went to the main ballroom to check out the layout sketches. I had barely opened a page before I heard echoing footsteps and Mr. Wade’s increasingly agitated voice. “You’ve approved over budget floral designs, doubled the dessert costs, and insisted on imported linens. This isn’t what we discussed.” I turned to him, slowly. I took a deep breath before I spoke. I was annoyed already, best not to let him get to me. “I’m doing what the client wants,” I said evenly. “You’re getting carried away.” “It isn’t my money, and neither is it yours. If the couple has a problem with it, they would come to me directly. I really don’t know why you are bothered.” He pointed a finger at me. “Ms. Ibe, you’re overstepping.” “Mr. Wade, you’re doing too much.” He sneered. “This will backfire on you, I promise you that.” Before I could respond, Zane appeared at the top of the stairs. “Mr. Wade,” he said, his tone sharp. “If th