All Chapters of Scheming Against My Ex-Boyfriend's Uncle: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

The engagement was supposed to be mine. Everyone at that table knew it.I sat between my mother and an empty chair reserved for a fiancé who hadn't arrived yet, running my thumb along the stem of my champagne glass, counting down the minutes until Edward stood up and made it official."Stop fidgeting," my mother murmured. "You look anxious.""I am anxious. This is my engagement, Mom."She didn't answer. She rarely did, when the honest answer might cost her something.Edward Marshall rose at the head of the table and tapped his fork against his glass until the room quieted, forty-some faces turning toward him with champagne already lifted."Family," he began, "means keeping your word. Six years ago, my dearest friend Franklin Rogers asked one thing of me before he passed — that our families would truly become one."My chest tightened with something close to relief. Finally. After two years of half-hearted dinners and Jayden's distracted attention, here it was, in front of everyone, rea

It took Bria exactly three days to build a profile on Liam Wade thick enough to work with.Gym at six a.m., three days a week, same private facility. Coffee from the same place every Thursday. No bodyguards inside a four-block radius of his building, because he apparently hated being handled."He's a creature of habit," Bria said, sliding her laptop across the kitchen island. "Which is either going to make this very easy, or very obvious. Depends on how careful you are.""I'm always careful," I said."You cried into my couch cushions three days ago.""That was before. I've recalibrated."Bria snorted, but she didn't argue.The gym was too public. The coffee run was too quick — ninety seconds, in and out, no room for a real conversation. What I needed was something that looked like an accident but gave me time. Real time. Enough to make an impression that would survive past the next morning.I found it in his Thursday routine — the covered parking garage two blocks from his coffee plac

The garage was empty again, same time, same shadows, except this time I hadn't disabled anything.I didn't need to. I'd told him the truth in my text, more or less — I was unlucky. Genuinely early, genuinely rattled from the brunch with my mother, genuinely relieved when his car rounded the corner and he stepped out into the gray morning light."No hood popped today," he said, walking toward me. "I'm almost disappointed.""I figured I'd let you keep some dignity. Two rescues in a row might go to your head.""Too late." His mouth curved, easy, unguarded in a way I hadn't seen from him yet. "It already has."We walked to the coffee shop without discussing it, like the fifteen-minute rule from the first morning had quietly expired somewhere between yesterday and today.---"You look tired," he said, once we were seated, two coffees steaming between us."Family brunch," I said. "It's a genre of exhaustion all its own.""I know the genre well." Something flickered behind his eyes — brief,