Chapter 1 - The Wedding She Couldn't Remember“Help him…?”
The word tasted bitter on Selena Reed’s tongue.
Mason smiled.
“Yes. She used to help me with administrative work.”
Selena stared at him.
“That’s not what happened.”
Vanessa Blair lifted her champagne glass.
“Let’s not make this awkward.”
Mason leaned closer.
“Selena, we talked about this.”
“No, you talked.”
The smile disappeared from his face.
People nearby began turning toward them.
Selena could feel every eye in the ballroom.
She had spent six months trying to become invisible.
Tonight, she realized something.
Invisible women were easy to disrespect.
So she lifted her chin.
“I didn’t help you.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
“You worked beneath me.”
“I worked alongside you.”
“You were an assistant.”
“I was a financial analyst.”
“You’re making a scene.”
Selena laughed softly.
“You invited your ex-girlfriend to your engagement party and introduced her like the woman who used to sort your emails.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You weren't invited by Mason.”
“I know.”
“I invited her,” Mason interrupted.
Selena stared at him.
“Why?”
He gave her a wounded expression.
“Because I wanted closure.”
“Closure?”
“Yes.”
He reached for her arm.
She pulled away.
“What you wanted was an audience.”
Mason’s cheeks reddened.
Vanessa whispered something to him.
He looked at Selena.
“You look different.”
Selena knew exactly what he meant.
Her dress.
Her makeup.
Her confidence.
She looked like someone who had finally stopped apologizing for taking up space.
“I am different.”
Mason scoffed.
“You've been pretending.”
That sentence hurt.
It shouldn't have.
But it did.
Because Mason knew exactly where to put the knife.
“You always did that,” he continued.
“Did what?”
“Act like you were better than everyone.”
Selena's eyes narrowed.
“I spent three years trying to be good enough for you.”
Mason laughed.
“And how did that work out?”
Her chest tightened.
Then a voice came from behind her.
“Poorly, apparently.”
Selena turned.
Dominic Vale stood there.
He wore a black tuxedo, no tie.
He looked completely out of place among the polished bankers and socialites.
Not because he wasn't sophisticated.
Because everyone else was pretending they were powerful.
Dominic didn't need to pretend.
Mason's smile vanished.
“Vale.”
“Caldwell.”
The two men stared at each other.
Selena looked between them.
“How do you know each other?”
Dominic's gaze remained on Mason.
“Business.”
Mason laughed.
“Very complicated business.”
“Not anymore.”
Something passed between them.
Selena didn't understand it.
Then Dominic looked at her.
“You okay?”
She blinked.
“Yes.”
“No, you're not.”
Mason scoffed.
“She doesn't need you.”
Dominic's eyes moved to him.
“I wasn't speaking to you.”
Silence.
Selena should have walked away.
Instead, she found herself talking.
“He's getting married.”
Dominic glanced at the ring on Vanessa's hand.
“I noticed.”
“To her.”
“I noticed that too.”
“And apparently I'm supposed to congratulate them.”
Dominic nodded.
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Then don't.”
She looked at him.
“That's your advice?”
“My advice is simpler.”
“What?”
“Stop doing things for people who don't do them for you.”
Something inside her cracked.
Because no one had ever said it so plainly.
Selena swallowed.
“That's easy for you to say.”
“Why?”
“You're Dominic Vale.”
“And?”
“Everyone knows who you are.”
“Do they?”
She smiled bitterly.
“They say you're dangerous.”
“I am.”
She expected arrogance.
Instead, his voice softened.
“But I don't enjoy hurting people.”
Mason stepped closer.
“Selena, we're leaving.”
Dominic looked at him.
“She came with you?”
“No.”
Selena answered before Mason could.
“I drove myself.”
Mason looked irritated.
“Then I'm taking you home.”
“No.”
“Selena.”
“I said no.”
She turned toward the bar.
She needed air.
She needed something stronger than champagne.
Twenty minutes later, she was sitting alone on the hotel's rear terrace.
Her phone showed seventeen unread messages from her mother.
Three from her brother.
One from her landlord.
One from her bank.
Nothing good.
She stared at the city lights.
“Bad night?”
Dominic stood a few feet away.
She sighed.
“Do you make a habit of appearing wherever miserable women sit?”
“No.”
He looked toward the empty chair.
“May I?”
Selena shrugged.
He sat.
For a while, they said nothing.
Then Dominic noticed her untouched champagne.
“You don't drink much.”
“I drink when my life is humiliating.”
“That sounds inefficient.”
She laughed despite herself.
“Do you always talk like that?”
“Yes.”
“I can tell.”
His gaze moved toward the ballroom.
“Mason cheated on you.”
She stiffened.
“How do you know?”
“People talk.”
“And you listen?”
“I remember useful things.”
She looked at him.
“Why are you talking to me?”
“I've seen you before.”
“Where?”
“Your office.”
Selena blinked.
“Vale Holdings?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You prepared a financial analysis for one of my acquisitions.”
She stared.
“That was you?”
“Yes.”
“My report was rejected.”
“It wasn't.”
“They told me the acquisition was postponed.”
“It wasn't postponed.”
“What happened?”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Someone altered the numbers before they reached me.”
Selena's stomach turned.
“Who?”
“I haven't found out.”
She looked at him differently.
“You think I was set up?”
“I think someone wanted you to believe you weren't good enough.”
The words hit too close to home.
Selena whispered, “Mason used to say that.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Dominic looked at her.
“I investigated him.”
Her heart stopped.
“Why?”
“Because anyone who manipulates people around my company becomes my problem.”
He stood.
“You should go home.”
Selena laughed softly.
“My home is being threatened by a landlord.”
“I can arrange temporary accommodation.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't take things from men I barely know.”
Dominic looked at her for a long moment.
Then he smiled faintly.
“I respect that.”
He walked away.
Selena watched him disappear.
An hour later, she left the hotel.
She remembered stepping into the elevator.
A man in a dark suit stood behind her.
She remembered a hand catching her before she fell.
She remembered Dominic's voice.
“Selena.”
Then nothing.
Until morning.
Until the ring.
Until Dominic Vale stood in her bedroom saying they were married.
Now Selena looked at him.
“You're telling me we got married last night.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“City Hall.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dominic hesitated.
That hesitation terrified her more than anything.
“Because there was no other way to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
He stepped closer.
“Mason.”
Selena's blood chilled.
“What did he do?”
Dominic handed her a phone.
On the screen was a photograph.
Mason.
Talking to two men in a parking garage.
One of them held a file.
Selena's file.
Dominic's expression darkened.
“Mason has been investigating you.”
“Why?”
“Because there's a problem with your name.”
“What problem?”
Dominic looked at her ring.
“Your father.”
Selena froze.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“You said Mason was investigating me.”
“He was.”
“Why?”
Dominic's eyes became unreadable.
“Because your father left something behind.”
“What?”
“A fortune.”
Selena laughed.
“My father died with debt collectors calling.”
Dominic shook his head.
“That's the lie you were told.”
He walked toward the bedroom door.
“Get dressed.”
“Where are we going?”
“To meet the man who knows the truth.”
“Who?”
Dominic stopped.
“Your father's attorney.”
Selena stared at him.
“Why would he meet with us?”
Dominic looked back.
“Because he has been waiting seventeen years for you.”
May you like
And Selena suddenly realized the wedding ring was not the only thing she had woken up wearing.
She had also woken up inside a secret someone had spent nearly two decades trying to bury.
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