Chapter 1 - Seventeen Minutes Before the VowsMary Collins forced open the presidential-suite door and found her fiancé in bed with another woman.
For one suspended second, nobody moved.
Ethan Brooks stared at Mary from the tangled sheets. His white dress shirt hung open, and the black trousers meant for the wedding ceremony were only half fastened. Beside him, Vanessa Reed clutched the blanket to her chest while wearing the shirt Ethan had planned to button beneath his tuxedo.
Mary remained in the doorway.
Her white gown filled the narrow entrance. A long veil trailed behind her across the carpet, and a silver evening clutch rested beneath one arm.
Downstairs, four hundred guests were waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Vanessa spoke first.
“Mary, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Mary looked at the champagne bottle, the two glasses, and Vanessa’s discarded dress near the bed.
“It looks exactly like the end of your lives.”
Ethan climbed off the mattress.
“Mary, listen to me.”
He moved between her and the bed, attempting to block Vanessa from view.
Mary stepped backward.
Ethan reached toward her arm.
“Put the phone down and let me explain.”
Her phone was still inside the clutch.
The fact that he already feared a call told Mary that the betrayal involved more than what she could see.
She locked the suite door, opened the clutch, and removed her phone.
Ethan’s expression collapsed.
Mary called her attorney, Rachel Sloan, and activated speakerphone.
Then she removed her engagement ring and placed it firmly on the console table.
The quiet tap of metal against wood silenced the room.
“Cancel the wedding,” Mary said. “And transfer every share out of Ethan’s name.”
Ethan froze.
Vanessa stopped buttoning the shirt.
“What shares?” she whispered.
Mary never looked away from Ethan.
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He understood exactly what she had done.
And for the first time that day, the man who had deceived her looked genuinely terrified.
