/1/121404/coverbig.jpg?v=ed3183851b0ff16c16e1bac78116a025)
swer my cal
u? Call me ba
rother, also your
the phone! Something ver
the blurry text, her heartbeat i
messages were from Victoria Sterling-her best friend,
ould have happened that made Victoria contact her so urgentl
n-it was an invitation for a video call. That se
acce
slightly disheveled. The background was dark, with the low rhythm of m
phone," Victoria said with some
broken, worn out from days of coughing, "I've
, he's back. He wa
leaving only an unbelievable daze. "Impossible, he messaged two
's at the Silas Bar in the center of Manhattan. He's thr
turned as cold as ic
er of pity crossing her features before the anger returned. "He's
icial? What are you talking about? There must be a mistake." She tried to defend
sorrow that cut deeper than her anger. "Don't be naive
umb as she fumbled, switching from the video
't have
ing in her feed. Po
m wrapped tightly around Isabelle Gray. Her stepsister. Isabelle was beaming, her hand resting on his chest, a diamond ring flashing on he
caption that
resent, and future. My on
nerveless fingers, landin
e ye
spent alone because he couldn't risk being seen with her. He'd called it protection. H
laceholder. A convenient stand-in, kept in the shadows
for her final year at boarding school in Switzerland. He'd commente
less frequent, his touch more distant, e
g moments she had brushed aside, now clicked into
rfaced. Anger. Sharp, unyielding rage burning through every inch of her bones,
he tears from her face. Her eyes, reflected in the dark screen of the tele
ter wasting three years on a liar who
t Asher had betrayed her, the trust fund shares her father left her would only unlock full control of the fa
sabelle's smug engagement. Then a forgotten email flickered in her mind, one from her mothe
sactional marriage opportunity
floor, her fingers flying thro
clair. 8 P
was that this man needed a wife just as desperately as she needed a husband to
other's number
d up on the
h venom. "What now, Audrey? I was in the m
y calm, devoid of any tremor or sorrow, ice coating eve
med you'd buried your head in the sand as usual. Don't tell me you're
asting like cold metal on her tongu
even manage to show up on time for a brunch I planned three weeks in advance, and now you expect everyone t
gument, every word sharp and authoritative. "Tell Julian Sin
to ruin this high-society match, you know that, don't you? You'll walk in there with that
-rant, hanging up with
into Le Ciel tonight, strike a mutually beneficial deal with Julian Sinclair-he gets a compliant wife to quiet his family's marriage pressure a
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