1 Tonight was supposed to be our joint bachelor-bachelorette party, a final blowout before the “I dos.” Somewhere between the third round of martinis and the dimming of the lounge lights, someone suggested a high-stakes game of Truth or Dare. Then came the question for my fiancé, Dominic. “If you could bring one person back into your life, who would it be?” The room went bone-still. Our friends were leaning in, grins plastered on their faces, clearly expecting him to whisper my name as a grand romantic gesture. Instead, Dominic stared into the amber depths of his whiskey and spoke three words that shattered the air. “Sadie Miller.” The silence turned from expectant to suffocating. Every pair of eyes in the VIP booth swung toward me. Sadie Miller. She was the underprivileged student I’d sponsored years ago, the one who eventually turned around and fueled a scorched-earth smear campaign against me, claiming I’d bullied and blackmailed her. She died in an accident shortly after the scandal peaked. Dominic had lived through every second of it with me. He knew the death threats I’d received; he knew the way my reputation had been incinerated. He, more than anyone, knew I was the victim. Yet there he was, his eyes brimming with a sudden, raw grief for the girl who had tried to ruin me. A sharp, hysterical laugh bubbled up in my throat. I looked at him, my voice like dry ice. “If you miss her that much, Dominic, maybe we should call off the wedding. You can go down to the cemetery and dig her up so she can stand at the altar with you tomorrow.” Dominic’s expression darkened instantly. He slammed his glass onto the marble tabletop. “Avery, for God’s sake. It was a game. Are you really going to lose your mind over a dead girl?” “A dead girl who almost destroyed me?” I countered. “Are you telling me,” he sneered, his voice dropping to a dangerous register, “that you don’t have a single person hidden in your heart? Someone you wish you could see one last time?” I looked at the wedding itinerary peeking out of my designer clutch—the culmination of five years of my life. Suddenly, it all felt like a heap of rotting trash. “You’re right,” I said, my voice eerily calm. “I should probably hide someone there, too.” I pulled out my phone. Right there, with him watching, I sent a message to the wedding planner and the venue: Cancel everything. The wedding is off. The planner started calling immediately, but Dominic’s hand clamped down over my phone before I could answer. “Have you had enough of this tantrum?” he asked. His grip was controlled, his voice steady. He always played the part of the rational one, making me out to be the volatile, emotional mess. I looked up at him. “Let go of my hand, Dominic.” “The wedding is tomorrow, Avery.” “I’m aware.” “We’ve spent six months on this. The Pierre is booked. The guests are flying in. The press is ready. You really think the Bennett and Hayes families can afford this kind of public humiliation?” I smiled, a thin, bitter thing. “So, is it the wedding you care about, or just the optics?” His jaw tightened. A bridesmaid tried to play peacemaker, her voice trembling. “Avery, come on. Dominic just grabbed a name out of thin air. It didn’t mean anything. Sadie’s gone. Why are you competing with a ghost?” “She’s gone,” I whispered, “and yet I’m the one being told to be the bigger person.” The bridesmaid flinched and retreated to her drink. Dominic finally let go of my phone, but he didn’t back away. He leaned in, his voice a low vibration near my ear. “We’re going home. Now.” “I’m not going back there.” “Then where the hell are you going?” “Somewhere you aren’t.” He let out a dry, condescending chuckle. “Avery, you say you’re leaving every time you get angry.” “This time is different.” “How?” I looked him straight in the eyes, seeing the stranger behind the man I thought I loved. “In the past, when I said I was leaving, I was waiting for you to stop me. Tonight… I’m not waiting.” The smirk vanished from his face. Five years ago, after my mother passed away, she left me her boutique book restoration studio. I was a fresh graduate, drowning in debt and grief. Dominic was the one who stood by me when his family turned up their noses at my ‘hobby.’ He helped me build that tiny shop into a respected business. I thought it was love. I thought that’s why I tolerated the way he kept Sadie’s ghost between us. I tolerated the way he constantly made excuses for her, the way he told me to ‘let it go’ because ‘she was troubled and now she’s at peace.’ But tonight, hearing him wish her back in front of everyone, I finally understood. He didn’t want me because he loved me. He wanted me because I was the one who would never leave. “Wedding’s cancelled,” I said into the phone, finally answering the planner. “I’ll pay the cancellation fees. Stop everything tonight.” Dominic grabbed my wrist again. “Think carefully, Avery. Once you do this, there is no coming back. There is no ‘us’ on the other side of this.” “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.” “You’ll regret this.” “Maybe. But that’s my cross to bear, not yours.” I pried his fingers off me, one by one. As I reached the door, Dominic’s assistant, a young guy who usually looked terrified of his own shadow, called out, “Ms. Bennett? Wait! Your mother’s estate items… I thought Mr. Hayes was keeping them safe for you? Why do you have…?” He trailed off, his face turning ghostly pale under the club lights. I stopped. “What did you just say?” Dominic shot the assistant a look that could have curdled blood. “He’s mistaken.” “No,” I said, turning back. “The Evergreen Annals. My mother’s rare 18th-century botanical journal. It’s been missing from my vault for a month. You told me you sent it for appraisal. Where is it, Dominic?” He stayed silent for two beats. “It involved some old discrepancies in the foundation’s books. I’m keeping it in a safe place until the audit is clear.” “You never told me that.” “You were busy with the wedding.” “The wedding is tomorrow, and you’re holding my mother’s legacy hostage? You really have thought of everything, haven’t you?” He sighed, sounding exasperated. “Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be, Avery.” I didn’t answer. My phone buzzed with a confirmation text from the florist. Order cancelled. I turned and walked out into the cool night air of the city. For the first time in five years, I didn’t look back.
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