Author: editor1

PART 1 He did not lose her when she stopped begging. He lost her the moment she stopped waiting. By the time Marcus Kane found her wedding ring lying on the marble floor, the woman who had loved him for ten years was already gone. — The moment Vivian Kane knew her marriage was over…

PART 1 The first time Nadia Ellison realized no one was coming to save her, she was sitting on the floor in her wedding dress. White satin pooled around her like spilled milk. Her veil had slipped crooked, caught in the lace at her sleeve. Her hands, cold and trembling, gripped the leg of a…

PART 1 They laughed when Selene Marsh stumbled on the marble steps. They called her helpless while a bomb ticked beneath a gold statue five feet away. Then the most dangerous man in Chicago realized the blind woman was the only person in the room who could save them all. — The crystal stopped clinking…

PART 1 They cut her wedding dress open before she reached the altar. Her groom watched her humiliation and didn’t move. Then the most dangerous man in the cathedral stood, removed his black coat, and made every laughing guest fall silent. — The first sound Ivy Sinclair heard wasn’t the wedding march. It was laughter…

PART 1 The man who ruined my wedding was the only one trying to save me. I didn’t know that when the zipper moved. I thought it was Nora, my maid of honor, standing behind me in the bridal suite of Holy Cross Chapel. I smiled at my reflection while sunlight poured through stained glass…

PART 1 They locked me outside my sister’s wedding in the rain because they said I would ruin the pictures. Then the most feared man in Chicago opened the church doors and took my bleeding hand. By midnight, I learned my family hadn’t just humiliated me. They’d used me as bait. — The first thing…

PART 1 I cut the ultrasound into pieces before anyone could turn my baby into a weapon. Then the groom walked into my flower shop, one day before his wedding. By sunset he’d canceled the ceremony, betrayed two crime families, and started a war over a child he hadn’t known existed. — The scissors clicked…

PART 1 The instant Julian Ashworth walked through the doors of Table 9, the whole restaurant seemed to lose its breath at once. Silverware stopped clinking mid-air. The pianist fumbled a chord. A busboy carrying a tray of crystal froze so completely that the ice kept rattling long after his hands went still. Somewhere in…

PART 1 The chemical hit Mara Ellison before she even registered why the room had gone silent. One moment she was crossing the east wing of the ballroom with a tray of untouched wine glasses balanced on her palm. The next, a cold sheet of pale gray paint exploded across her cheek, her hair, her…

PART 1 The little boy in the red overalls was still singing to himself when the first scream ripped across the ballroom floor. He didn’t understand why smoke was curling off the side table. He didn’t understand why the grown-ups who’d been laughing thirty seconds earlier were suddenly covering their mouths. He didn’t understand why…