Emily stopped breathing.
The music from the mansion suddenly sounded far away, muffled beneath the roar inside her head.
“What did you just say?”
The valet looked uncomfortable now.
“I thought you knew…”
Inside the mansion, laughter exploded as champagne glasses clinked together.
Emily turned toward the window again.
The woman wearing her wedding dress spun happily beneath the crystal chandelier—
And standing beside her…
Was Daniel.
Emily’s fiancé.
Still wearing the watch she bought him last Christmas.
Still wearing the ring she gave him.
Her knees nearly gave out.
“No,” she whispered.
But deep down, she already knew.
That was why Daniel had become distant.
Why he kept “working late.”
Why he suddenly wanted a prenup after years of refusing one.
Emily walked toward the mansion doors slowly, like her body was moving without permission.
Inside, the engagement party glittered with wealth and fake smiles.
Nobody noticed her at first.
Until the bride-to-be turned around.
And froze.
The room went silent one table at a time.
Daniel looked up.
The color drained from his face instantly.
“Emily—”
The bride smiled coldly.
“Well… this is awkward.”
Emily stared at her dress.
Her grandmother’s lace.
Her custom veil.
Even the tiny pearl stitching near the waist.
Everything.
Daniel rushed toward her carefully.
“Please let me explain.”
Emily looked at him with terrifying calm.
“How long?”
He hesitated.
Too long.
The other woman answered for him.
“Eight months.”
Emily felt something inside her die quietly.
Eight months.
Almost their entire engagement.
Daniel reached for her arm.
“Emily, listen—”
She stepped back.
Then she noticed something strange.
The other woman looked nervous now.
Not guilty.
Scared.
And suddenly, men in dark suits entered the mansion fast.
Too fast.
One of them spoke directly to Daniel.
“We found the accountant.”
Daniel went pale.
The woman in Emily’s wedding dress whispered:
“Oh my God…”
Emily stared between them.
“What accountant?”
Nobody answered.
That’s when the lead man pulled out a gun.
Not toward Emily.
Toward Daniel.
And said:
“You stole from the wrong family.”
