Chapter 2
Garrett had imagined many ways his wedding day might go wrong.
A family power play.
An old enemy testing cathedral security.
A drunk cousin exposing something better kept buried.
Coraline changing the guest list without asking.
His mother arriving late just to prove the room still waited for her.
He had not imagined Mave.
For three years, her absence had lived inside him like a wound he was forbidden to touch.
The official story was clean.
Mave had left him.
Mave had taken money.
Mave had chosen safety over love.
Mave had disappeared before the engagement contract could become public.
His family said she had embarrassed him.
His mother said women like Mave always ran when they realized fantasy did not survive inside families like theirs.
Garrett believed none of it at first.
Then months passed.
No call.
No message.
No trace.
Only silence.
Silence was dangerous in his world. Silence could mean betrayal, fear, death, or protection.
Eventually, he wore the version they handed him because grief had no witnesses.
Then Coraline arrived.
Beautiful.
Strategic.
Approved.
An alliance wrapped in diamonds.
She knew how to stand beside him without asking what haunted him. She knew how to smile at his mother. She knew how to speak to men who measured wives like assets.
She also knew, apparently, how to look at Mave Whitlock in the rain and not seem surprised enough.
That was the first thing Garrett noticed after Posie’s eyes.
Coraline was shocked.
Yes.
Furious.
Yes.
But beneath both was recognition.
Not of Mave’s face.
Of the threat she represented.
Garrett looked down at the ring on the pavement.
Rainwater circled it.
A symbol reduced to metal.
He had removed it without hesitation.
That told the crowd what his mouth had only begun to say.
Mave kept one arm locked around Posie and one hand gripping Garrett’s lapel. Her fingers shook, but she did not release him.
“Garrett,” Wesley said behind him, low and controlled.
Garrett did not turn.
“How many?”
“At least four SUVs turning in. Maybe more behind traffic.”
Mave’s breath caught.
Posie whimpered and buried her face against her mother.
Garrett bent slightly, shielding them both from the rain and headlights.
“Look at me,” he said to Mave.
She did.
Her eyes were full of three years he had not been allowed to understand.
“I’m not letting anyone take you.”
Her expression twisted.
May you like
“You don’t know who already did.”
Read Chapter 3 👉 Because Mave’s fear was not of strangers in the convoy—it was of the family Garrett had spent his life obeying.
