Chapter 2

The wedding march began as Adrian and I walked out of the Vale residence together, my veil covering my face.

He bent down and lifted me into the bridal car. I could not make out his expression through my veil, but I could hear how fast his heart was beating.

The door closed, and the guests raised their glasses in celebration. Everyone was smiling. I alone sat amid the white roses filling the car, my hands and feet ice-cold.

In my last life, I had refused the marriage in public, and Blackwood Group withdrew its financing from Vale Group that same day.

Adrian later called off the acquisition, saving the Vale family’s company and suppressing the scandal that had swept across the internet.

This time, as I sat in his car, I could not tell whether I felt afraid or relieved.

But I knew one thing. Whatever lay ahead, I would never return to a home where I was constantly mistaken for someone else and forced to beg for the slightest consideration.

I looked down at my wedding dress.

Seraphina had rejected it because she disliked the cut at the waist. Even the embroidery on the veil was a pattern she hated.

For the past three years, I had tried to make myself her complete opposite.

She never wore forest green, so I filled my closet with it. She loved flashy jewelry, so I wore only the simplest silver pieces.

Even then, Cassian still claimed he could not tell us apart.

I once made him a matching bracelet, only to see Seraphina wearing it later. Even the engagement gifts meant for me had been handed to her by Cassian himself.

Before the wedding, I pinned a brooch engraved with my name to my dress and begged him to look at it before I got into the car.

Yet on our wedding day, he still left with Seraphina.

In my last life, after I moved into his house, I once asked him through my tears,

“I wore the wedding dress Seraphina hated most. How did you still mistake her for me?”

He pulled me into his arms and kissed away my tears.

“I’m sorry, Elowen. There were too many people that day. I was nervous.”

“Thank God you still came back to me. If you had really married Adrian, I would have hated myself forever.”

Those few words were enough to make me forgive him and forget every indignity I had suffered.

Only now did I understand that every kindness he had shown me was an act.

Before the car departed, my mother rested a hand on the door and warned me in a low voice,

“Once you’re with Adrian, control your temper. Don’t make him angry.”

What she truly feared was that I would expose the bride swap and implicate Seraphina and the Vale family.

“Don’t worry.”

I paused and looked at her through my veil.

“You and Father should decide how you plan to explain deliberately switching the brides. I may keep quiet, but that doesn’t mean Adrian won’t find out.”

My mother went pale. I shut the door and stopped looking at her.

The rain began just as the motorcade pulled away from the Vale residence.

Adrian’s black SUV drew alongside the bridal car. He lowered the window and signaled for the driver to slow down.

“The rain is too heavy. There’s a private club up ahead. We’ll wait there for a while.”

His tone was cool.

“All right.”

As long as I could leave the Vale family behind, I did not care where we went.

When the motorcade arrived at the private club, however, Cassian’s car was already parked outside.

I lowered my window and saw him.