Chapter 3

Cassian was shielding Seraphina from the rain with his jacket, gazing at her with unmistakable tenderness.

He had once looked at me that way.

I loved the cherry pie from a bakery in Brooklyn, and he would stand in line for an hour to buy it for me. When I was hospitalized with a fever, he once canceled his meetings and stayed beside my bed all night.

In the end, he used his supposed prosopagnosia as an excuse to give Seraphina everything that should have been mine.

The night I hemorrhaged during labor, Seraphina was admitted with abdominal pain. Cassian deliberately told the emergency team that she was the pregnant patient.

By the time the nurses corrected the chart and the doctors rushed back to my operating room, it was too late.

“Elowen, don’t blame me,” he said, his eyes red. “Pretending I couldn’t tell you apart was exhausting. In our next life, stay out of my relationship with Seraphina.”

The memory made my fingers turn cold.

This time, I would not repeat the same mistake.

Cassian visibly froze when he saw Adrian’s motorcade, then hurried over to greet him.

Adrian gave him a single indifferent glance before walking to my car and helping me out himself.

Cassian kept staring at me, as though trying to identify me.

He did not come back to himself until Seraphina tugged on his arm.

The club’s lounge was small. I sat by the floor-to-ceiling windows, only a few steps away from them, and heard every word they said.

“Cassian, could that really be Elowen in that car?”

“Impossible.”

He did not hesitate.

“She won’t marry him. She told me she would never marry anyone but me. There must be something else going on.”

Seraphina readily agreed. “Exactly. If Elowen knew you had taken me, she would have caused a scene by now.”

“She probably paid a woman with a similar figure to put on a veil and take her place at the wedding.”

Cassian pressed his lips together, as if he had finally found an explanation he could accept.

Seraphina studied his expression before asking cautiously,

“If Adrian finds out that we switched the brides, will he force me to honor the arrangement? My name is the one on the agreement.”

“I’m so scared.”

She covered her face and began to cry. Cassian immediately pulled her into his arms.

“Don’t be. I won’t let anyone take you away.”

“If Elowen really hired a substitute and then tried to blame you, I’ll never forgive her. She can forget about ever coming back to me.”

Seraphina leaned against his chest, her voice soft and aggrieved.

“But if the truth comes out, the worst Elowen will lose is you. I’ll be forced to marry Adrian. Who knows what he’ll do to me?”

Cassian’s expression turned cold.

“If it comes to that, we’ll put all the blame on Elowen. It won’t matter whether she admits it.”

“Everyone knows I’m face-blind. If anyone investigates, we’ll say it was an accident. No one can prove we switched you deliberately.”

I sat only a few steps away and heard every word.

It seemed Cassian had been behind those rumors in my last life too—the ones accusing me of marriage fraud and calling me mentally unstable.

I clenched my skirt so tightly my fingertips almost went numb.

Then Cassian suddenly looked in my direction.

His gaze dropped to my wrist, and his expression changed.

“Mr. Blackwood.”

He spoke abruptly, barely concealing his panic.

“The two brides come from the same family. According to a Vale family tradition, they should exchange an accessory before the ceremony as a blessing.”

Cassian stared at my wrist.

“The silver bracelet on your bride’s wrist is lovely. My wife happens to have an emerald brooch. Why not let them exchange the pieces for good luck?”