Chapter 4

The ballroom at the Ritz looked like a dream.

Crystal chandeliers, white roses, and a champagne tower reaching almost to the ceiling.

More than twenty members of the Hayes family had come. On my side, there was only my aunt, her husband, and their son.

My parents had died young. I had been raised partly by the Hayes family since I was a child—that was the story they told outsiders.

The truth was that I moved into the Hayes home at sixteen, after Ethan pulled me from the river and his mother said, “Let the girl stay.”

I lived with the Hayes family for eight years, until I moved out at twenty-four.

Ethan’s mother, whom I called Mrs. Hayes, sat at the main table. When she saw me enter, her smile deepened.

“Claire, come here.”

I walked over. She took my hand and pulled me into the seat beside her.

“Ethan told me about last night.” She lowered her voice. “Don’t take it to heart.”

“That girl is pitiful, and Ethan has always been softhearted.”

“Once she’s gone, everything will still be yours.”

I looked at her.

For twenty years, she had been one of the kindest people in the world to me.

She had brushed my hair, baked my birthday cakes, and cried harder than I did at my college graduation.

But now she was saying the exact same thing Ethan had said.

“Once she’s gone.”

She was certain Chloe would die.

Or maybe she needed Chloe to die.

I smiled. “I’m fine, Mrs. Hayes.”

“Good girl.” She patted my hand.

At eleven forty, the officiant began the ceremony.

Ethan stood onstage in a sharp suit, a white rose pinned to his lapel. He looked every inch the perfect heir.

He reached out his hand.

“Claire, come up here.”

I was about to stand when my phone vibrated in my pocket.

It was a message from Mr. Carter.

【Miss Bennett, the files have been sent to your email. Also: Chloe Reed’s real name is Chloe Parker. She has a two-year college degree and worked at the front desk of Hayes Corporation for three months. Two years ago, she accepted a job from Vanessa Hayes, Ethan’s cousin.】

Vanessa.

Ethan’s cousin.

The main branch of the Hayes family had no daughters. The second branch had always coveted the shares controlled by Ethan.

If Ethan was deemed “unfit” because of a scandal involving his personal life, the second branch would have grounds to intervene.

I placed my phone facedown on the table.

Ethan was still waiting onstage.

Everyone in the ballroom was looking at me.

I stood and walked up to the stage.

Ethan released a breath of relief and clasped my hand.

His palm was cold and slightly damp.

The officiant began reading the vows.

When he reached the words “Do you accept,” Ethan turned around and took a new ring box from his pocket.

He opened it.

Inside was an emerald.

The cut, size, and setting were identical to my grandmother’s ring.

But this one was brand-new. Its shine was too fresh, and the inside of the band carried a newly engraved inscription:

“The ninth day of the winter moon, Year of the Wood Goat.”

Ethan looked at me. His expression was so gentle it could have melted into water.

“Claire, I do.”

“What about you?”

The ballroom was so quiet that I could hear the bubbles bursting inside the champagne tower.

I stared at the fake ring in his hand.

For a long time.

So long that Ethan’s smile began to stiffen.

“Claire?”

I raised my head and spoke clearly into the microphone.

“Ethan, I have something I’d like to ask everyone here.”

“If a man gives his fiancée’s grandmother’s heirloom ring to a woman in the hospital who has been faking an illness for three years on the night before their engagement…”

“Can that engagement still go forward?”