Chapter 3

I didn't give up. I followed the thread of the anonymous number.

It took time and some careful inquiry, but I finally traced it. The sender wasn't Marcus Ellsworth at all.

It was Diana Blackwood — Ethan's cousin.

The two of them had never gotten along. Diana had always resented Ethan's position as the Blackwood heir, watching the group's power concentrate in his hands while she stayed on the margins. When she learned that Ethan's marriage to me would only strengthen his grip, she'd moved. She'd fabricated the texts. She'd had the photo manipulated. She'd done it to shatter the alliance, throw us into doubt, and position herself to make a move on Ethan's authority in the fallout.

When I learned this, some of the weight in my chest lifted.

But another question settled in its place, heavier.

If Diana had manufactured all of it — then what had I heard through the study door?

I went to find her directly.

She was waiting at a café, dressed impeccably, her expression perfectly pleasant.

"Sophie." She picked up her cup with practiced grace. "You're too trusting. You always have been."

"Do you genuinely believe Ethan married into your family out of love?" She smiled. "He needed the Harrington resources to suppress me. You were useful. That's the whole story."

"That's not true," I said. My hands were tight around my own cup. "If he only wanted leverage, he wouldn't have—"

"Wouldn't have what?" Her smile didn't waver. "Your parents are gone. The estate has no one to run it but you. Without your cooperation, he gets nothing. So he needed you soft. He needed you willing. The kindness was a tool, Sophie. Every bit of it."

The door opened behind me.

Ethan stepped in. He moved past me without a word and placed himself between us, his voice precisely controlled.

"Diana. That's enough. Stay away from her."

Diana looked at him with something close to amusement. "Go on then, Ethan. Tell her I'm wrong. Tell her you didn't walk into this with any ulterior motive. Tell her every nice thing you've done was real."

I watched his back.

I was waiting. I needed him to say it.

He said nothing.

He didn't move. He didn't look at me.

The silence stretched.

Three days before the wedding, and I had no idea if there was still a reason to have one.