Chapter 1 1

Florrie Jefferson tapped the screen of her phone, her movements precise and deliberate. She opened the contact for Boston Travis. She tapped Edit. She deleted the word Fiancé. Her thumbs moved quickly against the glass. T-A-R-G-E-T. She saved the contact, the single word a declaration of war in the quiet of her dressing room. Only then did she allow herself to look up, to truly see the void where her future was supposed to be.

"Where is it?"

The question didn't come out as a scream. It was barely a whisper, a puff of air that lacked the strength to carry the weight of the panic rising in Florrie Jefferson's chest.

She stood in the center of the dressing room in her Manhattan penthouse, her bare feet sinking into the plush cream carpet. Her eyes were fixed on a padded satin hanger suspended from the brass rack.

The hanger was empty.

Just three hours ago, the custom Vera Wang gown had been there. Layers of silk organza and French tulle, hand-embroidered with thousands of tiny seed pearls that had taken six months to perfect. It was a dress meant for a cathedral, for cameras, for the moment Boston Travis slipped a ring onto her finger and promised to love her until death parted them.

Now, there was only the ghost of it. A few stray sequins glittered on the floor like fallen tears.

Cherry, Florrie's assistant, stood by the door. Her face was the color of old paper. She held a dust bag in her hands, her knuckles white as she twisted the fabric.

"They took it, Miss Jefferson," Cherry said, her voice trembling so hard the words vibrated in the air. "The security team. From the Travis estate. They came in ten minutes ago. They had a key."

Florrie felt a physical blow to her stomach, sharp and nauseating. A key. Of course. She had given Boston a key three years ago, wrapped in a Tiffany box, a symbol of trust. A symbol of home.

"Did they say why?" Florrie asked. She walked toward the empty hanger. She reached out, her fingers brushing the cold brass hook. It swung slightly at her touch.

"They said..." Cherry swallowed hard, her eyes darting to the floor. "They said it was needed elsewhere."

Elsewhere.

The word hung in the silence, heavy and nonsensical. A wedding dress wasn't a piece of furniture or a car. It wasn't something you reallocated.

Before Florrie could process the absurdity, a vibration buzzed against the marble surface of her vanity. Then again. Violent. Persistent.

She turned. Her phone screen was lit up.

Boston Travis. Now relabeled as TARGET.

Her heart, usually a steady rhythm when she saw his name, performed a painful, erratic skip. It wasn't excitement. It was the biological warning of a prey animal sensing the predator's shadow.

Florrie picked up the phone. Her hand was steady, but her fingertips were ice cold. She slid her thumb across the screen and brought the device to her ear.

"Boston?"

"The wedding is off, Florrie."

No greeting. No softness. His voice was a flat line, stripped of the charm he reserved for board meetings and charity galas. It was the voice he used when firing junior analysts.

Florrie felt the blood drain from her face. The room seemed to tilt on its axis. She gripped the edge of the vanity, her nails digging into the cold stone.

"What?"

"I said it's off," Boston repeated. He sounded impatient, as if she were a waitress who had brought him the wrong order. "We're not getting married on the 18th. I've already notified the press. The statement goes out in an hour."

"Why?" The word scraped her throat. "Boston, we just had dinner last night. You were talking about the honeymoon in Como. You were..."

"Things have changed," he cut her off. "It's Asia."

Asia.

The name of her half-sister. The golden child. The fragile, sickly angel of the Jefferson family who had tormented Florrie with a smile since they were five years old.

"What about her?" Florrie asked, though a sick feeling was already curling in her gut.

"Her cancer. It's Stage 4. The doctors say it's aggressive. She doesn't have much time." Boston's voice shifted, taking on a tone of rehearsed reverence. "Maybe a few months. Maybe less."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Florrie said automatically. The training of a socialite kicked in before her emotions could catch up. " But what does that have to do with us?"

There was a pause on the other end. A heavy, loaded silence.

"It has everything to do with us, Florrie. Her dying wish... her only wish... is to be a bride."

Florrie stopped breathing. The air in the room suddenly felt too thin. She looked at the empty hanger again. The pieces clicked together with a terrifying, jagged precision.

"You took my dress," she whispered.

"She needs it," Boston said, his voice firm, righteous. "It's a symbolic gesture. The design is what matters to her. You know you two were once the same size, it won't take much to alter it. It's the only dress ready in time. She wants to wear it. She wants to marry me."

The nausea surged up Florrie's throat, tasting of bile and betrayal.

"She wants to marry you?" Florrie asked. "And you agreed?"

"How could I say no to a dying woman, Florrie? Have some heart. She's your sister."

"She's my half-sister who has spent her entire life trying to take what is mine," Florrie said, the shock beginning to fracture, revealing a core of molten anger beneath. "And you... you're my fiancé."

"Not anymore," Boston said. "I can't marry you when she's in this condition. It would be cruel. I'm going to marry Asia. It's a symbolic ceremony. To give her peace in her final days."

"Symbolic?" Florrie let out a short, sharp laugh that sounded like glass breaking. "Is the marriage license symbolic? Are the assets symbolic?"

"Don't be vulgar," Boston snapped. "This is about compassion. Something you clearly lack. I expected you to be difficult, but this is a new low, even for you."

"You stole my wedding dress," Florrie said, her voice dropping an octave. "You sent your goons into my home while I was out and you stole from me."

"I retrieved property that was paid for by the Travis family accounts," Boston corrected. "Technically, it belongs to me."

"I paid for the veil," Florrie said. "Did you take that too?"

"Asia liked the lace," he said simply. "Look, Florrie, I have to go. I'm at the hospital. She's waking up. Don't make a scene. Don't talk to the reporters. Let the official statement handle it. You'll just embarrass yourself if you try to fight a cancer patient."

"Boston-"

The line went dead.

Florrie stood there, the phone pressed against her ear, listening to the silence. It roared. It sounded like the ocean, like a hurricane, like the end of the world.

She lowered the phone slowly. She looked at her reflection in the mirror.

She expected to see a broken woman. She expected to see mascara running down her cheeks, eyes red and swollen, a mouth twisted in agony. That was the Florrie Jefferson the world knew. The reject. The one who wasn't good enough for her father, for society, and now, for the man she had loved for four years.

But the woman in the mirror wasn't crying.

Her face was pale, yes. Her lips were pressed into a thin, bloodless line. But her eyes... her eyes were dry. They were dark, dilated, and terrifyingly clear.

The pain was there. It was a physical thing, a serrated blade twisting in her chest. But beneath the pain, something else was waking up. Something cold. Something old.

She remembered being nine years old, locked in the basement by her stepmother Deirdre because she had accidentally spilled juice on the rug. She had cried for an hour. Then, she had stopped. She had sat in the dark and counted the cracks in the cement floor. She had learned then that tears didn't open doors.

Calculation did.

Florrie turned away from the mirror.

"Cherry," she said. Her voice was steady. It didn't tremble.

Cherry jumped, startled by the calm tone. "Yes, Miss Jefferson? Do you need... do you need water? Or a sedative? I have Xanax in my purse."

"No," Florrie said. She walked over to the wall safe hidden behind a large abstract painting. Her fingers moved deftly over the keypad. Beep. Beep. Beep.

The heavy steel door clicked open.

"I need you to call Sloane," Florrie said. She reached inside and pulled out a thick document bound in a blue folder. "Tell her to clear her schedule for the next two hours."

"Sloane... your friend?" Cherry stammered, pulling out her phone. "What... what should I tell her is the emergency?"

Florrie walked to her desk. She slammed the blue folder down on the mahogany surface. It was the draft of the prenuptial agreement Boston had insisted on, the one she had hesitated to sign because it felt so transactional.

She picked up a red marker from the pen cup.

"Tell her," Florrie said, uncapping the marker with a sharp snap, "that we're executing the exit clause on a failed partnership."

She flipped the document open to the page titled Separation & Infidelity Clauses.

With a single, violent stroke, she crossed out the paragraph that limited spousal support.

"And Cherry?"

"Yes?"

Florrie looked up. The afternoon sun hit her face, illuminating the sharp angles of her cheekbones. She didn't look like a bride anymore. She looked like a CEO facing a hostile takeover.

"Get me the asset liquidation list," Florrie said. "And pour me a drink. Neat."