Chapter 1

The phone rang, a shrill sound that cut through the silence of the bridal suite. I was looking at my wedding dress, a cloud of white silk and lace hanging on the back of the door. Three more days.

I picked up the phone. It was a police officer.

His voice was flat, professional. "Are you Ava Miller?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry to inform you, Ms. Miller. There's been an accident. A car accident." He paused. "It involves your parents, David and Eleanor Miller."

The world tilted. The white dress blurred.

"They didn't survive," he said.

The phone slipped from my hand and clattered on the marble floor. The sound was distant, like it happened in another room, to another person. My body went cold. My parents. Gone. Just like that.

I don't remember much after that, just a haze of grief. The next clear memory I have is Mark, my fiancé, standing in front of me. His face was tight, his jaw clenched. He wasn't looking at me, but at a spot on the wall just over my shoulder.

"Ava," he said, his voice cold and unfamiliar. "We need to talk."

I just stared at him, my mind a blank slate of pain.

"My parents think... we think it's for the best if we call off the wedding."

The words didn't make sense. "What?"

"It's just... this is terrible luck," he continued, finally meeting my eyes. There was no sympathy there, only annoyance. "A tragedy like this, right before the wedding. It's a bad omen. It's not good for our families, for the business image."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "My parents are dead, Mark. And you're talking about bad luck?"

"I know it's hard," he said, taking a step back as if my grief were contagious. "But we have to be practical. My family can't be associated with this kind of... misfortune. The engagement is off."

He didn't hug me. He didn't offer a single word of comfort. He just turned and walked out of the suite, leaving me alone with the ghost of my wedding dress and the crushing weight of my loss. I sank to the floor, the sobs I'd been holding back finally breaking free. I had lost everything in a single day. My parents, my future, my fiancé.

That' s when the door opened again. I looked up, expecting, hoping, that Mark had come back, that he' d realized what a terrible thing he' d done.

But it wasn't Mark. It was Liam Reed.

My childhood friend. Our families had been close for years. He stood in the doorway, his face a mask of concern.

"Ava," he said, his voice soft. He rushed to my side, kneeling on the floor and pulling me into his arms.

I collapsed against him, burying my face in his shoulder. He just held me, stroking my hair, not saying anything. For the first time since the phone call, I felt a flicker of warmth, a tiny anchor in the storm.

"I heard what happened," he murmured after a long time. "I came as soon as I could. I'm so sorry, Ava."

Over the next two days, Liam became my shadow. He handled everything. He called the funeral home. He dealt with the police. He fielded calls from relatives, shielding me from their prying questions and empty condolences. He sat with me through the long nights, holding my hand while I stared at nothing, making sure I ate something, even if it was just a few bites of toast.

He was my savior.

The day before the funeral, he sat across from me in the quiet living room of my parents' house. The house was filled with flowers from sympathizers, their scent thick and cloying.

"Ava," he began, his eyes locked on mine. "I know this is the worst possible time. But I have to say it. I can't keep it in anymore."

He reached across the coffee table and took my hands. "I've loved you for years. Since we were kids. Seeing you with Mark, it broke my heart, but I wanted you to be happy. Now... now all I want is to protect you."

His words washed over me, a soothing balm on my raw nerves.

"He never deserved you," Liam said, his voice laced with anger. "Leaving you like that, at a time like this. He's a coward. I would never do that. I will never leave you."

Tears streamed down my face, but this time, they weren't just tears of grief. They were tears of gratitude. I felt a fragile sense of hope. Maybe I wasn't completely alone.

"Marry me, Ava," he whispered, his grip on my hands tightening. "After the funeral. Let me take care of you. Let me give you the life you deserve, the love your parents always wanted for you."

In my despair, in my desperate need for someone, anyone, to hold onto, I heard myself say yes. He was right. This was my rescue.

Later that night, I couldn't sleep. The sleeping pills Liam had given me lay untouched on the nightstand. I wandered through the silent house, my parents' ghosts in every room. I drifted towards the study, where Liam was staying. The door was slightly ajar. I heard voices.

Liam was on the phone. His voice was different. It wasn't the soft, caring tone he used with me. It was sharp, cold, and filled with a chilling excitement.

"Yeah, she bought it," Liam said, and he laughed. It was a sound I had never heard from him before, a cruel, mocking sound. "Hook, line, and sinker. Thinks I'm her white knight."

A knot of ice formed in my stomach. I pressed my ear closer to the door.

His friend on the other end must have said something, because Liam's tone turned defensive. "What do you mean, 'it's too much'? It's not enough! After what her parents did to me? Trying to force my hand in that business deal, using her as a pawn? They deserve this. And she deserves to pay for their sins."

My breath caught in my throat.

"The plan is perfect," Liam went on, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Chloe's idea, you know. She's brilliant. Tomorrow, after the cremation, I'll switch the ashes. I've got a bag of flour ready to go into the urns. They can bury that for all I care."

He paused, and then let out another low, chilling laugh.

"As for the real ashes... I've got a special plan for them. And for my dear fiancée. I'm going to mix them into a paste. And the night before our wedding, I'm going to cover her with it. Tell her it's some exotic beauty treatment. She'll be sleeping with her parents' remains smeared all over her skin. A little family reunion."

The world dissolved around me. The floor seemed to drop away, plunging me into a black, bottomless pit.

This wasn't a rescue. It was a trap. His love was a lie, his comfort a performance. He hadn't pulled me from the abyss. He had only been digging a deeper one for me to fall into.

I backed away from the door, my hand clamped over my mouth to stifle a scream. Every kind word, every gentle touch, every promise he' d made was a calculated move in a twisted game of revenge.

In that moment, something inside me broke. And something else, something cold and hard, began to form in its place.

There would be no wedding. There would be no more tears. I would not be his victim.

I would abandon everything he thought I was. And I would get my own justice.