At my stepsister’s 500-guest wedding, the same family who threw me out at sixteen let me stand in the back of the ballroom like I wasn’t even blood. Until the bride stormed across the floor, m0cked my dress, s.lapp.ed me hard enough to turn heads, and called me garbage while half the room laughed.

Then a deep voice cut through the noise like a sharp blade. Do you even have the slightest idea who she is?

The room fell silent instantly as Dominic Rhodes, her fiancé, stepped forward with a look of total shock on his face. He did not look like the happy man who had been hugging relatives an hour ago, but instead looked like someone who had just realized his entire life was a lie.

He stared at me with an intensity that ignored everyone else in the crowded ballroom. Miss Thorne, he said in a voice that was quiet but carried a dangerous edge.

A soft murmur moved through the five hundred guests as they started to wonder why the groom was addressing me with such respect. Tessa gave a short and nervous laugh as she asked him what he was doing during their special moment.

Dominic did not look at her but repeated my name as a statement of recognition. I thought about ending it right there to spare him the public embarrassment, but the sting on my cheek reminded me of how much they had taken from me.