Chapter 1
Nobody reached for the engagement ring.
It lay on the ballroom floor among loose ribbon, tissue paper, and scattered sheet music while Galen Moretti knelt in front of his daughter.
Eira was still gripping the torn back of her flower-girl dress.
Galen fastened her late mother’s locket around her neck again.
“Can you breathe okay?”
She nodded.
“Did the scissors touch you?”
“No.”
Only then did Galen look at Ainsley.
Wedding staff had stopped working. Guests near the floral arch pretended not to stare. Two bodyguards stood between Nolan and the door.
Galen spoke quietly.
“The rehearsal is finished.”
Ainsley touched her cheek.
“You’re canceling our wedding because of a necklace?”
Galen’s expression did not change.
“I’m canceling it because you put scissors against my four-year-old daughter.”
“I cut fabric.”
“You ripped something from her neck.”
“She needs to stop living inside Sofia’s memory.”
Sofia.
Galen’s late wife had been dead for almost two years.
Ainsley rarely used her name.
Eira suddenly tugged Galen’s sleeve.
“Daddy?”
He looked down.
“She took Mommy’s picture too.”
Galen frowned.
“What picture?”
“The one by my bed.”
Ainsley answered immediately.
“It was upsetting her.”
Eira shook her head.
“No. I wanted it back.”
Galen looked at his fiancée.
Then at Nolan.
Nolan would not meet his eyes.
That was the first thing about the evening that bothered Galen almost as much as the locket.
Because if Ainsley had removed one photograph, that could have been an argument about grief.
If Eira was right about more than one thing disappearing, then the confrontation in the ballroom had not started with a pair of tailoring shears.
Galen lifted Eira into his arms.
“We’re going home.”
Ainsley stepped forward.
“So that’s it?”
Galen stopped.
“For tonight.”
May you like
He looked directly at her.
“Tomorrow, I find out exactly what else you’ve taken from my daughter.”
