Chapter 1

To go along on my fiancée's pre-wedding trip, I pulled three all-nighters in a row to get the next week of work squared away.

But I only dozed off once at the campsite, and when I woke up there wasn't a soul beside me.

The calls wouldn't connect. No one answered my texts.

Afraid something had happened to Minnie James, I walked the road for three hours before I finally spotted the James family at the bed-and-breakfast inn at the foot of the mountain.

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when I heard my mother-in-law say,

"Minnie, honey, once you're married you can't go soft on him either. Look at today, he got to the site and passed right out, no idea how to make himself useful. He deserved to be left there in the rain."

"Now Vincent Dickerson, that boy knows how to behave, running around helping with everything."

Vincent. Minnie's childhood friend.

My father-in-law nodded.

"Last time I broke my leg, he said a caregiver at twenty grand a month was more professional. Really he just couldn't stand me and didn't want to look after me himself."

"Vincent's the one who knows better. Stewed soup for me every single day."

Minnie's younger brother chimed in too.

"Sure, he's got all those cars, and he wouldn't let me drive a single one. Yeah, I don't have a license, but isn't he the Weiss heir? Even if something went wrong he could smooth it over. Bottom line, he's never treated me like family."

"Vincent's the man. Last time he let me have a real go, got it out of my system."

Minnie pursed her lips, not the slightest sign she meant to speak up for me.

"His gifts are always diamonds and jewelry. Never once did he knit me a scarf with his own hands, the way Vincent does."

"I don't really need a lot of money. I just want a lot of love."

Thunder cracked somewhere at the horizon, and the rain came down all at once.

Soaking through every last bit of the love I had in me.

I looked at that family inside the inn, all warm and happy together, and dialed the wedding planner.

"Cancel the wedding."

If all you want is love, then I'll take back everything I gave you, the money, the power, the name, the standing.

Only love will be left. Don't complain that it's too little.

……

"Marrying a man with no romance in him like that, I've practically turned into a hollow shell."

Minnie went on, brows knit.

"Then you'd be better off making up an excuse to put off the wedding, and enjoy the free life a while longer."

Vincent came out from the back kitchen carrying a coffee.

He was the owner of this inn.

Minnie's frown visibly smoothed out.

Whatever sourness had come over her while she talked about me vanished the instant she saw Vincent.

"That trick, putting off the wedding? I've tried it plenty of times."

Minnie took the coffee and launched into it, alive with delight.

"Him, he wanted to marry me three years ago already."

"I didn't want to, so I just said, offhand, 'When he climbs Mount Everest, I'll marry him.' And he actually went."

"Good thing I swapped his gear for secondhand stuff. His safety rope snapped, he got separated from the guide, and in the end he never made it up."

Rain and tears wound their way down my face together.

That time I nearly died of hypothermia, and the first thing I felt when I woke was guilt toward Minnie.

And all she'd wanted was to not marry me. She was willing to sacrifice my life for it.

"A year later he proposed again. I happened to be pregnant right then, so I just got rid of the baby and passed it off as a miscarriage."

"He saw how torn up I was and never dared bring up marriage again."

I clenched my jaw and forced my breathing to hold steady.

After that miscarriage, I hadn't dared to sleep. Every night I went to the temple to pray for Minnie and the baby.

I wonder if all those gods up in heaven were laughing at what a fool I was.

"This time there was really no getting around it, so I figured I'd just let him have his way."

My heart sank a little further.

If she didn't love me, why force it?

That was what I was thinking.

The people inside said it for me a beat later.

"Minnie, honey, why don't you just call the wedding off outright? You've got so much going for you. There are Scott boys and Vincent-family boys lining up for you. Why hang yourself on this one tree, Thomas Weiss?"

Minnie lowered her head and looked at the diamond ring on her ring finger.

A full American-cut square diamond, designed by hand by a French designer, worth twenty million.

She was quiet for a long moment, but in the end she didn't take it off.

"Come on, you all still don't get it? Thomas has been clinging to me for eight years. He can't do without me anymore."

"I'm sacrificing myself, taking pity on him."

She pouted, then turned and leaned into Vincent's shoulder.

"Good thing Vincent's against marriage. He can stay by my side forever."

I didn't catch what that line meant at first.

But everyone in the room wore the same knowing look, and then I understood.

Minnie came from an ordinary background. My family wasn't willing to let me marry her.

So I worked myself to the bone to earn the family a bigger say.

But all those nights I worked myself ragged for our future, her heart and her body were with someone else.

A fine, prickling ache spread slowly through my heart.

The moment before their lips could meet, I stepped through the door of the inn.