Chapter 2

I couldn’t tell a single soul about my plan—not even Nicholas.

Still, I loved going on dates with Nicholas. Being with him was the only time Julian called off his surveillance. Plus, Nicholas was often pulled away on urgent corporate calls, leaving me alone for hours.

That was my window.

I didn't know what waited for me once I walked down that aisle, but I knew I had to run before the wedding.

I secretly pawned the expensive jewelry Nicholas gave me, converting everything into cold, untraceable cash.

Once I had enough, I’d buy an unregistered, beat-up clunker and disappear without a trace.

A month later, my chance came.

Nicholas was accompanying me for a bridal dress fitting when his phone buzzed. He answered, and his face instantly darkened.

"Another crisis? The second I walk away, everything falls apart! The Vance account isn't worth this mess! Hold them off, I'm heading over right now..."

He rushed out the door and sped off in his sports car.

Whenever work pulled him away like this, he was gone for at least two hours.

I didn’t waste a second. I tore off the wedding gown, changed into plain clothes, slipped out through the back door, and hailed a cab to a sketchy car lot I had scouted weeks ago.

I paid cash for a rusty, unregistered sedan.

Time was running out. I couldn't risk leaving any digital footprints.

The moment the keys touched my hand, I smashed my phone onto the pavement, kicked the pieces into a drain, and hit the highway toward New York.

I didn’t know how to track down Lucas.

Once I arrived in the city, I used my looks to land a cash-in-hand job at an exclusive underground lounge.

It was bizarre.

I slipped into the shady nightlife effortlessly, as if I had done it before. I poured drinks, charmed wealthy patrons, subtly listened for any mention of Lucas Sterling by night, and crashed in a dingy dorm room by day.

I had abandoned the car on an obscure street corner. I was confident my family would never find me.

Two weeks in, a strange customer sat down at my table.

He claimed to be a personal chauffeur for the Thorne family, in town for a weekend wedding.

I froze. I had seen Nicholas’s regular drivers. I had never seen this man before.

I casually leaned in. "I heard Mr. Thorne’s fiancée went missing. Are they tearing the city apart looking for her?"

The driver blinked, laughing loudly. "What kind of tabloid garbage are you reading? Mr. Thorne is engaged to the heiress of the Sterling family! They were literally photographed partying at a rooftop club last night. Missing? She’s living her best life."

He pulled out his phone and showed me an Ins photo of Nicholas Thorne’s lavish engagement gala.

The ballroom was packed. My parents and Julian were clearly visible in the front row, smiling.

But the man standing on the stage as Nicholas Thorne... wasn’t the man I had been dating at all!

My scalp prickled with raw terror. My breath hitched.

If the "Nicholas" in my life was a complete fake, then my theory that my family wanted me for a high-society marriage fell to dust.

Then what was the truth?

What did they actually want from me?

Before my racing thoughts could find an answer, the VIP lounge door was kicked off its latch with a deafening bang.

Julian marched in, his face murderous.

He lunged forward, grabbed me by the collar, and hauled me to my feet.

"I knew you were hiding in a gutter like this! Summer Vance, you are a daughter of the Vance empire! Do you just love degrading yourself in places like this?!"

My mind short-circuited. I couldn't even speak before Julian dragged me brutally out the back exit and threw me into a waiting black SUV.

My parents sat in the leather seats.

The gentle, doting warmth they used to show me was completely gone. In its place was an ocean of icy, hollow disappointment.

"Summer," my mother wept, her voice trembling. "What on earth do we have to do to make you understand? Lucas Sterling does not exist! He is a fantasy!"

I backed against the car door, shaking my head violently, incapable of uttering a sound.

"They are liars," I screamed at myself in the silence of my mind. "Do not believe a single word out of their mouths."

Julian’s patience snapped. He grabbed a handful of my hair, forcing my chin up.

"Summer, in your entire life, you've only ever had one boyfriend."

"You want to see him, right?"

"Fine. I’ll take you to him right now!"