Chapter 1

Ever since I was a kid, I've had an anti-fraud system in my head.

Back when other heirs from wealthy families were being lured off by kidnappers with nothing but a corn dog, the system had already walked me through it and put the kidnappers behind bars.

When my mother, middle-aged and dating online, nearly got conned out of ten million by a romance scammer, I used the system to trace the fraud ring to its lair and shut the whole operation down.

Until a car crash seven years ago, when the system had no choice but to burn its own code to save me.

But on the day of my wedding, that sharp-tongued voice suddenly spoke up again.

【Oh? So desperate to get hitched? Didn't I drill it into you over and over, no marriage, no kids, stay safe? Is your brain full of water blisters?】

I was about to say that my fiancé did count as the man who saved me in that crash all those years ago.

The system was so furious it practically clawed my eyeballs out, hauling up the crash footage from back then.

【Seven years ago Myron Vance teamed up with your rival to have you killed. When he saw you hadn't died, he passed himself off as the man who saved your life!】

【Your company is crawling with parasites and moles right now. You sell off your shares in secret, this instant, cut off the arm to save the body! And don't even think about running from this wedding, Myron's got it all planned out, he won't let you slip away!】

As it spoke, it opened up a hologram from the dressing room next door.

【Take a good look! He's right next door making baby number four with his secretary. The first three are all stashed overseas!】

Wow. That is one very big bed.

...

I stared at the two of them in the projection for a few seconds, then reached out and shut off the image.

Someone was already knocking outside the dressing room, hurrying the schedule along.

"Ms. Cooley, the ceremony's about to begin."

I forced down the fury rising in me, answered, and turned to dial a number I hadn't called in three years.

"Constance Cooley?"

"Aren't you having your wedding today? Why the sudden call?"

"Ms. Salazar, three years ago you wanted to buy my stake in Cooley. Are you still interested?"

"How much?"

"Fifty-two percent under my name, at your quote from three years ago with an extra thirty percent knocked off. On one condition, you pay it in full, in one lump sum."

Karen Salazar let out a sharp gasp.

"Constance, do you have any idea how much money you're leaving on the table?"

I looked at myself in the mirror, in my wedding dress, and let out a bitter little laugh.

"Selling to you this cheap, I'm sure you can guess there's some ugly problem tangled up in it."

Karen and I had done business for years. She didn't press.

"The due diligence files we ran three years ago are still on hand. I'll have legal rerun the numbers now. But let me be straight with you, I'll take this price, and once you sign, don't come back regretting it."

"Nothing would suit me better."

The second I hung up, a knock came at the dressing room door.

Myron walked in.

He'd changed his shirt, but his tie hung a little crooked.

The moment the door shut, I saw that outside this cramped little dressing room stood more than twenty bodyguards in black.

I dug my nails into my palm to keep myself calm.

Still, looking at Myron's face, I couldn't help myself. Under the pretense of fixing his tie, I gave it a vicious yank upward.

Myron choked.

Fresh off doing something rotten, he stood there giving me a sheepish grin.

"You look so pale. Nervous?"

He took my hand.

"Connie, don't worry. I'm right here beside you. There's no need to be this nervous."

The system swore in my head.

【Scumbag, I'll shank your father! May you father kids with no skin rash to spare——】

The system's usual venom got a laugh out of me.

"All right. With you here, I'm sure I won't be afraid of anything."

Hearing me trust him the way I always had, Myron visibly relaxed.

The thing he'd been proudest of all these years was that I trusted him without holding anything back.

Over these seven years, whether it was swapping the finance director for someone he recommended, or handing him control of the overseas branch, I never hesitated.

I even signed off on a few suppliers I'd originally had doubts about, the moment he called them reliable friends, without a second thought.

Looking back now, I deserved every bit of it for being such a fool.

To think I trusted a man who'd appeared out of nowhere in a car crash.

My phone buzzed once on the table.

Solaris's legal team had sent the agreement.

I made the excuse that I still needed to touch up my makeup and sent Myron ahead to the banquet hall.

He paused at the door to look back.

"Hurry up. I've arranged every part of today, and the auspicious hour is almost here."

"I know."

The door shut, and I had the system confirm again that there were no surveillance devices in the room.

I opened the online agreement and scrolled through it, page by page.

Even the system went quiet when it saw the final price.

【That cut you took yourself just sliced off at least a hundred million.】

"The whole company's overrun with cockroaches right now. Karen's willing to buy in, which means she's taking a huge headache off my hands too."

I signed the electronic signature on the last page.

The instant the file went out, the wedding march struck up outside.