YOU CAN SIT IN THE BACK, MARIANNE. I'M THE WOMAN STANDING BESIDE HIM NOW.” THE MAFIA BOSS'S MISTRESS TOOK THE MOTHER-OF-THE-BRIDE CORSAGE FROM HIS WIFE—BUT WHEN HER HUSBAND PINNED IT ON THE YOUNGER WOMAN

I pulled my phone out of his reach just as his fingers grazed the leather case.

Anthony’s chest was heaving. The cool, untouchable Chicago businessman was suddenly frantic in his own living room.

“Marianne, wait,” he pleaded, his voice dropping to that low, commanding register he usually reserved for his boardrooms. “If you call her now, you’ll ruin her rehearsal dinner. She’s at the restaurant with Michael’s family.”

“She’s sitting at a dinner thinking her mother abandoned her,” I fired back.

“She doesn’t think you abandoned her!” he snapped. “She thinks… she thinks you stepped aside for my happiness.”

I laughed. A sharp, bitter sound that echoed off the high ceilings of the home we’d built together.

“You told a bride on the eve of her wedding that her mother is skipping the ceremony to accommodate your mistress?”

Brianna shifted uncomfortably, picking at the white orchid pinned to her chest. “Anthony told her it was a mutual decision, Marianne. That you were tired of pretending.”

“I’m not calling her,” I said, looking right at Anthony. “I’m driving to the restaurant.”

“No!” Anthony blocked the doorway. He wasn't violent—he had never raised a hand to me—but his sheer size was intimidating. “Marianne, if you walk into that restaurant, you’re going to cause a scene in front of the in-laws.”

“Let me pass, Anthony.”

“I gave her the necklace,” he blurted out.

I froze.

My grandmother’s necklace.

It was a delicate sapphire pendant set in platinum. It had been in my family for four generations. My grandmother had given it to me on my wedding day, and I had promised Emily she would wear it on hers. I had kept it in the floor safe in my dressing room, intending to give it to her tomorrow morning when I helped her into her dress.

“What did you do?” I whispered.

Anthony rubbed the back of his neck, refusing to make eye contact. “I… I gave it to her at lunch today. I put it in a blue velvet box. I told her you sent it.”

My stomach plummeted.

“Why would you do that?”

“To soften the blow,” Brianna chimed in, sounding entirely too reasonable. “To show her that even though you won’t be at the ceremony, you still support her.”

I looked between them, piecing together the sheer audacity of his lie.

“You gave her my grandmother’s sapphire. You told her it was a parting gift because I wouldn’t be there. You bought her silence with my heritage.”

“It’s not like that,” Anthony said. “She was crying, Marianne. She was upset about you leaving early. I had to give her something to make her feel loved.”

“You mean you had to give her something to make her forgive you.”

I pushed past him. He didn’t try to stop me this time. He knew he’d crossed a line he couldn’t erase.

“If you walk out that door,” Anthony warned from behind me, his tone hardening back into the ruthless boss everyone feared, “you are declaring war, Marianne. Not just on me. On Brianna.”

I stopped at the front door, turning back to look at the man I had devoted my life to.

“You declared war the moment you pinned my flowers on another woman.”

I walked out into the cool Chicago night, my heart hammering against my ribs. I got into my car and locked the doors, my hands shaking so badly I could barely put the key in the ignition.

But as I pulled out of the driveway, my phone buzzed in my purse.

A text message.

It was from Michael, my future son-in-law.

“Marianne, Emily went to the restroom twenty minutes ago and hasn’t come back. She left her purse at the table. Is she with you?”

I stared at the screen.

Then, my phone rang. But it wasn't Michael.

It was the security system app for our house. A notification popped up: Safe Opened – Dressing Room.

Anthony was still downstairs. Brianna was with him.

Who was in my dressing room?

I hit the brakes, the tires squealing on the pavement. I reversed the car back down the street, killing the headlights as I pulled up to the side entrance of the house.

I slipped through the mudroom door quietly. I could hear Anthony and Brianna arguing in the front living room.

“You pushed too hard,” Anthony was hissing. “The flowers were too much.”

“Oh, please,” Brianna scoffed. “You’re the one who gave the kid the necklace and lied about it.”

I crept up the back staircase. The hallway was dark, but a sliver of light leaked from under my bedroom door.

I pushed the door open silently.

Kneeling on the floor in front of the open wall safe, wearing a stunning white rehearsal dress, was my daughter, Emily.

She was holding the blue velvet box.

“Emily?” I breathed.

She jumped, spinning around. Her eyes were red, her makeup smeared from crying.

“Mom,” she gasped.

I rushed to her, falling to my knees to pull her into my arms. But she stiffened, pulling back.

“Is it true?” she asked, her voice cracking. She held up the open blue box. Inside, the platinum chain rested on the velvet, but the sapphire pendant was gone.

I stared at the empty box. “Emily, where is the sapphire?”

She looked at me, confusion replacing her grief. “What do you mean? Dad gave me this box at lunch. He said you wanted me to have the chain, but that you were keeping the sapphire because… because you didn't think I deserved it after accepting Brianna.”

My blood turned to ice.

Anthony hadn't just lied to her. He hadn't just given away my heirloom.

He had removed the family stone, given her the empty chain, and blamed me for the cruelty.

But as I reached out to touch her hand, my fingers brushed against something cold inside the pocket of her white dress.

Emily pulled away, her hand instinctively protecting her pocket.

“What’s in there, Emily?” I asked softly.

She looked at the door, terrified. Then, slowly, she reached into her pocket and pulled it out.

It wasn’t the sapphire.