Five months before my wedding, I caught my fiancé sitting with my younger sister on his lap.

The heavy wool of Adrian Marston’s coat smelled of cedar, rain, and expensive tobacco. It was warm—impossibly warm compared to the icy numbness spreading through my chest.

Adrian stood under the flickering amber light of the hotel valet canopy, staring down at me with dark, stormy eyes. He didn't look like a man whose younger brother had just ruined his engagement. He looked like a hunter who had finally found the missing piece of a long-standing puzzle.

"Five months," Adrian repeated, his deep voice carrying a gravelly edge. "While she sat in your living room picking out floral arrangements, and Cole used your family’s credit lines to book luxury suites in Chicago."

I blinked, wiping a stray tear from my cheek. "What do you mean, Chicago?"

Adrian took a slow step closer, towering over me, his shadow shielding me from the biting coastal wind of Port Mercy. "You thought Cole was traveling for Marston Enterprises' regional expansion. He wasn't. He was funneling money out of the firm's offshore accounts into a shell company registered in your sister’s name—Tessa’s Design Group."

The breath caught in my throat. "Tessa doesn't have a design group."

"She does now," Adrian said coldly. "Or at least, she has the bank account for one. Cole has been draining three hundred thousand dollars a month from our father’s trust, using your signatures—which he forged on the back-end authorization forms—to make it look like you were the one approving the transfers."

My world tilted. It wasn't just an affair. It was an execution.

"He wasn't going to marry you, Emma," Adrian continued, his jaw tightening so hard a muscle twitched beneath his scar. "He was going to wait until three weeks before the wedding, let you sign the joint tax declaration for the Marston estate, and then frame you for financial fraud. When the federal auditors stepped in, you would take the fall, and he would walk away with Tessa and your mother’s inheritance."

I leaned against the cold concrete pillar behind me, horror washing over me in waves. Cole hadn't just stopped loving me; he had planned to destroy my life completely. And Tessa—my own little sister, whom I had protected and provided for since our parents died—had sat beside him, enjoying every minute of the setup.

"Why?" I whispered, my voice breaking. "Why would he do that to me?"

Adrian stepped into my space, reaching out with leather-gloved fingers to gently lift my chin until my eyes met his. His gaze was fierce, unyielding, and utterly terrifying in its intensity.

"Because Cole is weak," Adrian said quietly. "And because he knew that as long as you were tied to him, I wouldn't interfere. He used you as a shield against me."