Chapter 1: The Game Was Rigged

The night before my wedding, my fiancé watched the entire room laugh at me and simply said, “Come on, smile. Don’t kill the mood.”

That night, to welcome me as the family’s newest member, his family had arranged a drawing of brass room tags.

Every woman drew a tag from a silver bowl.

Each tag corresponded to a gift.

They kept stressing the same point: it was all luck, completely fair.

The tag I drew was engraved with SERVICE ENTRANCE.

Empty.

No gift. No blessing.

There was a beat of silence, and then the laughter began.

Someone commented that I was a natural at taking care of people, so the draw was spot-on.

Heat flooded my face, but my fiancé just smiled and ruffled my hair.

“It’s just a game. You’re not actually mad, are you?”

Right after that, his sister drew the PENTHOUSE SUITE.

A sapphire bracelet.

Two weeks in a beachfront apartment.

And a card that read, “We will always protect you.”

The room applauded her.

I stood there, clutching my blank tag, and forced a smile.

All my life, I’d wanted a home.

Tomorrow, I was finally going to marry into one.

So what if I had to swallow a little humiliation?

But when I stepped out onto the terrace for some air, I spotted a custom gift order in the trash.

The winning room tag had been assigned to his sister from the start.

Before I could process it, another message popped up in their family group chat.

“As long as she’s happy, that penthouse tag is hers.”

The message was from my fiancé.

I’d thought the worst part was that he hadn’t defended me.

It turned out he hadn’t just failed to see my humiliation.

He needed me to be humiliated so his sister could be happy.

And in the morning, I was supposed to marry him.

Staring at the message, my mind flashed back to a college football game.

When it ended, rain came down in sheets, and the three of us had only one rain jacket.

Grant barely hesitated before draping it over Sloane’s shoulders. Eli pulled up her hood for her, then turned to me.

“Run for it,” he urged. “You’re stronger than she is. You’ll be fine.”

I ran back to the dorm alone in the rain.

The next day, I came down with a high fever, but I’d smiled and chalked it up to bad luck.

But it hadn’t been luck.

Not then, and not now.

The jacket, the room tag—it had never been about luck.

They had already decided who they would protect, and who they were willing to sacrifice.

I gripped the brass tag so hard the metal bent in my hand.

I was done playing their rigged little game.

When I walked back into the banquet hall, Sloane was surrounded by people, showing off the sapphire bracelet on her wrist.

Someone laughed and called out, “Grant, that’s one hell of a gift. If I didn’t know better, I’d think your sister was the one getting engaged tonight.”

Sloane’s eyes instantly welled with tears.

“Don’t say that. Mara will be upset. Maybe I should just take it off.”

The moment she said it, all eyes turned to me.

Some immediately reassured her it was only a joke. Others told her not to overthink it.

Grant saw me standing in the doorway.

His gaze dropped to the warped brass tag in my hand, and his expression darkened.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded. “It’s just a game. Why are you making everyone uncomfortable?”

The whole thing suddenly felt absurd.

I was the one they had turned into a joke, but somehow my silence was what was ruining the evening.

Everyone was waiting for me to do what I always did—walk over and smooth it all over with a smile.

So I didn’t move.