CHAPTER 3: THE RECEPTION
The ballroom glittered like a lie.
Crystal chandeliers. Champagne towers. Laughter that didn’t belong to anyone real.
Alina stood beside Spencer in a dress that cost more than her childhood home, her hand resting lightly on his arm.
Across the room, her father smiled like a man who had already buried her.
And next to him—
Senator Garrett Mosley.
His eyes met hers.
Recognition flickered.
Then something colder.
Possession.
Spencer leaned in just enough to whisper, “Stay close.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said.
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
The music swelled.
The plan moved.
In the kitchen, a body was being prepared.
Not hers.
A substitute.
Same height. Same hair. Same dress.
They would stage the death.
May you like
Control the narrative.
Except Spencer had rewritten the ending.
