en him my blessing spread through our social circle like a virus. My p

ng my shoulder with a detached approval that made my ski

ortion of their wealth, a fact they had hidden from me. The alliance with Jake's family, the Petersons, was supposed to be their salvation. Wit

unced one evening. He slid a folder across th

o of a young man with kind eye

nasty. Richard Hayes, the patriarch, was a reclusive tech mogul, a legend in the business

arry his nephew, Li

"It's an incredible opportunity, Ava. It will sav

. The threat was unspoken but clear: his educ

catch. There was

d, avoiding my gaze. "Liam was in a terrible ac

itated?" I asked, a cold d

no hope for recovery. He's alive, but that's all. Richard Hayes wants to see him

ady gone. A living ghost. It was a marriage in name on

ant me to marry a d

ing the table. "After the mess you made, this is the only option

, smiling and carefree. I thought of him having to drop out of school, his dr

a choice at all.

ould be a bride and a widow in the same breath, a ghost married