Chapter 1

At the company's annual gala, Chloe Lane slipped truth serum into my drink under the guise of a toast. My fiancé, Victor Grant, joined forces with several directors to get me onstage and coax the truth out of me.

"Emily, this year's gala has a special segment—Truth or Dare. Victor and I picked Truth for you. You won't be mad, right?" Chloe teased.

Then they started tossing all sorts of private questions at me.

Chloe smirked and asked, "Who was your first?"

"When's the last time you slept with a man?" someone else chimed in.

"What color is your underwear today?" another voice asked.

If everyone wanted the truth, I'd give them all of it.

I may have lost control of my mouth, but my mind was still my own. I started speaking freely, calling out anyone who caught my eye.

My gaze landed on David Blake, the PR director. "David doesn't just pad his expense reports with personal charges. He also pockets his employees' reimbursements and pins the blame on Finance."

I looked toward Michael Reed from Logistics. "Last month, while I was away on business, I saw Michael and Jessica from the Executive Office kissing as they walked into the honeymoon suite next door."

Finally, my gaze settled on Victor Grant, whose face had gone livid. "You're not Chairman Grant's biological son. The true Grant heir is someone else."

*****

Chloe hid the smile at the corner of her mouth as she raised her glass and gave me a shy smile. "Emily, I'd like to toast you. Thank you for always looking out for me."

I nodded and took a small sip. As the cold liquid slid down my throat, I caught a faint medicinal bitterness, but I dismissed it as an unusual note in the champagne.

It wasn't until Victor slipped an arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the center of the gala stage that something felt off. The spotlight hit me full in the face, making me squint, and a faint unease stirred inside me.

"Everyone," Victor called into the microphone, his voice carrying its usual calm. Yet I caught a trace of malice underneath.

"Tonight, besides the raffle, we have a special segment—Truth or Dare for the executives. Let's start with our beautiful CFO, my fiancée, Emily Carter. How about it?"

The crowd broke into loud applause and whistles, especially the table led by the directors Victor had personally promoted. The atmosphere there was unusually lively.

I frowned at Victor, but he only patted the back of my hand, his eyes leaving no room for refusal.

The host, an energetic newly promoted supervisor, jogged onto the stage, thrust another microphone into my hand, and told me, "Ms. Carter, don't be nervous. We'll start with something easy to warm up the crowd. Ladies in the front row, you go first."

Several young women from Admin sat in the front row. They were usually timid around me, but with everyone urging them on, they blushed as they passed the microphone from one to another.

One of them asked softly, "Ms. Carter, what's your favorite food?"

I instinctively wanted to say, "Anything," but my mouth opened on its own and answered in a clear, steady voice, "The veggie wrap at the third deli on South Street, with extra hot sauce and vinegar."

That tiny lapse of control made my heart clench. Another girl followed up, "What do you like to do for fun?"

"I like numbers. I like solving problems," I answered automatically.

After a few questions, the girls ran out of things to ask, and the conversation turned harmless. I still didn't let my guard down. I could feel Chloe watching me from the corner.

"Boring," Chloe muttered. She suddenly rose and, under everyone's startled gaze, strode to the edge of the stage and snatched the microphone from the last girl.

Chloe lifted her chin. Her timid, awkward act had disappeared. She smiled, but her eyes were full of malice as she said, "These questions are way too tame. Since this is the annual gala, let's make things interesting. Emily, when was your first time?"

The question was a pebble dropped into still water, sending ripples through the room. After a brief silence, excited whispers broke out, and everyone waited eagerly for the show.

I realized she'd set me up. There was something wrong with that drink. Victor's hand tightened around my shoulder, urging me to answer. So he was in on it too.

I wanted to clamp my mouth shut and smash the microphone on the floor, but my lips, tongue, and vocal cords had stopped obeying me. My mouth was faster than my hands.

So I could only fight back inside my head. I forced myself to interpret Chloe's "first time" as the first business deal I'd negotiated on my own.

With hundreds of eyes on me, I heard myself answer, "I handled my first merger deal alone at 25. I discovered the other side had falsified its books.

"That night, their CEO cornered me in a parking garage and smashed my headlights with a golf club. I sat in my car all night with the evidence I'd compiled through the night, called the police, and spent the night at the station."

That answer stunned everyone. It contained nothing secret or salacious, and the room fell silent. Chloe clearly wasn't satisfied. She flicked a quick glance at Victor, and he gave the faintest nod.

Chloe pasted on a smile and pressed harder. "Nice dodge, Emily. We asked when you first slept with a man," she said.

My mind raced, but my mouth beat it to the punch. "When I was one. My parents held me while I slept," I blurted. The room fell into an eerie silence, then erupted in laughter.

Chloe clearly hadn't expected that. Her smile froze on her face, leaving her speechless.