Chapter 1
My name was Eve Lane, an unremarkable librarian. On my 25th birthday, I was told that I was the only granddaughter of William Lane, a billionaire who had gone missing years ago.
The lawyer, Gary Chandler, handed me a will, and its contents were absurd. It said that I must choose one person to marry from the seven heir candidates designated by my grandfather, and only then could I inherit the entire fortune.
The list was like a top-secret file containing the profiles of seven men. When I opened the first one with trembling hands, my pupils contracted sharply. The man in the photo, gentle as jade, was my university senior and also my ex-boyfriend, Alex Carter.
Gary said expressionlessly, "Ms. Lane, all of them had a profound relationship with you. The rules are simple: choose the one you trust most. But beware; if you choose wrong, both you and your inheritance will become someone else's trophy."
My heart sank. This was no inheritance game. It was a set tailor-made for me. Because those seven men were not only my ex-boyfriends, each of them knew only one of my identities.
And all of my hidden personas were about to be stripped away, one by one, in this deadly game.
*****
The library was always filled with the mustiness of old books and dust. It used to be the perfect place for me to hide.
But right now, the man across from me was looking at me like a judge about to hand down a death sentence, slowly pushing an untouched, sealed dossier toward me.
"Ms. Lane, I'm Gary Chandler. To be more precise, I'm a lawyer." He said as he adjusted his sleek silver-rimmed glasses, his eyes flashing with amusement behind them.
"Or maybe you'd rather keep pretending to be the poor orphan, spending your life surrounded by dusty books?"
My fingertips pressed against the cold manila envelope, my stomach clenched tight. Like hiding at the bottom of a calm lake for years, only to be ripped out by some giant hand; my lungs stabbed by the sudden rush of thin air.
I didn't answer him and tore the envelope open. The instant the first photo slid out, my breath froze. It was Alex.
In the picture, Alex was standing on a campus path blanketed with maple leaves, his smile gentle and warm. That face had haunted my entire freshman year. But it wasn't old feelings that made my eyes go wide; it was pure fear.
I knew exactly who was in these seven envelopes. They were the men I had hunted down over the past five years, switching identities and moving through different circles to survive in this screwed-up world.
"Seven men," Gary said, his slender fingers tapping the table twice. "Your grandfather didn't want you to be lonely, so he handpicked the finest specimens from your personal stamp collection.
"They've all received the invitation, and every single one of them said yes."
A cold sweat prickled down my back, my bra glued to my spine, clammy as a snake. This wasn't some inheritance game; it was like locking seven ticking time bombs in one room, waiting for me to get blown to bits.
To them, I was the sweet freshman, the wild biker chick, the frail sick girl. If they ever figured out all those personas were masks I wore, they'd tear me apart.
"One of them is your guardian," Gary said, rising to his feet and looking down at me, his voice cold as shards of ice. "The other six are hungry wolves, itching to skin you alive and devour the Lane family fortune.
"Make the wrong choice, and you can forget about the billions. You won't even walk out of this library."
He dropped a schedule in front of me. It was my death warrant.
"You need to be at the Brightwood Gallery tomorrow at 3 PM," he added. "First on the list is Alex."
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. If I was walking into a trap, I was going to see who actually ended up holding the knife.