The Masked Marriage

Synopsis

I didn't realize the groom had changed until I walked into the banquet hall wearing my wedding dress. It wasn't Kaelen, the man I'd been secretly in love with for ten years. Instead, it was his uncle, Caspian, the most mysterious member of the Vance family. People whispered that he was cold-blooded and ruthless, and that a car accident three years ago had left him horribly disfigured. Since then, he'd become a recluse, never showing his face to anyone. "Ms. Sterling," the emcee coughed awkwardly, "please walk toward your groom." I clutched my bouquet, the thorns of the white roses digging into my palm, but the pain didn't register at all. Three days ago, my father's company went bankrupt, leaving us 60 million dollars in debt to the Vance family. Richard made a deal that if a Sterling daughter married into the Vance family, the debt would be wiped clean. I thought it would be Kaelen. After all, we'd grown up together, and he'd once promised he'd marry me. But now, standing at the end of the aisle was a man wearing a silver mask, only the lower half of his face exposed. The visible lines were sharp, his thin lips pressed into a hard line, like a blade drawn from its sheath. "Not willing?" His voice was low, carrying through the microphone with a metallic chill. "You can leave. The Sterling family's debt will remain." I walked forward. It wasn't about the 60 million dollars. It was because I saw Kaelen sitting in the front row, with Vesper—my stepsister—right next to him, wearing a white dress almost identical to mine, that innocent smile plastered on her face. They were holding hands, fingers locked together. So this was all a trap. Kaelen had been with Vesper from the start, and he'd made me the stand-in bride—solving the Sterling family's debt and tossing me aside, all in one move. And me? Like an idiot, I was still wearing the wedding dress I picked out, thinking I'd be marrying him.