“Mom, I cannot remain this man’s wife for even a single second longer.”
Katherine said those words while lying across the thick carpet, her elaborate lace wedding gown crushed beneath her like something thrown away, her breathing coming in rough, shallow bursts, and her eyes stretched wide with a terror Grace had never seen before in a woman who had only hours earlier vowed her entire life to someone else.
Just one hour before that moment, the broad gardens of the Oakhaven Springs estate still carried the lingering fragrance of gardenias, buttercream cake, and costly bourbon.
