Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - A Vow Shattered, A Price Demanded

The pale morning light filtered through my curtains as I admired the wedding dress sketches scattered across my desk. Six years of loving Julian, and in three days, I'd finally be Mrs. Grayson. I traced my fingers over the intricate lace design I'd spent months perfecting—my masterpiece as both a bride and a designer.

My phone shattered the peaceful moment, vibrating violently against the nightstand. Cherry, my assistant at Ashworth Bespoke, rarely called this early.

"Hazel, I'm so sorry to disturb you," she said, her voice tight with tension. "Julian just came by the studio and took the wedding dress."

I sat up straight, confusion clouding my mind. "What? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know. He just said it was urgent and that you knew about it." Cherry's voice quivered. "I tried calling you first, but he insisted it was fine."

A cold sensation crept up my spine. Julian knew the tradition—the groom shouldn't see the dress before the wedding. "It's okay, Cherry. I'll handle it."

I immediately dialed Julian's number, my heart pounding against my ribs.

"Julian, where are you? Cherry said you took my wedding dress."

The silence on the other end stretched painfully before he finally spoke. "I'm at Memorial Hospital."

"Hospital? Are you okay?" Panic surged through me.

"I'm fine, but... Hazel, we need to talk."

Something in his voice made my stomach twist. "What's going on?"

"The wedding... it's canceled."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I gripped the edge of my bed, suddenly dizzy. "What are you talking about?"

"It's Ivy. She's been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Stage four. The doctors say she has three months at most."

Ivy. My half-sister. The daughter of the woman who had destroyed my mother's life.

"What does that have to do with our wedding?" I whispered, already dreading the answer.

"Her dying wish... she wants to marry me, Hazel." His voice cracked. "How can I deny a dying woman her last wish?"

The room seemed to spin around me. Six years together, countless blood donations to help Julian with his rare blood disease, and he was throwing it all away for Ivy?

"You're canceling our wedding to marry my stepsister?" I could barely force the words out.

"Half-sister," he corrected gently. "And yes. I'm sorry, Hazel. I never meant to hurt you."

Memories flooded back—Ivy's mother, Eleanor, seducing my father while my mother was pregnant with me. My father abandoning us, my mother spiraling into depression until she took her own life. Ivy and Eleanor moving into our family home while I was relegated to the servants' quarters. My father using my mother's family business as a dowry to win Eleanor's hand.

"This isn't just about a wedding, Julian. You know what she and her mother did to my family."

"People change, Hazel. She's dying." His voice hardened. "Look, I know this is difficult. I'm prepared to compensate you—fifty percent of Grayson Enterprises."

"Compensate me?" I choked out. "Like I'm a business transaction?"

"Be reasonable. Think about what that stake could do for your fashion line."

Something snapped inside me. The tears that had been threatening to fall dried up, replaced by a cold, clear fury.

"Where is my wedding dress now?" I asked, my voice surprisingly steady.

"At Ivy's. She's having it altered."

Of course she was. Ivy had spent our entire childhood taking everything that was mine—my father's love, my inheritance, my home. Now she was taking my fiancé and wearing my handcrafted wedding dress while doing it.

"I see." I hung up without another word.

I sat motionless, staring at the wall. The dress I'd poured my heart into, the wedding I'd dreamed of since I was a little girl, the man I thought loved me—all snatched away in an instant.

My phone buzzed again. My best friend Victoria.

"Have you heard?" she demanded without preamble.

"Just now."

"That absolute piece of garbage! And Ivy—using cancer as an excuse to steal your man? Classic her."

"He offered me half his company as compensation," I said numbly.

"Half? That cheap bastard should give you the whole damn thing! After all you've done for him?"

Victoria's outrage ignited something in me. She was right. For six years, I'd been Julian's blood donor, literally keeping him alive with my rare Rh-negative blood type—"panda blood," as the doctors called it. I'd nursed him through his illness, built my career around our future together, and this was how he repaid me?

I thought of my mother, how she'd withered away after my father's betrayal. How Eleanor had paraded around in my mother's jewelry, slept in my mother's bed, while my mother faded into a shell of herself.

I would not become my mother.

"Hazel? Are you still there?" Victoria's concerned voice pulled me back.

"I'm calling him back," I said decisively.

"Good! Tell him exactly where he can shove his fifty percent!"

After hanging up, I dialed Julian's number again. He answered on the first ring.

"Hazel, I'm glad you called. I know this is a lot to process—"

"Julian," I cut him off, my voice cool and steady. "I've considered your offer."

"You have?" Hope tinged his voice. He'd expected me to fall apart, to beg and plead.

"Yes. It's unacceptable."

"Hazel, please be reasonable—"

"Give me the entire company, and I'll give up the position of bride." The words flowed with surprising ease. "If you agree, come back tonight, and we'll sign the agreement."

Silence stretched between us. I could almost see his shocked expression.

"The... entire company? Hazel, that's my family legacy."

"And marrying me was supposed to be your future. You've made your choice. Now I'm making mine." I paused. "Tonight, Julian. Either come with ownership papers, or don't come at all."

I ended the call before he could respond, surprising myself with my newfound steel. The devastated bride was gone. In her place stood a woman who refused to be discarded without extracting a proper price.

The ball was in his court now.