My parents canceled my wedding one hour before the ceremony.

Then they dressed my sister in my wedding gown, and the man waiting at the altar didn't object.

I stared at the locked door, my hands shaking as I pressed against the wood. I could hear my mother's heels clicking past, her voice too low to make out the words.

"Mom!" I called, pounding harder. "Mom, please!"

Silence.

The clock on my nightstand read 2:47 PM.

I grabbed my phone and called Mason, and he finally picked up on the third ring. "Mason, I don't know what's happening… My parents locked me in here. Please, come get me..."

"Elise, I need to do this, let's talk later." He hung up.

The door swung open.

My mother stood there, perfectly composed in her champagne-colored mother-of-the-bride dress. Behind her, my father in his tuxedo, his expression unreadable.

"Sweetheart," my mother said softly. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" My voice cracked. "You locked me in my room on my wedding day!"

"Vivian had a panic attack," my father said. "The guests are being told you're too overwhelmed to continue."

Vivian. My younger sister.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's taking your place," my mother said, as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. "She and Mason have been seeing each other for weeks. They're in love."

My ears rang.

"You can't... she can't..." I looked down at my hands. Still trembling. "This is my wedding."

Two hundred guests downstairs… They were being told that the bride had lost her mind.

"Vivian needs this more than you do," my father said. "She's fragile, and you've always been the strong one."

The strong one. That phrase again. In high school when Vivian got the car I'd saved for. In college when my parents paid her tuition but made me take loans. Every holiday, every birthday: Vivian was delicate. Vivian needed support, and I was strong enough to handle it.

"Where is she?" I whispered.

"Getting ready. She looks beautiful in your dress."

I pushed past them and ran down the hallway. My bare feet slapped against the hardwood as I reached the guest room that I had converted into a bridal suite. The door was ajar.

Inside, Vivian stood in front of the full-length mirror in my dress. The ivory silk hugged her perfectly. We were the same size, after all. My veil cascaded down her back.

She saw me and turned. "Elise." Her voice was soft, apologetic even. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" The words came out strangled. "Take it off!"

"I can't." She twisted my engagement ring on her finger. "Mason loves me. He proposed to you because he thought you had money, but he loves me."

It felt like the floor dropped out from under me. “What?”

"He told me everything," she continued, tears glistening. "About how he needed a business merger, but then we fell in love, and..." She reached for my hand. "Elise, please understand. I've never had anyone choose me before. Let me have this one thing."

One thing. She'd had everything I’d ever wanted, handed to her on a silver platter and now she wanted my husband too.

"The ceremony starts in five minutes," my mother said from behind me. "Vivian, you look perfect. Elise, go back to your room."

I looked at my sister, at my parents in the doorway, then I walked past all of them and out the front door.

Behind me, the wedding march began to play.

I made it to my car before I started shaking.

The engine roared to life and I pulled out of the driveway, gravel spraying behind me. My phone buzzed constantly in the passenger seat, but I didn't look at it. My hands were locked on the steering wheel, my breath coming in jagged pulls.

I drove around for three hours before I realized I didn’t know where I was going, so I pulled into a rest stop just outside the city. My phone had one hundred and fifteen missed calls and texts. Most of them were from my parents with one from Vivian that I deleted without reading but I couldn't read the rest yet.

Every notification felt like someone else's hand on my throat.

I sat in the parking lot for twenty minutes just breathing. The late afternoon sun was starting to dip. In another hour or so, my dress… would come off my sister's body.

Nothing from Mason, still. He’d gotten what he wanted, hadn’t he? A business merger with my family. Except Vivian had said something about Mason thinking I had money.

My phone buzzed. An email notification.

It was from Raymond Keller, Esq. My grandfather's lawyer. A name I hadn't seen in five years.

Subject: Urgent Regarding Your Assets.

Ms. Wright,

I hope this email finds you well. I've been trying to reach you regarding the estate your grandfather left in trust for you. As you turn 28 next month, you'll gain full access to the controlling shares of Celestial Holdings, which is 51% of the company's total stock.

I need to meet with you to discuss transfer protocols and board responsibilities. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.

I read it three times.

Celestial Holdings. The technology conglomerate that had made my grandfather a billionaire before he died when I was twenty-three. I'd heard about the trust, though vaguely, but I wasn't surprised because he did always say I was like him, that I had his head for business but I'd been so focused on proving myself without his name that I'd never asked questions.

Fifty-one percent. Controlling interest.

I pulled up my phone’s browser and searched for Mason’s company, Sterling Enterprises. His family’s real estate development firm, and then I searched for their major partners.

Celestial Holdings was their largest contractor.

Seventy percent of Sterling’s current projects were funded through Celestial subsidiaries. If that partnership ended, Mason’s family would lose everything.

He'd proposed to me because he believed marrying me would give him control of Celestial.

Mason had proposed to the wrong woman, and now he'd married her.

I sat there in that parking lot for twenty minutes, staring at my phone screen then I called Raymond Keller.

He answered on the first ring. "Ms. Wright. I've been trying to reach you."

"I need to access my grandfather's estate," I said. "Tonight."

There was a pause. "Your birthday isn't until…"

"I know. But the house. I can access that now, can't I?"

"Yes. That’s been held in trust for you since his passing. It’s been maintained but unoccupied. You’re welcome to move in whenever you’d like."

Two hours later, I pulled through the gates of my grandfather's estate. A sprawling mansion on ten acres in the hills. I'd visited once as a child, but my parents had cut ties with him after some argument I'd never understood.

Now I understood perfectly.

He'd chosen me as his heir, not my parents or Vivian, and they'd spent my entire life making sure I never knew how much power I actually had.

The house was exactly as I remembered. Elegant, understated, filled with art and books. A housekeeper appeared, an older woman who'd apparently been maintaining the property for years.

"Ms. Wright," she said warmly. "Your grandfather would be so pleased to see you here."

I smiled. It felt strange. "Thank you."

She showed me to the master suite, and I collapsed on the bed still wearing my bathrobe and sneakers.

My phone buzzed again.

This time it was Mason.

Elise, we need to talk. This isn't what it looks like.

I stared at the message for a long moment then I blocked his number.

I didn't need to talk.

I needed to plan.

Raymond Keller arrived the next morning with three bankers' boxes and a laptop.

I was already showered and dressed. I hadn't slept, but I'd made coffee, and spent the night in my grandfather's study reading financial reports that made no sense, but I continued reading them anyway.

"I took the liberty of accelerating the timeline," Raymond said, setting everything on my grandfather’s... my dining room table. "Given the circumstances."

I hadn't told him about the wedding, but he was my grandfather's lawyer. He probably knew everything.

"Walk me through it," I said.

For the next four hours, he did.

Celestial Holdings was massive—twelve subsidiaries, operations in twenty countries, annual revenue in the billions. The current CEO was David Park, who'd been running the company since my grandfather's death.

"Park is competent," Raymond said. "But conservative. He's holding the company steady rather than pushing forward. The board has been restless."

"And with my shares?"

"You'll have majority control. You can replace him if you want. Replace the entire board."

I pulled up one of the documents. "It says here that Sterling Enterprises has a contract renewal coming up in three months."

Raymond’s expression didn’t change. "That's correct."

"What happens if we don't renew?"

"Sterling would lose their primary funding source. They're already overleveraged on several projects. Without Celestial's backing..." He paused. "They'd likely go bankrupt within six months."

I nodded slowly. "And if I wanted to replace the CEO?"

"You'd call a board meeting and vote, but with your shares, the outcome is guaranteed."

"Schedule it for next week."

Raymond smiled. "Your grandfather would be proud."

That word stuck in my chest. I'd spent so long trying to prove myself without his name or his money and now the only way forward meant using both.