My billionaire fiancé put a bullet in my chest and left me to die.

But hold on…let me take you back to when love still felt safe, when I couldn't see Adrian for who he truly was.

Champagne fizzed on my tongue and Adrian's fingers traced lazy circles on my bare shoulder. We were tangled in his king-sized bed, my bridesmaid dress somewhere on the floor next to his undone bow tie.

"You've got that wrinkle again," he murmured against my neck. "Right…… here."

His thumb pressed gently between my brows and I brushed his hand away, laughing. "Three years together and you still study my face like you're cramming for an exam."

"Thats because… every time I look at you, I find something new. Like right now, there's this tiny gold fleck in your left eye. I swear it wasn't there yesterday."

Oh..this man,noticing gold fleck like it's some buried treasure.

"And there it is again," he teased. "That off-key humming you do when you're drunk and happy."

"I do not hum off-key."

“Baby you do,remember our second date? You were humming in the elevator like a car alarm and poor Mrs. Brown almost called security."he said with a little laugh.

The memory made me want to hide under the covers because that cursed elevator had witnessed my worst musical crimes. I had been humming "With You" while floating too high on love to care about pitch, and by the time we sat down for dinner Adrian had spaghetti sauce on his shirt from nervous fumbling.

"“Off key?” I gasped, flipping my hair like i was offended for real. “No, babe, that’s musical talent. And besides… Mrs. Brown hasn’t heard a good melody before. That’s why you acted like that.”

Adrian laughed so hard his whole body shook against mine. "Baby, you sounded like a dying cat, but I loved it because you were so happy you couldn't hold it in."

I pushed up on my elbows to study him properly because his hair was wrecked from my fingers and my lipstick marked his jaw, and for a moment the world narrowed down to just us.

"You remember our first date?" His thumb brushed my cheekbone.

"When your car broke down in the rain?"

"You mean when I wanted to take you to the fanciest restaurant in New York?" Something soft moved through his eyes. "I was furious because I had the whole night planned, an expensive restaurant and a perfect table, but instead we were stuck in my car sharing takeout while rain hammered the windows. Then you laughed at my stupid jokes and I thought, this is what I want for the rest of my life."

A shy smile broke through before I could stop it. "Really? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew I was screwed. Three hours in and I was already picturing rings." His forehead pressed to mine. "You had whipped cream on your nose and all I could think about was how badly I wanted to kiss you."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because if I did, I would have never let you go."

The way he said it, like a promise and a warning all at once, made something in me go soft and warm.

"You know every scar," he whispered. "Every nightmare. You're the only one who never left, even when I gave you every reason to."

His eyes wouldn't leave mine. "I can't wait to make you my wife."

Wife, the word sent lightning through my veins and made my brain go fuzzy with happiness.

I threw my head back and screamed at the ceiling. "Hey! Everyone! Adrian Thorne wants to marry me!"

He pulled me down, laughing. "You're insane."

"You haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until we actually get married, then you'll see real madness."

We laughed until tears blurred everything and our stomachs ached and we were nothing but chaos wrapped in the kind of love that scared me because it felt too good to be real.

Then he went completely still.

"What's wrong?"

His hand reached over the bed's edge and came back trembling, holding a tiny black box.

Everything inside me went haywire.

"Adrian"

"Wait, let me do this right."

He slid off the bed and dropped to one knee on the hardwood, shirtless with his hair a complete disaster and tears gathering in his eyes. The ring box shook in his hand like he was terrified I might say no.

"I wrote this speech fifty times," he said, barely able to get the words out. "Tore it up fifty-one because nothing was good enough for you."

Tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them.

"Three years ago, I met this girl at the worst party in Manhattan. Everyone else was loud and exhausting but she sat alone in a corner, quiet, and she was too glowing.From that moment I knew I had seen the most beautiful womu in my life and I still think that."

"Adrian"

"No, please, let me finish." He wiped his face with his free hand. "That night you told me you hated small talk and said you would rather know someone's deepest fear than their favorite food."

I nodded while wiping tears that wouldn't stop coming.

"Mine was dying alone and being forgotten, but then you smiled at me and I knew I would never be alone again."

"When I woke up from that nightmare, terrified and gasping for air, you pulled me close and ran your fingers through my hair until I fell back asleep. You didn't need explanations or ask questions, you just made me feel safe." He could barely get the words out now. "And I thought, God I'm going to marry her, and that was only six months in and I was already a finished man."

The box snapped open and light caught the ring, a simple band with diamonds that looked like stolen stars.

"You make me laugh when I'm angry and you sweeten my coffee on bad days without me asking. You believe in me even when I don't believe in myself."

He lost it completely then with his shoulders shaking as tears spilled freely.

"I don't just want a lifetime with you, I want every single second," he said while barely holding himself together. "Every morning I wake up and see you, every stupid fight about movies, every laugh until my stomach hurts. I want all of it. I want to you to be by my side throughout this journey of life.I want you to be the mother of my children."

The words hit me so hard I couldn't say a word,I just kept staring at him through tears.

"Aurora Marie Winters," he said my full name like a vow "Will you marry me?"

"Yes." The word ripped out of me as my knees hit the ground and I was shaking with tears streaming as I nodded over and over. "Yes, I'll marry you."

His hands trembled so badly he nearly dropped the ring but I guided him and slid it onto my finger. It fit perfectly like it was always meant to be there.

We collapsed into each other while crying and kissing and laughing, so tangled I couldn't tell where he ended and I began. He pressed his lips to the ring again and again while whispering "you said yes" like he couldn't quite believe it was real.

"Thank you," he said into my hair while barely able to get the words out. "You've made me the happiest man alive. I love you so much."

"I love you more," I sobbed against his neck.

I believed every single thing.

God! I was such a fool.

It happened twenty-one days later.

The charity gala was packed with people who smelled like money and bad decisions. I was laughing with Marcus by the silent auction tables, my best friend since we were eight, the only person who had ever really had my back.

"Aurora, remember that internship you hooked me up with?" His grin was electric. "They offered me a partner track. Me. Partner."

I screamed and hugged him. "Oh my God,Marcus! I'm so proud of you!"

Then a voice slid between us, smooth and cold.

"Who's this?"

I turned and Adrian stood there holding two champagne glasses, but something was wrong with his face. His smile looked painted on.

"It's Marcus babe…you him right..?" I said quickly while taking one of the glasses.

Adrian's eyes cut into Marcus like glass. "Yes…the childhood friend."

Something shifted in the air but I forced a laugh. "Yes. He just made a partner track. Isn't that incredible?"

Adrian extended his hand. "Congratulations."

His fingers locked around Marcus's like a vice and the handshake lasted too long. Marcus's smile fell before Adrian finally let go, but Adrian's other hand was already around my waist, pulling me close, warm and heavy and possessive.

Marcus looked like he wanted to disappear. "Uh, thanks."

The room spun with laughter and music but all I could feel was Adrian's thumb tracing slow circles into my hip, a warning I didn't want to understand.

Marcus excused himself to find the bathroom and Adrian's smile dropped like someone flipped a switch.

"You two looked… comfortable."

I stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." He sipped his champagne while his eyes followed Marcus like a hunter tracking prey. "I mean you guys were looking too close, that's all."

I let out a laugh even though deep down I was nervous "He's my best friend."

"I know." His jaw worked like he was trying to keep something locked inside. "I'm sorry, babe, forget what I said."

But I couldn't forget.

That night lying in bed I felt the echo of his hand on my waist, his eyes on Marcus, the steel in his smile. That was the first crack, small enough to ignore but impossible to unsee.

Over the next few weeks the questions started, at first they sounded like love.

"Where would you go for lunch, babe?"

"Who was that on the phone?"

"Why were you twenty minutes late?"

But little by little the questions turned sharp, like accusations wearing masks.

At night I would wake to find him bathed in blue light with my phone in his hands, thumb scrolling like he was searching for something specific.

"Checking the time," he would say when I caught him.

"My battery died."

"Couldn't sleep."

But I knew what mindless scrolling looked like and this wasn't it. This was digging, hunting, waiting to find proof that didn't exist.

I kept telling myself it would pass because wedding planning was stressful and he had work issues he wouldn't talk about, but I was lying to myself the way people do when they're too scared to face the truth.

Thursday night, everything finally broke.

I spent hours making his favorite dinner, fettuccine with truffle oil, even stopped for white roses because I wanted to remind him of us.

But when I set it on the table he barely touched it, just pushed the pasta around like it offended him. His face was gray and his eyes were too bright, like he had been crying or drinking or both.

"Baby," I said softly. "You're not eating."

He looked up and for a second I didn't recognize him because the warmth was gone. His eyes were hard, haunted by something I couldn't see.

"They're trying to destroy me, Aurora." The words came out fractured. "All of them. They want to watch me burn."

"Who's trying to destroy you?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"I will babe, talk to me,you have been strangely lately.Maybe we could even see someone?A therapist or—"

His chair scraped back. "A therapist?You think I'm losing it? What are they telling you about me? What lies are you believing?"

"No one is telling me anything! I'm worried because I love you and I feel like I'm losing you."

He laughed then, this awful bitter sound that made me felt so scared. "Love. Right. That's what you call it."

"What does that mean?"

"Forget it." His gave out a cruel smile.

I stood so fast my chair screeched against the tile. "You know what? I'm going to bed. Come and meet me when you're ready to talk like the man I know."

I left him pacing with a glass in his hand, ice clinking, back and forth across the living room like a caged animal.

I laid on the bed and waited for him to put his arms around me and apologize for his behavior.But he never came.

The crash woke me as drawers were yanked open, something hit the floor, and heavy footsteps moved across the room.

The clock glowed red 2:49 AM.

"Adrian?" My voice came out rough with sleep.

He stood by the windows with city lights burning behind him.

"I know you're awake, Aurora."

"What are you doing?"

He turned slowly and in his hand dangled a locket.

I looked at it. It was marcus's locket, the tarnished heart-shaped one he'd given me when we were nine with a tiny photo of us inside, gap-toothed kids with our arms around each other. I'd forgotten it even existed.

"Explain this." The words came out sharp and cold.

"It's nothing," I whispered. "Kid stuff. I even forgot I had it."

"You forgot?" His eyes darkened and he stepped closer. "You forgot you kept another man's picture close to your heart?"

"Adrian, we were eight years old."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

The roar shook the walls and every muscle in my body locked up.

"Adrian, please. You're scaring me."

"Good." He dropped to barely a whisper, more terrifying than the shout. "Now you know how I feel,watching you and knowing who you really are."

"Who I really am? Adrian,you know I love you and only you"

"Only me? Really?" Something twisted in his face, jaw tight, eyes burning with something I didn't recognize. "Then why do you always spend time with him? Why do you always glow differently whenever you're around him? You love him, don't you? Answer me, Aurora!"

"I don't! Adrian, I swear!" The words tumbled out desperate and fast. "He's just a friend, a brother, that's all!"

"BROTHER?" The word cracked like a gunshot. "Brothers don't give sisters lockets! Brothers don't look at sisters the way he looks at you!"

I shook my head while tears spilled down my face. "You're wrong. You're drowning in jealousy and it's eating you alive. Please, listen to me."

"SHUT UP!"

While I was trying to explain myself and to get my Adrian back, his hand disappeared into the pocket of his silk robe, the one I'd bought him for his birthday, the one he wore every morning while we planned our wedding over coffee.

His hand came back with a gun.

Small, silver, shiny, it looked wrong in his soft hands and the world shrank to the black circle of that barrel aimed at me.

"Oh my God, a gun?" The words barely made it out. "Adrian, please, don't."

"You broke me." He could barely get the words out. "I gave you everything, my soul, my love, my heart, and you choose him over us."

"No! Please, don't!" I was yelling now with tears blinding me. "I chose you! I keep choosing you every single day! Remember the time you almost beat a man to death because he looked at me wrong? Remember when you canceled all your appointments just because I had a headache?"

I stepped closer with my hands shaking. "The promises, Adrian! You said we would grow old together! You said I was the one! We can't end like this, not like this! Please, please don't do this. I beg you."

His hand trembled and his eyes flickered and for one second, one heartbeat, I saw my Adrian again.

Then he was gone.

"You should have been faithful," he whispered. "You should have loved only me."

"Adrian, I do! Please."

"Goodbye, Aurora."

"A—"

Bang.

The bullet tore into me, white-hot, cracking through bone, stealing the air from my lungs. I collapsed with blood flooding my mouth, choking me.

Through the blur I saw him, my fiancé, the man who once swore he'd love me until death.

And he wasn't horrified.

He wasn't calling for help.

He was watching me die with satisfaction in his eyes.

"You did this to yourself," he said gently, almost kindly. "If you had been faithful, none of this would've happened."

Darkness closed in and my blood soaked the floor and my voice turned to nothing.

But one thought burned in me.

If I live through this, I will find him.

And I will make him pay.

Even if it's the last thing I ever do.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The sound pulled me out of nothing, somewhere between sleep and death where the world had no shape.

Bright and cruel white everywhere. The room felt weird, like it was moving, and I didn't know which way was up.The pain in my chest felt so intense that every breath felt like my last.

I tried to move but my body refused. Tubes curled around my arms and machines sang their endless digital song. A plastic mask pressed against my face and I was trapped inside myself.

"Aurora?"

A woman's voice pulled me back,soft and professional. "Can you hear me? You're in the hospital. You're safe now."

Safe?that word would have made me laugh if only I had the strength to.

And then the memory hit.

Adrian, the gun, that look in his eyes just before everything went dark.

"She's waking up more," the nurse said"Aurora, you've been unconscious for three days. You're at Mercy General. You're going to be okay."

Three days gone while I was lying here clawing for every breath, and Adrian was probably out there pretending, smiling, telling the world his perfect little lies.

I croaked out barely a whisper. "Water."

"Small sips," she said while pressing a cup to my lips. It tasted like metal and medicine but it was heaven.

Marcus came that afternoon and I heard his voice before I saw him, shouting at the front desk about visiting hours. Then he was there filling the doorway with his messy hair and worried eyes.

"Oh my God," he whispered while pulling a chair close to my bed. "Aurora. I thought—"

He couldn't finish because tears rolled down his face and Marcus never cried, not when we were kids, he was always the tough one who never showed weakness.

"Hey," I teased. "Don't cry. Makes your face all ugly."

He laughed while wiping his nose with his sleeve. "Shut up. You look like death warmed over."

"Feel like it too."

We sat in silence with him crying and me trying to figure out how I was still alive. The machines beeped and nurses came and went while somewhere in the world the girl who believed in fairy tales was dead.

"What happened?" Marcus asked finally. "The cops said a break-in but nothing makes sense. Your apartment wasn't trashed and nothing was stolen."

I looked at him, my best friend who'd always been there, who'd never hurt me or lied to me, and my throat went dry. I couldn't tell him the truth, that the man I loved had tried to kill me.

"It happened fast," I whispered. "I didn't see his face."

He didn't believe me. "Bullshit. Aurora, talk to me. What really happened?"

"I don't remember much, just pain and darkness."

The cops came later with their bored faces and notepads. Did I know anyone who wanted to hurt me? No. Threats? None. Anything missing? No. They left promising to investigate but I saw it in their eyes, they already thought the case was cold.

If only they knew the truth, that Adrian was probably at his office right now playing the devastated fiancé for the cameras.

That evening Dr. Martinez walked in with news I wasn't ready for.

"You're pregnant," he said. "About twelve weeks."

Pregnant?Adrian's baby?

"The baby is fine.More than fine actually," the doctor continued. "It's a miracle."

I pressed my hand to my stomach, to this tiny life that had survived.

"How?" I whispered. "How am I alive? How did anyone find me?"

Marcus looked away. "Mrs. Brown heard the shot and called 911. You were barely holding on, you'd lost so much blood."

Mrs. Brown, my cranky old neighbor who smelled like cats and hated my music, had saved my life.

"The e bullet missed your heart by an inch,your lung were punctured and ribs broken. But you're here," Marcus said softly.

The TV caught my eye with news playing and there he was, my Adrian, golden and broken with tears streaming down his perfect face.

"Turn it up," I said.

Marcus obeyed and suddenly Adrian's voice filled the room, that voice that used to hum love songs in my ear, now performing grief for everyone to see.

"I can't believe someone would hurt Aurora," he said while shaking. "She's the kindest person I know. We were supposed to get married next spring."

The reporter cut in with updates about the investigation, about how police had no leads, about how the fiancé of billionaire CEO Adrian Thorne remained in critical condition.

Then Adrian was back on screen looking like a man whose world had ended.

"I just want her to wake up," he sobbed. "I want to tell her I love her. I can't lose her, she's everything to me."

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and I remembered how that same hand had held a gun and same fingers had pulled the trigger without shaking.

"The Thorne family is offering a million-dollar reward for information about Aurora's attacker," the reporter said.

A million dollars to catch himself?Well that's funny.

Marcus looked at me. "Poor guy. He really loves you."

I wanted to shake him and tell him the truth, but who would believe me, aurora Winters against Adrian Thorne? I would be locked up before anyone listened.

The news switched to sports but Adrian's performance kept echoing in my head, the way he had looked at the camera with those wounded eyes, playing the heartbroken lover while the whole world ate it up.

He was good, better than I'd ever imagined.

And somewhere out there he probably thought he had won and aurora Winters would die quietly in this hospital bed taking his secrets with her.

But Aurora Winters was already dead.

And in her place something else was stirring, harder, angrier, smarter,and that person is going to make him pay for every lie, every tear, every second of this performance.

I pressed my hand to my belly where his child was growing.

"Mama's gonna keep us safe," I whispered. "And daddy, he's going to pay for what he did to us."

The machines beeped on and my anger increased but for the first time since I had woken up I wasn't afraid.

I was planning.