Chapter 1 - THE WEDDING THAT ENDED BEFORE THE VOWS
Use the supplied opening as the official Chapter 1.
It ends with my fiancé, Tristan Whitmore, standing beneath crystal chandeliers and announcing to more than a hundred guests that he cannot marry me because my father still works as a gardener.
My father, James Carter, stands near the back of the ballroom in a dark-green work uniform, grass stains on one knee, apologizing for “embarrassing” the Whitmore family simply by existing.
I tell him not to apologize.
Then I look around at the orchids, champagne, white roses, and people who suddenly cannot meet my eyes.
Everything I thought mattered about that wedding stops mattering.
Tristan has canceled it because my father cuts grass for a living.
What Tristan does not know is that gardening is not the part of my father’s life he kept secret out of shame.
It is the life he deliberately chose after surviving another one he almost never talks about.
And before I can remove my veil, the ballroom doors open.
Three uniformed officers step inside.
The man in front is wearing three stars on each shoulder.
The DJ kills the music.
My father sees him.
And whispers:
May you like
“Oh, hell.”
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