MELISSA'S POV
"Elena?" Dominic whispered, his face completely white. "That's impossible. You're dead."
The elegant woman with silver-blonde hair smiled coldly. "Clearly, I'm very much alive."
My brain couldn't process what was happening. Dominic's dead wife was standing in the doorway, looking like she'd just stepped out of a magazine. She wore a black designer suit and her blue eyes were ice-cold as she studied all of us.
"Mom?" Blake stumbled backward, gripping the chair. "Mom, how—you died ten years ago. We buried you. I was at your funeral!"
"You buried an empty coffin," Elena said calmly, like she was discussing the weather. "I've been alive this whole time, watching from a distance. And now I'm back to fix the mess you've all made."
"You let me think you were dead for ten years?" Dominic's voice was shaking with rage and something else—pain. "Do you have any idea what that did to me? To Blake? To our family?"
"I had my reasons," Elena replied. She walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "And before you ask, yes, Marcus knows I'm alive. He's the one who helped me fake my death."
My mind was spinning. "Why would you fake your own death?"
Elena looked at me for the first time, and her expression was calculating. "You must be Melissa. The bride who got betrayed. How unfortunate." She didn't sound sympathetic at all. "I faked my death because Dominic was planning to divorce me. I found evidence that he was having an affair with his secretary. Rather than give him the satisfaction of leaving me, I disappeared and let him suffer."
"That's a lie!" Dominic shouted. "I never cheated on you!"
"Didn't you?" Elena pulled out her phone and showed him a photo. "Then explain this."
I couldn't see the photo from where I stood, but Dominic's face went pale.
"That was doctored," he said quietly. "You know I never touched her."
"Do I?" Elena smiled cruelly. "Just like these videos of you and Melissa are doctored? Oh yes, I know all about Sienna's little recordings. Marcus showed them to me. They're very convincing."
"You're working with Marcus," I said, understanding flooding through me. "This whole thing—the scandal, the corporate takeover, everything—you're behind it too."
"Very smart, dear," Elena said. "Marcus and I have been planning this for years. We knew eventually Dominic would make a mistake big enough to destroy him. We just didn't expect it to be this spectacular." She looked at her ex-husband with disgust. "Proposing to your son's ex-fiancée on their wedding day? Even I couldn't have written something that perfect."
Blake was crying now, silent tears running down his face. "You let me grow up thinking you were dead. You let me blame myself because the last thing I said to you before your 'accident' was that I hated you."
Something flickered in Elena's cold expression—guilt, maybe, or regret. But it vanished quickly.
"You were sixteen and angry," she said. "You didn't mean it."
"I meant it then, and I mean it now," Blake said, his voice breaking. "I hate you. You're a monster."
"Perhaps," Elena agreed. "But I'm a monster who's about to save you from your father's stupidity. Here's what's going to happen. Dominic will step down as CEO. Marcus will take over. Blake, you'll get your trust fund and a position in the company far away from this mess. And Melissa..." She turned to me. "You'll sign a non-disclosure agreement and leave New York with a very generous check. Everyone wins."
"Except Dominic," I said.
"Except Dominic," Elena agreed. "But he brought this on himself."
My hands were shaking with rage. This woman had destroyed her entire family for revenge. She'd let her son believe she was dead for ten years. She'd helped Marcus plan a corporate takeover. And now she was standing here acting like she was doing us all a favor.
"No," I said firmly.
Elena raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"I said no." I stepped forward, my fear replaced by pure anger. "You don't get to walk in here after ten years and tell everyone what to do. You don't get to destroy Dominic's life just because you couldn't handle the possibility that he might have left you."
"Careful, dear," Elena said softly. "You don't know who you're dealing with."
"Neither do you," I shot back. "You think I'm some weak little bride who's going to run away crying? You think I'm going to let you and Sienna and Marcus destroy everything because you're all bitter and twisted inside?" I looked at Dominic. "We're getting married. Right now. Today. And we're going to fight back against all of them."
Dominic stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time. Then he smiled—a real, genuine smile that made my heart skip.
"You're sure?" he asked.
"I'm sure," I said. "These people tried to destroy us. Let's show them what happens when they pick the wrong targets."
Elena laughed. "This is adorable. You think you can beat me? I have evidence, allies, and ten years of planning. You have nothing but a ridiculous marriage proposal made in anger."
"We have the truth," I said. "And we have each other."
"How touching," Elena mocked. "And how incredibly naive. The truth doesn't matter, dear. Only power matters. And I have all the power."
"Not all of it," said a new voice from the doorway.
We all turned. Standing there was an elderly man in an expensive suit, with kind eyes and gray hair. He looked important—the kind of person who commanded respect without saying a word.
"Father?" Dominic breathed. "What are you doing here?"
Wait. Father? Dominic's father was alive?
The old man walked into the room slowly, leaning on a cane. "I'm here because someone finally had the sense to tell me what my two idiot sons have been doing." He looked at Marcus, who I realized was standing in the hallway behind him, looking terrified. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out about your pathetic little coup, Marcus?"
"Father, I can explain—" Marcus started.
"Silence," the old man ordered, and Marcus immediately shut his mouth. Then the old man looked at Elena. "And you. I should have known you were behind this. You always were a poisonous snake."
"Charles," Elena said, but her confidence was cracking. "You don't understand—"
"I understand perfectly," Charles Romano said. "You faked your death to hurt my son. You turned Marcus against his own brother. And now you're trying to destroy my company." He turned to Dominic. "I'm sorry, son. I should have stepped in years ago. I thought you could handle Marcus on your own. I was wrong."
"Father, I—" Dominic started, but Charles held up his hand.
"We'll talk later. Right now, we have two hundred wedding guests downstairs who are very confused." He looked at me and smiled. "You must be Melissa. Dominic told me about you years ago, though I don't think he realized it."
"Years ago?" I asked, confused. "We just met today."
"Did you?" Charles's smile grew wider. "Or have you been meeting in Dominic's dreams for much longer than that?"
Before I could ask what he meant, alarms started blaring throughout the hotel.
"Fire alarm," Marcus said, checking his phone. His face went pale. "The hotel is evacuating. Someone set a fire in the basement."
"Who would—" I started, but then I saw Sienna's face on Marcus's phone screen. She was video-calling him, and she was smiling.
"Hi everyone!" Sienna said cheerfully through the phone. "Just wanted to let you know—I set fire to the hotel gift shop. Nothing major, but enough to force everyone outside. And guess what? All those two hundred wedding guests are about to hear the real story about what happened today. I've got speakers set up and everything. This is going to be fun!"
The phone went dead.
Charles looked at Dominic. "I think it's time we stopped playing defense."
"Agreed," Dominic said. He took my hand. "Melissa, are you ready to get married in front of a crowd that thinks we're both criminals?"
I thought about everything that had happened in the last hour. The betrayal. The lies. The dead wife who wasn't dead. The evil schemes. The fire alarms.
And somehow, impossibly, I started laughing.
"Let's do it," I said. "Let's give them a wedding they'll never forget."