The chapel upstate smelled of damp pine and old candle wax.

Alexander held both of my hands in his.

His palms were warm, and his gray eyes did not waver as he spoke his vows.

“Just you and me, Claire,” he whispered.

The gold band he slipped onto my left ring finger felt heavy and solid.

“We will tell the world when the time is right,” he said. “I promise.”

We spent our wedding night at the Plaza Hotel.

At midnight, Alexander kissed my forehead and said he was going down to the lobby to get a bottle of champagne.

He left his coat on the chair.

He never came back.

For three months, I lived in a fog of panic and unanswered phone calls.

I went to the police, but they found no record of our marriage license.

When I drove back to the chapel upstate, I found nothing but charred timber and ash.

A local deputy told me the building had burned to the ground the morning after our wedding.

Then came the afternoon in the diner on Lexington Avenue.

Rain smeared the window as I stared up at the television mounted above the counter.

A live news broadcast showed the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Alexander stood there, dressed in a tailored charcoal suit.

Standing beside him was Victoria Sterling, the daughter of Senator James Sterling.

She wore a silk gown, her hand resting on Alexander’s arm as they smiled for the flashing cameras.

“A historic union,” the news anchor announced. “The Whitmore heir and the Senator’s daughter have officially tied the knot.”

I dropped my coffee cup.

It shattered against the linoleum, splashing brown liquid across my boots.

“Are you alright, dear?” the waitress asked, rushing over with a rag.

“That is my husband,” I whispered, pointing at the screen.

The waitress looked at the television, then back at me with a soft, pitying expression.

“That is Alexander Whitmore, honey,” she said. “The billionaire. He’s been engaged to the Sterling girl for over a year.”

I went to the Whitmore corporate headquarters the next day.

Two security guards stopped me before I could reach the elevators.