My Wedding, Not With You

Five years ago, I saved my fiancé' s life on a mountain in Aspen. The fall left me with a permanent vision impairment-a constant, shimmering reminder of the day I chose him over my own perfect sight.

He repaid me by secretly changing our Aspen wedding to Miami because his best friend, Annmarie, complained it was too cold. I overheard him call my sacrifice "sentimental crap" and watched him buy her a fifty-thousand-dollar dress while scoffing at mine.

On our wedding day, he left me waiting at the altar to rush to Annmarie' s side for a conveniently timed "panic attack." He was so sure I' d forgive him. He always was.

He saw my sacrifice not as a gift, but as a contract that guaranteed my submission.

So when he finally called the empty Miami venue, I let him hear the mountain wind and the chapel bells before I spoke.

"My wedding is about to start," I told him.

"But it' s not with you."

Chapter 1

Brooklyn Barr POV:

My fiancé changed our wedding venue from the one place on earth that meant everything to us, to Miami, because his best friend, Annmarie, said Aspen was too cold.

I stood there, hidden behind a large potted fiddle-leaf fig in the lobby of Kaden' s private equity firm, and the words hit me like a physical blow. The air rushed out of my lungs, and the meticulously rendered architectural plans for the Aspen chapel, clutched in my hand, suddenly felt like a stack of worthless paper.

For five years, Aspen had been our sanctuary. It was more than just a location; it was a testament. It was the snow-dusted cliffside where I had found Kaden, his body broken and dangling from a frayed rope after a climbing move went horribly wrong. It was the place where, in the desperate, frantic scrabble to save him, a fall had left me with a chronic neurological vision impairment-a world that sometimes shimmered and blurred at the edges, a permanent reminder of the day I chose his life over my own perfect sight.

And he was trading it for Miami. For Annmarie.

I could see him through the glass wall of the conference room, leaning back in his chair, the picture of casual arrogance. His friend and colleague, Chace Harrington, a fraternity brother echo of Kaden' s own privileged world, was perched on the edge of the table.

"Are you insane?" Chace asked, his voice a low murmur that I could just barely make out. "You haven' t told Brooklyn?"

Kaden waved a dismissive hand, his focus on the phone he was scrolling through. "I' ll tell her. She' ll get over it."

"Get over it? Kaden, the woman has a binder. A binder thicker than our last quarterly report. She' s been planning this Aspen thing for a year. It' s… you know… her thing."

"It' s a wedding, Chace, not a space launch," Kaden sighed, his voice laced with an impatience