CHAPTER ONE
“IT’S OFFICIALLY TIME to panic.” Leah Holt finished reading her sister’s text message and looked up at her father.
The expression on his face could only be described as shock, and Leah really couldn’t blame him. She felt the same way. Everyone was here. Everything was planned. The decorations were in place, the cake was made. The media had been alerted and was out in full force. The groom was present and ready.
And the bride was gone.
“Why is it time to panic?” her father, Joseph Holt, asked.
She took a slow breath. She found she didn’t want to tell her father. Didn’t want to expose Rachel to censure. Because as upsetting as the text was, Leah knew Rachel well enough to know she wouldn’t have done this without a very compelling reason. “She’s gone. She’s...she’s not coming.”
“Who is not coming?”
Leah looked up and her heart stopped. Ajax Kouros had chosen that precise moment to walk into the room, already dressed in a dark tuxedo, perfectly fitted to his masculine physique. He looked as untouchable as ever. A god more than a man.
Seeing him made her think of summer days at the estate. Of following him around and chatting his ear off. Her sister away at school, her father busy with work, her mother having tea with friends.
But Ajax had always been there to listen. Her sounding board. The one person she’d felt had understood her.
A lot of time had passed between then and now. She wasn’t that girl anymore. Not foolish enough to think that a man like Ajax could be interested in her, or what she had to say. And he wasn’t that boy, tanned from working shirtless in the sun.
He was a billionaire now. One of the world’s most successful businessmen.
And today was the day he was marrying her sister. And officially gaining control of Holt Industries, along with a hefty piece of her own business, since so many of her shares were owned by her father’s corporation.
At least, it was supposed to be the day he was marrying her sister and gaining control of Holt.
But Rachel was gone. Gone and not coming back, if her text was an indication. And it should be, since it said she was gone and not coming back.
It was so out of character for her bright, beautiful sister. The eternal hostess and darling of the media had never once set a toe out of line. She was always gorgeous and graceful, a walking photo-op.
So very unlike Leah, who was a walking photo-op for a whole different reason. And the press loved to play it up. Loved to highlight her every shortfall, her every imperfection.
Leah swallowed hard and met Ajax’s eyes. They were dark, hard. They always had been. Even when he’d been a boy, there had been no laughter there. No lightness. But the darkness was compelling to her, just as it had always been.
“Rachel isn’t coming,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, but deafening in the empty sitting room of her family estate.
“What do you mean she isn’t coming?” he asked, his voice soft, a vein of granite running through it.
“It’s just... She texted me. She... Here.” She handed the phone to Ajax, nearly dropping it when his fingers brushed hers. “It says she wants to be with Alex, whoever that is, and that she can’t marry you. Not now. She’s sorry.”
“I can read, Leah, but thank you.” He handed the phone back to her, and she curled her fingers around it, holding it down at her side. He looked to her father. “Did you know?”
Joseph shook his head. “Did I know what? That she was having second thoughts? Not at all. I never pressured her to do this, Ajax. You know I wouldn’t have. I was under the impression she was completely on board with this.”
Ajax nodded once, then looked at Leah. “Did you know?”
“No.” If she’d known, she would never have let things go this far. She would never have let Rachel leave Ajax like this, without warning. With the world watching.
“Alex who?” he asked, his tone sharp. “What other information is there?”
“I...” Leah scrolled back through her phone’s messages. The look on Ajax’s face was fierce, feral, like nothing she’d ever seen before. Usually he was so controlled, so unruffled. But now he was frightening. A different man entirely. “She doesn’t say.”
“Text her. Now.”
“Ajax, if she needs space...” Her father spoke tentatively.
“I’m not overly concerned about that,” Ajax bit out.
Leah texted as quickly as she could, her fingers shaking. Alex who? Anyone I know?