MELISSA'S POV
The stranger's gray eyes locked onto mine, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.
"Who are you?" he asked again, his voice softer this time, almost gentle.
Blake scrambled to button his pants, his face going pale. "Dad—this isn't—"
Dad?
This was Dominic Romano. Blake's father. The man who'd paid for this entire wedding. The billionaire CEO I'd never met because he was "too busy with business."
And he was standing here, watching his son zip up his pants while my former best friend smoothed down her bridesmaid dress.
"Sir, I'm—" My voice cracked. I couldn't finish the sentence. What was I supposed to say? Hi, I'm the idiot bride your son was screwing over?
Dominic's eyes moved from me to Blake, and his expression turned to ice. "Get out."
"Dad, let me explain—" Blake started.
"I said get out!" Dominic's voice didn't get louder, but the power behind it made everyone in the room flinch. "You have thirty seconds to remove yourself from my sight before I do something we'll both regret."
Blake looked like he wanted to argue, but something in his father's face made him grab Sienna's arm instead. They practically ran out of the room, leaving me alone with a man I'd never met.
I should have left too. Should have run back to my room, locked the door, and cried until I couldn't cry anymore.
But my legs wouldn't move. I just stood there in my wedding dress, feeling like the biggest fool in the entire world.
"Sit down before you fall down," Dominic said, pulling out a chair. "You look like you're about to pass out."
"I'm fine," I lied, but my knees were shaking so hard I could barely stand.
"You're not fine. Sit." It wasn't a request.
I sat.
Dominic poured water from a pitcher on the desk and handed it to me. "Drink this."
I took the glass with trembling hands and drank. The cold water helped clear my head a little, but my chest still felt like someone was sitting on it.
"How long?" Dominic asked quietly.
I looked up at him, confused. "What?"
"How long has my son been cheating on you?"
The question hit me like a punch to the stomach. "I... I don't know. Sienna texted me a photo twenty minutes ago. The timestamp said they were together this morning, but—" My voice broke. "She said she was sorry. She said he was too good to resist."
Dominic's jaw tightened. "That woman is not your friend."
"She was my roommate in college," I whispered. "We've been best friends for eight years. She was supposed to be my maid of honor. She helped me pick out this dress." I looked down at the white silk that suddenly felt like a costume. "How could she do this to me?"
"Because some people are parasites," Dominic said, his voice hard. "They pretend to care about you while they wait for the perfect moment to destroy you."
I wiped my eyes, trying not to ruin my makeup more than it already was. "Two hundred people are downstairs waiting for a wedding that's never going to happen. I planned this for a year. A whole year of my life, wasted on a man who—" I couldn't finish. The words hurt too much.
"On a man who didn't deserve you," Dominic finished for me. He sat down across from me, and for the first time, I really looked at him.
He was probably in his late forties, but he was handsome in a way that made my stomach flutter even through my pain. Silver-gray hair, sharp cheekbones, and those intense gray eyes that seemed to see right through me.
"I should have known," I said, more to myself than to him. "Blake stopped looking at me the same way weeks ago. He stopped answering my calls. He was always on his phone, always hiding the screen. But I ignored it because I didn't want to believe—" My voice cracked again. "I didn't want to believe the man I loved could do this to me."
"Love makes us blind," Dominic said quietly. "It makes us see what we want to see instead of what's really there."
Something in his voice made me look up. He wasn't just talking about me. He was talking about himself too.
"Did someone break your heart?" I asked before I could stop myself.
Dominic's expression flickered. "My wife died ten years ago. And yes, before she died, she broke my heart in ways I'm still trying to understand."
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"Don't be sorry for me. Be angry for yourself." He leaned forward, his eyes intense. "You're sitting here apologizing and crying over a man who was having sex with your best friend an hour before your wedding. Where's your rage, Melissa Hart?"
Hearing my name from his lips sent a strange shiver through me. "How do you know my name?"
"I know everything about the woman my son was supposed to marry," Dominic said. "I know you're twenty-six years old. I know you work as an event planner at Morrison & Associates. I know your parents died when you were sixteen and you put yourself through college with scholarships and three part-time jobs. I know you're smart, talented, and far too good for my disappointing son."
I stared at him. "You investigated me?"
"I investigate everyone who enters my family. It's not personal—it's protection." He stood up and walked to the window. "But after reading your file, I wanted to meet you. I thought maybe Blake had finally found someone worth keeping. I cleared my schedule to be here today, even though I hate weddings. I wanted to see the woman who made my son talk about love for the first time in his life."
My heart twisted. "He doesn't love me. He loves Sienna."
"He doesn't love anyone but himself," Dominic corrected. "And now you need to decide what you're going to do about it."
"What can I do?" I felt helpless and small. "Everyone downstairs is waiting. Blake and Sienna are probably gone by now. I'm the bride who got left at the altar."
"No," Dominic said, turning to face me. "You're the woman who's about to make a choice. You can go downstairs, announce that the wedding is canceled, and let Blake and Sienna win. Or—"
"Or what?"
His gray eyes locked onto mine, and something in them made my pulse race.
"Or you can let me help you get revenge."
I blinked. "What?"
"Blake humiliated you in front of two hundred people," Dominic said, walking closer. "He cheated on you with your best friend on your wedding day. Do you really want to just walk away and let him get away with that?"
"What are you suggesting?"
Dominic pulled out his phone and showed me the screen. It was a photo of Blake and Sienna leaving the hotel through a side exit, laughing together like they didn't have a care in the world.
Rage exploded in my chest. They were laughing. After what they'd done to me, they were actually laughing.
"I'm suggesting," Dominic said quietly, "that you and I go downstairs together and make an announcement that will change everything."
"What kind of announcement?"
He smiled, and it was the most dangerous smile I'd ever seen.
"Trust me, Melissa. By the end of today, Blake Romano will regret ever betraying you."
Before I could respond, his phone buzzed. Dominic looked at the screen and his expression changed—surprise mixed with something darker.
"What is it?" I asked.
He turned the phone toward me. It was a message from an unknown number, and attached was another photo.
This one showed me and Dominic in this very room, right now, sitting close together. The angle made it look like we were having an intimate moment.
Below the photo was a message: "Looks like the bride found a better Romano. Can't wait to show Blake. XO"
My blood ran cold. "Someone's watching us. Someone took this photo just now."
Dominic's jaw clenched. "Sienna."
"But how? She left with Blake—"
"She left one of her friends behind," Dominic said, his voice tight with anger. "Someone's spying on us right now, and they're sending these photos to Blake."
The hotel room door suddenly burst open.
Blake stood there, his face twisted with rage, holding his own phone. Behind him was Sienna, smirking like the devil.
"Dad," Blake said, his voice shaking. "What the hell are you doing with my fiancée?"
And that's when I realized—Sienna hadn't just destroyed my wedding.
She'd set a trap.
And I'd walked right into it.