ballroom, the cool air felt different.
Cleaner.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t trying to earn their approval.
I pulled out my phone.
Marcus answered immediately.
“Emily?”
“It’s time.”
He didn’t ask questions.
He didn’t need to.
Marcus Vance had spent years watching my family take advantage of me.
He knew exactly what had happened.
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
Then he hung up.
I sat in the hotel lobby and waited.
For sixty minutes, I listened to the muffled sounds of the reception continuing down
