Overview

The wedding was supposed to seal Leigh Taylor’s future— not shatter it in front of Chicago’s elite.

Heiress and reluctant society darling Leigh Taylor has been engaged to golden boy Giles Hennessy for ten carefully scripted months. The match pleases donors, pacifies her mother, and keeps the Taylor Foundation’s legacy intact. All Leigh has to do is smile through fittings, nod at tastings, and vow away the last scraps of her freedom.

Enter Kari Marsden—once Leigh’s secret college love, now back in Chicago under a new name. Assigned to cover the society wedding of the year, Kari expects glossy copy and photo ops. Instead, every shared glance and charged conversation reopens wounds neither woman ever healed. Leigh insists she’s chosen her path. Kari sees the truth: Leigh is suffocating in a crystal cage.

When Kari stands in the pews on the wedding day and utters three devastating words—I object—their carefully polished worlds implode. Giles’s charm curdles into menace, Leigh becomes the tabloid’s runaway bride, and Kari’s biggest secret comes to light: she’s Giles’s estranged sister, exiled years ago after a scandal he engineered.

With paparazzi circling, family pressure mounting, and the foundation at risk of collapse, Leigh must decide which vows matter more—the ones scripted for her legacy, or the ones her heart has been waiting to make since the moment Kari walked back into her life.

Because sometimes the promises we keep aren’t the ones spoken at the altar…but the ones we dare to write for ourselves.

A Sapphic Fake-Engagement, Reporter/Heiress Romance.