Prologue
Three Years Earlier
Grace stood in the rain outside St. Mary's Crematorium, staring at the black umbrellas gathered around her mother's grave.
People kept telling her they were sorry.
Sorry for your loss.
Sorry you're going through this.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
None of it brought her mum back.
She wiped at her eyes angrily and turned away from the crowd.
That's when she spotted him.
Declan Morgan.
Her stepfather stood beside his black Range Rover, speaking quietly with several men she recognised from the pack. Even now, with his wife barely in the ground, he looked completely composed.
Like he wasn't falling apart.
Like he wasn't grieving at all.
Grace hated him for it.
"Grace."
She ignored him.
"Grace, wait."
His hand closed gently around her wrist.
She spun around.
"What?"
For the first time all day, something cracked in his expression.
Pain.
Real pain.
Gone a second later.
"You shouldn't walk home alone."
"I'll take my chances."
The men behind him exchanged uneasy looks.
Declan sighed.
"You don't mean that."
"Don't tell me what I mean."
The rain soaked through her coat as they stared at each other.
Everything hurt.
Her chest.
Her throat.
Her heart.
And somehow he was the easiest target.
"You know what?" she snapped. "Maybe Mum was the only thing stopping me from seeing what you're really like."
His jaw tightened.
"Grace."
"No. I'm serious. Everyone acts like you're some kind of hero because you own half the businesses in town and everyone comes to your pub."
She laughed bitterly.
"But the second something goes wrong, you just take control of everything. That's all you've done since she got sick."
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Declan quietly said, "One day you'll understand why."
Grace shook her head.
"No. One day I'll get away from all of this."
She turned and walked away before he could answer.
Neither of them knew that three years later, the same pack that had gathered at her mother's funeral would decide that Grace's future belonged to him.
And neither of them knew which of them would hate that decision more.
