PROLOGUE

Four years ago…

Hmmm, something is not quite right…

Verity couldn't pinpoint what wasn't working with her current painting, but it all felt a little… off. She cocked her head to one side, examining the coloring and the brush strokes across the canvas from a different angle, but still nothing jumped out. The landscape she was painting from memory did not depict the view outside her family's London town house, so it wasn't like she could remind herself of what the image should look like. She had to do it from memory, which was only making everything so much more challenging.

The painting was a scene she had seen a while back, from her previous trip to Bath. The countryside had truly captivated her, which was exactly what she wished to capture now. So, why was it not working?

"Perhaps it's the greens," she muttered to herself. "Maybe I don't have them quite right."

She pursed her bottom lip as she squinted her eyes, trying her absolute hardest to imagine what her work would look like with varying greens, but still it felt strange. Perhaps it was more a feeling deep within her, rather than something to do with her work. Verity wasn't feeling quite right in herself that morning.

With a deep sigh, she placed her paint brush down and stepped back away from the canvas, running her eyes over everything, still trying to see what was wrong…

"Lady Sinclair."

Verity jumped as her footman's voice ricocheted through the room, shaking her from her deep contemplation.

"You have a visitor. Lord Cedric Fitzwilliam."

A smile spread across Verity's face. She might not have been expecting a visit from her fiancé today, but she always appreciated his presence. Ever since he had started courting her, Verity had found herself feeling a lot lighter and a lot happier. She kept envisioning her new life as a wife, and she knew it was going to be wonderful.

"Good morning, Cedric," Verity declared the moment she laid eyes on him. "How wonderful it is to see you." Heat burned in her cheeks. Cedric was so handsome, with his high cheekbones and piercing blue eyes. The sight of him always made Verity's heart flutter with excitement.

"Verity, thank you for meeting with me."

The somberness of Cedric's tone struck Verity. He wasn't a man often struck with morose thoughts.

"Please, take a seat," Verity offered, hoping that she would be able to lift his spirts somewhat. "I will get us some tea."

Cedric shook his head, but Verity would not hear of it. She had ordered some tea and cake from the maids before he could say another word.

She would be his wife soon, and absolutely needed to be able to cheer him up, no matter what his woes were.

"Cedric, something's wrong. What is it?" she asked when he had settled into a chair.

"I…" He paused for a moment, seemingly with something heavy on his mind. Verity's heart raced as she waited impatiently for him to start talking. "I have something that I need to discuss with you, Verity. Something that affects us."

Verity's smile faltered just a little. "What's the matter?"

A sense of unease settled over her. She did not like the look on Cedric's face. He seemed different, somehow. She could not work out why he appeared to have something heavy weighing down on his shoulders. What on earth could it possibly be?

"I need you to know that I have fallen in love with another."

Shock reverberated through Verity.

She could not believe what she was hearing.

Perhaps she had misheard those words because there was no way Cedric really meant that. Not when they were due to get married very shortly.

She blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the moment.

"What do you mean?" She asked breathlessly.

He hung his head low, like he could not meet her eyes any longer. "I have fallen in love with Lady Daphne Cavendish."

Daphne?

No, there was no way.

This had to be a cruel trick of some kind. Daphne was her best friend. Verity could not work out what the point of this prank was, but it made her feel utterly sick to her stomach.

"Me and Daphne…" Cedric continued as if he could not sense her inner turmoil at all. "We have developed an undeniable connection. It wasn't something that either of us meant to happen, but it has happened regardless. There is nothing that I can do to change it. I am truly sorry for that."

Verity's heart thundered so hard she feared it might burst free from her chest at any given moment.

Was he actually being serious?

This could not be.

"But… we are too be married," she insisted, hating the crack of emotion that shone free in her voice.

Cedric shook his head slowly. "I am afraid that I cannot marry you, Verity. I can't do it. I must follow my heart and marry the one that I love. I truly hope that is something you can understand."

Verity fought back the tears as the devastating news washed over her. This was the worst betrayal that she had ever experienced. Not only was this coming from the man that she was supposed to marry, but her best friend and closest confidante as well.

All the plans that she had made with Cedric… the future that they had envisioned… a future that she had discussed with Daphne as the giddiness of love overcame her… it was all crumbling before her very eyes, and she could hardly breathe.

Was this a nightmare? Something that she could wake up from? If only her emotions were not so unbearably strong, she might be able to convince herself that none of this was really happening.

But it was happening, and there wasn't anything that she could do to stop it. There was no way that she could escape this however hard she tried.

Verity's mind reeled. The bright future she had imagined lay in ruins at her feet, each shattered fragment cutting deeper in to her heart.

"How could you?" she whispered, more to herself than to Cedric. "How could she?"

Cedric reached out as if to comfort her, but she recoiled. His touch was unbearable now, a reminder of the love she had lost and the friend who had betrayed her. She never wanted to lay eyes on either of them again. In fact, in this moment, she never wanted to lay eyes on anyone again.

"I never intended to hurt you," he said softly. "I do care for you, Verity. But I cannot deny what my heart feels."

Verity stared at him, searching for any sign of the man she thought she knew. But he seemed a stranger now, his words hollow and unrecognizable.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked, her voice trembling. "You were my future, Cedric. You were everything I dreamed of."

He sighed, the weight of his decision evident in his eyes. "You will find someone who loves you truly, Verity. Someone who will give you the life you deserve. I am not that man, and it would be unfair to pretend otherwise. We would be doing ourselves a disservice if we marry. It would be a wasted life for both of us."

The door opened, and the maid entered with a tray of tea and cake.

The mundane normality of the scene struck Verity as absurd. She forced herself to smile, a brittle mask of composure, as the maid set the tray down and exited quietly.

The maid probably knew. She had likely overheard everything which only made Verity's chest ache more. Soon, she would not only be a laughingstock in her home, and of the ton as well.

How could she get through this with any semblance of dignity?

"Thank you for being honest," Verity managed to say, though the words tasted bitter. She knew that she had to say something to allow her to hold her head up high. "I suppose I should be grateful for that."

Cedric nodded, his expression solemn. "I hope, in time, you will forgive me."

Forgive him?

"I will try," she replied, though she doubted the sincerity of her words. "But you must take your leave now, Cedric. I need time to process this. As I am sure you can imagine, this has come at quite a shock and I need some time to think about things."

He stood, casting one last, regretful look at her before he turned and walked out of the room, leaving her very much alone, stewing in sadness.

The silence that followed was deafening, the emptiness he left behind vast and consuming. How was she going to tell her mother about this? What about her brother? Verity shuddered at the thought of Henry's reaction to this sorrowful, shocking news.

She sat in the chair, staring blankly at the tea and cake. Her appetite was gone, replaced by a gnawing ache that settled in her chest. The painting on the easel caught her eye, and she let out a bitter laugh. No wonder it felt off. The greens, the landscape. It was all a reflection of her own disquiet, her own unsettled heart.

How could she have been so blind? That was probably the hardest thing of all. To have been in the dark and not known what was happening behind her back.

When had Cedric and Daphne fallen in love? What had they talked about behind her back?

Had they been laughing at her? Joking about how blind she was to what was happening between them?

The idea that they were mocking her the whole time cut deep.

Verity knew that Daphne had an unkind side. She relished in gossip and liked to talk about other ladies behind their back, but Verity was supposed to be her best friend. She never thought that she would be saying terrible things about her behind her back. Did that make her a fool? Did everyone else think that she was a fool? Was she the only person who did not know that she was a fool?

As the tears finally started to roll down her cheeks, Verity was sure that they would never stop coming. She allowed her head to fall in to her hands as the sobs wracked through her whole body. Without Cedric and their marriage, she had no idea what her future looked like. Everything that she had planned revolved around him. Her whole life was going to be him…

Now it just stretched out in front of her as a big black hole with nothing in it.

Nothing at all.

"I will never allow myself to be vulnerable again," Verity muttered under her breath as a surge of determination ricochetted through her. "I will never allow myself to get close to another."

She did not just mean in romantic relationships, although she was certainly going to keep her heart locked away, never to be touched once more, but in friendship as well. Clearly her judgement could not be trusted.

Instead, she was going to focus on what made her happy. She would find solace in her art… once she could get over this pain. She would throw herself in to her creativity because that was the only thing that she could rely on.

Romance was clearly not for her, but she would not let this betrayal define her life.

She was just going to have to find a way to break this terrible news to her family first…