CHAPTER 1: The Groom and the Cake

The ballroom of the Obsidian Resort was too bright for humiliation.
Crystal chandeliers poured white light over marble floors, gold-trimmed walls, and round wedding tables dressed in flowers so perfect they looked unreal.
At the center of the room stood the wedding cake.
Six tiers of white frosting. Sugar flowers. A polished silver knife resting nearby. A symbol of celebration arranged like a monument.
Then Caleb grabbed Noah by the front of his black vest.
Noah had only stepped close enough to steady Ava when she swayed beside the cake table. He still had one hand lifted, open and harmless.
Caleb did not ask what happened.
He shoved him backward.
Noah crashed into the cake. Frosting burst across his white shirt, his vest, his cheek, and the table edge. The top tiers tilted, folded, and collapsed against him in a soft white ruin.
Ava gasped and lifted both hands to her mouth.
The guests froze.
Caleb stood over Noah, breathing hard in his tuxedo.
“You don’t touch my wedding cake,” he said.
Noah looked up from the marble floor, frosting on his face, calm in a way that made the whole room colder.
A waiter near the champagne tower lowered his tray by one inch and stopped. Even the string quartet at the far corner seemed to lose the next note.