The Heiresss Double Life

Chapter 1

Whispers Before the Vows

At the grand Wedding Estate, a sprawling mansion in the shadowy Hollow Creek hills, Camille Rowe stood at the window of her bridal suite. Like secrets that wouldn't let go, the mist stuck to the trees. She held a porcelain teacup, but her gaze was far beyond the rim. The morning of her wedding should have been filled with excitement, joy, maybe nerves. But for Camille, it stirred ghosts. Her reflection in the antique glass didn't show the radiant bride-to-be. It showed a woman who was about to be caught between two lives she had lived before. The first time she met Ethan Ward, it wasn't in a ballroom or beneath chandeliers. Two years prior, it occurred in a filthy Brooklyn neighborhood. She had been Camille then-just Camille. the genuine one. Not the porcelain doll society now adored.

She had left the Red Veil Bar in a body suit that sparkled in neon lights and nothing more than a trench coat over fishnet tights. She had just performed as "Lola Rowe," her alter ego-mysterious, seductive, the lounge singer who bewitched men with her voice and vanished into the subway fog.

Ethan was standing under a streetlamp, reading a paper menu from a food truck, tie loosened, sleeves rolled up. The sight of her had startled him-and then intrigued him. The brick heard her loud, echoing laugh. "You look like Wall Street wandered into the wrong borough," she teased.

He raised his eyebrows and looked up with curious eyes. "And you look like a song lyric in the middle of a crisis."

She had retained that unexpected, poetic line. Just like Ethan did.

That evening, they shared falafel and stories while seated on a bench that had been graffitied. He worked long hours as a private equity partner to show that he wasn't just another silver spoon prodigy. She told him she was a lounge singer, nothing more. He didn't ask questions like most men do. There was no hunger to pin her down, just a fascination that felt gentle. Having become accustomed to being watched like a prey, Camille But Ethan watched her like a painter studies a canvas-trying to understand the layers.

Their love unfolded in slices and slow-burn mornings.

He gave her books rather than flowers. In order to impress her, she sang songs that she had learned but did not know. They were opposites on paper. But what erupted between them could not be contained by paper. They fell in love for the first time in Ethan's downtown loft. There was no script. It wasn't roses or champagne. It was intuitive. After a lengthy performance at the Red Veil, she had returned to see him in her black silk dress, her lips red from wine, and her eyes smokey from liner. He opened the door looking like sleep and desire collided-white shirt wrinkled, belt loose, barefoot.

He said, his voice quiet and almost reverent, "I missed you." Camille walked in without a word, her trench coat slipping off her shoulders. Except for the kitchen's amber lights and the streetlamps outside the window, the room was dark. They spoke very little. He kissed her as though he were afraid he would forget how. She slowly undressed while keeping an eye on him as she unhooked the dress's strap. There was a rawness to it-no performance, no seduction mask. Her skin against his was the only truth she could offer that night. Her curves were memorized by his fingers. His back was raked by her nails. They moved together with urgency, as though tomorrow might come and ruin everything.

After that, while the city was bustling outside, he held her against his chest and placed her cheek in the crook of his arm. He whispered, "You don't have to keep secrets with me." She just did. She needed to. Camille was unable to simply leave the past. It clung to her in the form of unpaid debts, perilous acquaintances, and a veiled persona that sounded like she was breathing fire when she sang. "Lola Rowe" wasn't just a name-it was armor.

Still, for a while, Ethan convinced her that she could be both. He brought her to Hollow Creek and showed her to his family, who were respected, strict, and awestruck by Camille's "charm" and "elegance." She came from smoke and secrets, they had no idea. He proposed at the Ridgewell Train Station one winter evening, just as a snowstorm blanketed the tracks. She had been pacing, ready to run, when he knelt beside her suitcase.

"You can run if you want," he said, "but take me with you."

The words undid her. Maybe she could marry him. Maybe the lies could fade. Maybe the fire inside her didn't always have to burn things down.

Camille stood in the bridal suite and traced the edge of the engagement ring, which featured a cushion-cut diamond surrounded by smaller stones. Perfect. Shining. A lie.

Because she received a letter last night that was left unsigned and written in smudged red ink beneath her door: "Lola, is Ethan aware of who you really are?" Outside, church bells began to chime.

The past of Camille Rowe shook inside. Tomorrow, she would be Ethan's bride.

But tonight... she still belonged to the shadows.

The sun dipped low over the Brooklyn skyline, throwing golden light across the ivy-draped courtyard of the Ward estate. Champagne flutes in hand, polite laughter punctuating the conversations, guests gathered for the rehearsal dinner. But beneath the surface of celebration, fault lines ran deep.