Adrian backed away from the altar, his eyes darting toward the side exits, but federal agents quickly flanked the exits. The lead agent formally read Adrian his rights right beside the floral arrangements. As the handcuffs clicked around his wrists, Adrian turned to me, his jaw trembling with a mixture of disbelief and rage. He asked how I could have pulled this off without him ever noticing.

I looked at him calmly, adjusting the lapels of my suit jacket, and reminded him that he had spent eleven months telling me that numbers were not my world and that my only job was to look beautiful beside him. Arrogance had blinded him to the fact that while he was busy trying to control my life, I was methodically dismantling his. As the officers led Adrian and a pale, trembling Celeste out through the center aisle under the flashing cameras of the press, the grand illusion of the Vale empire dissolved completely, leaving behind nothing but the undeniable truth.