“What’s the meaning of this? Lucas Everhart was supposed to marry into our family! Who’s the man up there?”
Without a word, Daisy, Sienna’s mother, stormed the stage and yanked the groom’s mask off.
A collective gasp rose from the crowd.
“Isn’t that Tristan, the adopted son of the Everhart Family?!”
“Unbelievable! Did they really swap the groom?”
“Only Lucas Everhart is the true sacred bloodline match needed to break the curse. If Tristan marries Sienna Langford, it won’t be lifted!”
Tristan’s face turned ashen. But Sienna remained calm. She squeezed Tristan’s hand and gave him a reassuring nod before stepping forward.
She knelt solemnly before her parents. “Dad, Mom, Tristan is the only man I love. I will not marry anyone else.”
“I don’t believe in some ridiculous curse. Our female ancestors lived long lives, well into their hundreds!”
Anthony’s face was thunderous as he slammed his cane to the floor.
“Do you know why your aunts lived such long lives? Because they married men with sacred bloodlines, strong enough to defy death itself.”
“Your 25th birthday is tomorrow. You’re gambling with your life!” Tears welled in Daisy’s eyes.
“Sienna, we never lied to you. Your third aunt didn’t die in a car crash, she was cursed.”
“You were born into the Langford Family. Your life isn’t just yours, it carries the weight of generations. You have no freedom when it comes to love.”
But Sienna remained on her knees, stubborn and unmoved.
“I would rather die young than spend my life with someone I don’t love. Better a short life than living like a corpse.”
I watched her quietly, a sudden clarity settling over me. She had been reborn too. And like me, she had made her choice: she would rather defy fate than surrender to it.
Realizing she wouldn’t budge, Anthony turned his wrath on me.
“Lucas! So you never planned to marry Sienna in the first place? You used an adopted son to trick us? How shameless can the Everhart Family get?”
“If you don’t give us a proper explanation today, your family will be ruined in Ashbourne!”
My mother stepped forward, smiling stiffly as she gripped my arm. She pushed me toward the Langford Family. And just like that, the second round of this deadly game began.