Jessica stood in her red wedding dress outside the black-and-gold hall, and in two weeks she would marry a man she did not love. Her fiancé owned this place. The gold sun-and-moon emblem above the doors proved his wealth. She had come to find Mahdi instead, to learn if his heart matched hers before she risked everything. She found him near the tree heavy with roses. He wore his black suit and gold crown. When Mahdi saw her dress, his smile fell. "You look like a bride," he said. "Not mine." "The wedding moved up," Jessica said. "Two weeks now." Mahdi went quiet. He plucked a single rose from a low branch. He turned it in his fingers and did not offer it. Jessica's chest tightened. She had built her whole plan on one guess. If she confessed and he only pitied her, she would lose her fiancé, her security, and her pride in one night. She would have nothing. "I need to know something," she said. "And I need the truth." "Ask." "That night we talked, did it mean the same to you as it did to me?" Her voice shook. "Or was I just a woman who was lonely and easy to talk to?" Mahdi looked at the rose. For a long moment he said nothing, and each second cut deeper. "Come here," he said. He walked her to a golden tiger statue that guarded a red carpet path. Above it hung a framed picture. A black man and woman watched the sun rise together, hands joined. "I bought that the day after we met," Mahdi said. "I hung it where I would see it every morning. I told myself it was just a picture I liked." He finally held out the rose. "It wasn't. It was you and me. I've thought about you every day since." Jessica took the rose. Her hands trembled. The fear she had carried for two weeks broke apart. "Then I'm calling off the wedding," she said. "I don't love him. I love you." "Say it again." "I love you, Mahdi." He pulled her close and held her against the crimson carpet path. For one breath, everything felt solved. Then footsteps sounded behind them. Fast, hard steps on the stone. Jessica turned. A woman in a purple and white dress stood at the edge of the light. Alejandra. She looked at Jessica in the red gown, then at Mahdi, then at the rose in Jessica's hand. "So it's true," Alejandra said. Her voice was calm and cold. "He's my brother, Jessica. And your fiancé sent me to bring you home." Jessica's grip crushed the rose stem. She had her answer. But now the man she was leaving knew, and his messenger stood between her and the door.

Alejandra stood between Jessica and the door. Her purple and white dress caught the light. She was Mahdi's sister, and Jessica's fiancé had sent her to drag Jessica home. Jessica clutched the crushed rose and knew she could not push past her. If she wanted to leave with Mahdi, she had to change this woman's mind first. "You won't stop me," Jessica said. "I don't have to stop you," Alejandra said. "I only have to tell him where you are. You know what he does when people take what's his." Jessica's mouth went dry. She thought of running. But Alejandra held the exit, calm and certain, arms folded. Force would fail. So Jessica dropped her plan to fight and tried the truth instead. "Look at your brother's face," Jessica said. "Then tell me I belong to that man." Alejandra glanced at Mahdi. He stepped forward and took Jessica's hand. "I've loved her since the night we met," Mahdi said. "You know I don't say things I don't mean." Alejandra's arms loosened. Something in her face cracked. She looked past them, at the small pavilion nearby, its wood carved with hearts. On its rail hung a wooden plaque. Jessica followed her eyes and read the words burned into it. You are my today and all of my tomorrows. "He hung that for the woman he was going to marry," Alejandra said quietly. She meant Jessica's fiancé. "She left him. That's why he holds so tight now. That's why he sent me." Jessica walked closer to Alejandra. She kept her voice low and steady. "Then you know what it costs to stay with a man who only holds tight," Jessica said. "I don't want to be held. I want to be loved. Your brother loves me. Help us, and I'll spend every day proving I'm worth it." Alejandra studied her a long moment. She looked at the rose, the plaque, her brother's hand in Jessica's. "If I do this, he'll turn on me too," Alejandra said. "I lose him to gain you two." "You gain your brother's happiness," Jessica said. "That's not nothing." Alejandra let out a slow breath. She stepped aside from the door. "Go," she said. "Out the back, past the pavilion. Not the main gate. He has people watching the front." Jessica's chest loosened. "Thank you." "Don't thank me yet." Alejandra pulled her phone from her dress. "I'll tell him I lost you in the crowd. That buys you tonight. Maybe less." Her eyes hardened. "He'll come himself once he knows. And he won't send me next time." Mahdi tightened his grip on Jessica's hand. Together they moved past the carved pavilion, into the dark beyond the light. Jessica had won the door. But now her fiancé would come in person, and the woman who helped her had just made herself his enemy too.