Chapter 3

Caroline's POV

It was almost midnight when I logged into the joint bank account Gavin and I had opened six months ago for wedding expenses.

I'd put in fifteen thousand from my savings. He'd matched it. We were supposed to be building our future together.

I pulled up the transaction history and my stomach dropped.

Huge transfers. Twenty thousand here. Thirty thousand there. All of it going to an account I didn't recognize. I traced the routing number to the Cayman Islands.

I cross-referenced the dates with Diego and Luis's business accounts. The money was moving from Gavin to their companies, then disappearing into offshore accounts. Over five hundred thousand dollars in three weeks.

They weren't just covering for him. They were helping him steal his own money. Getting him ready for his new life with Sienna while I was planning his memorial service.

I created a new folder and started organizing everything. Bank transfers. Photos. Messages. Voice recordings. Every single piece of evidence with dates and labels.

By the time I finished, the sun was coming up. I hadn't slept. Hadn't eaten. Hadn't stopped working for a second.

I looked at what I'd built. A complete timeline of how Gavin had destroyed four years of my life. Every lie. Every dollar. Every time he was with her while telling me he loved me.

"You really shouldn't have made me learn to be so organized, Gavin."

Maya showed up the next afternoon with takeout and way too much concern.

"Caroline." She hugged me hard as soon as I opened the door. "I've been texting you for two days. I was about to call the police."

"Sorry. I've been dealing with stuff."

We sat at my kitchen table.

"You look awful," Maya said, then grabbed my hand. "God, I'm sorry. That came out wrong. I just mean you look exhausted. Are you sleeping at all?"

I looked at my best friend. Maya, who'd gone wedding dress shopping with me. Who was supposed to plan my bachelorette party. Who had no idea the man she'd been worried about was alive and planning his big romantic return.

"Maya, I need you to do something for me."

"Of course. Anything."

"I need you to plan an engagement party."

Maya stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth. "You need me to what?"

"An engagement party. You're an event planner. It's literally your job."

"Caroline." She put down the fork very carefully. "Gavin just died."

"I know. I'm not marrying Gavin."

"Then who the hell are you marrying?"

"Logan Romano."

Maya's mouth actually fell open. "Logan? Your high school boyfriend Logan?"

"He's in Miami now. He texted me last week to check in. We've been talking."

This was sort of true. Logan had messaged me after the memorial. Just a simple "I heard what happened, I'm so sorry, let me know if you need anything." We'd been friends since high school, stayed in touch over the years. He'd even met Gavin once.

What Maya didn't know was that I hadn't answered Logan's message yet.

"You're engaged to Logan Romano? Already? It's been two weeks since Gavin died!"

"Dead people don't get loyalty, Maya." I met her eyes. "Living people have to keep moving forward."

"But this is insane. People are going to lose their minds. Gavin's parents will actually kill you. And Logan, does he even know you're telling people this?"

"Not yet. But he will. And he'll understand."

Maya sat back and stared at me. I could see her brain working, trying to figure out if I'd completely snapped or if something else was going on.

Finally she said, "Okay. Yes. I'll help you."

"Thank you."

"But Caroline?" Maya reached across the table. "Are you absolutely sure about this? Like really, truly sure?"

I thought about Gavin's voice on that recording. About Sienna's stupid Instagram captions. About Diego and Luis smoking cigars at a funeral for someone who wasn't even dead.

"I've never been more sure of anything."

After Maya left, I grabbed my phone. You can't have an engagement party with just me, there has to be a groom. I know who I want to ask, but I'm second-guessing myself. This might cause a shitstorm, and we're not close enough for him to deal with all that backlash for my sake.

I stared at my phone screen, Logan's contact name glowing in the screen. 2:00 AM. Seattle was three hours behind, so it would be 11:00 PM there. Still reasonable.

My thumb hovered over the call button. I'd rehearsed what I was going to say a hundred times, but now my mind went completely blank.

Just do it, Caroline. You need him.

I hit call.

The video connected after three rings. Logan's face filled the screen, hair messy. He blinked at the camera, obviously just woken up.

"Caroline?" His voice was rough with sleep, but his eyes got sharp when he saw my face. "What happened? Are you okay?"

I opened my mouth and nothing came out. All the words I'd prepared just disappeared. I could feel tears burning behind my eyes again.

"Caroline." Logan sat up straighter, fully awake now. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

"Logan, I need your help." My voice cracked. "A really big favor."

"Okay." He didn't even hesitate. "Whatever you need. Just tell me."

I took a breath that felt like swallowing glass. "Gavin's alive."

Logan went completely still. "What?"

"He faked his death. I overheard his business partners talking about it at the memorial. They thought I couldn't understand them because they were speaking Portuguese, but my grandmother was from Lisbon. I understood every single word."

The explanation came out faster now. I told him about Diego and Luis. About finding the messages with Sienna. The voice recording where Gavin actually laughed about my grief. The offshore bank accounts.

Logan's jaw got tighter with every sentence. When I finished, he was quiet for three long seconds.

"Tell me what you need."

"I need you to fly to Miami this weekend." I forced myself to say it. "I need you to pretend to be my fiancé."

His expression didn't change. "I'm in."

"Logan, you don't understand. This is going to be messy. People are going to think I'm horrible. His parents already hate me. And if this blows up—"

"Caroline." He cut me off, but gently. "Remember senior prom? When I told you I'd always have your back?"

I remembered. We'd been standing under cheap streamers in the school gym, slow dancing to some terrible pop song. He'd said it so seriously, like he was making a promise.

"I meant it then. I mean it now." Logan's eyes held mine through the screen. "When do you need me there?"

"Friday afternoon?"

"I'll be on the first flight out." He grabbed something off his nightstand, probably to make notes. "Send me everything you have. Every photo, every message, every bank record. I want to see all of it."

"Thank you." My voice broke. "I don't know how I'm going to repay you for this."

"You don't owe me anything. Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"When this is over, you'll let me take you to a real dinner. No fake engagements. No revenge plots. Just us talking like normal people."

I managed a small smile. "Deal."