She eyed my gown again, a slow smile stretched across her lips. “Remember when you asked him to make you his princess one day?”

Warmth crept up cheeks as I remembered the day of my ninth birthday.

“Well, you’re looking like one today in this gown. And now that you’ve finally become his princess, how are you feeling right now?” She held an imaginary mike before me.

I looked down, running my hands on the beautiful gown he chose for me. “Well, I don’t want to be his princess anymore.”

Her brow raised in confusion.

A smile graced my lips. “I want to be his queen now.”

Chuckling, she rolled her eyes. “Now you’re getting greedy here, aren’t you?”

At my narrowed eyes, she burst into laughter and I joined soon.

Someone cleared their throat behind me.

Turning around, I came face to face with a tall man in his late twenties and a beautiful blonde in his arms. What caught my attention was his pale blue eyes that weirdly lingered on my face for too long for my liking.

“Hi, Emerald. Remember me? I’m Jane from Tess’s high school,” the blonde said, flashing her pearly white teeth.

Yeah, I remembered her. She used to hang out with Tess sometimes.

I smiled. “Hi, Jane. How are you doing?”

That man still didn’t move his gaze from me. His features were too blank to read anything.

“I’m doing great! It’s been so long since I last saw you. And look at you, you’ve turned into such a beautiful woman.”

Before I could open my mouth to thank her for the compliment, the man interrupted. Oddly enough, I felt like I saw him before. But I couldn’t place a finger on it.

“Indeed. Now I understood why my friend is so smitten by you,” he said in his northern accent.

“Friend?” I frowned.

He nodded. “Achilles Valencian. I’m a really close friend of his.”

How come I’ve never seen him if he was a good friend of Ace?

Then he held his hand out for me to shake. “Hello, my name is Antonio, Antonio Raymond. I feel very blessed to finally meet you, Ms. Hutton.”

FORTY-NINE: ENEMY INSIDE?

My smile slipped, and my eyes widened.

Antonio Raymond? So that’s why he seemed to be so familiar. I’d seen him on the TV the other day but couldn’t see his face properly because he had the half of his face covered.

Wasn’t he in jail? What the hell was he doing here?

My jaw clenched. “What are you doing here? As far as I know, you’re not invited to this wedding.”

Did Ace know of his presence here?

If he did, he wouldn’t be still parading out here like this.