The mayor tried to ruin me at the altar—until the pastor spoke a single name that brought the entire ceremony to a halt

had seemed so distinctly different from his ruthless mother.

“What did you just say?” Evelyn finally whispered. Her voice was stripped of its political polish, reduced to a dry, raspy scrape.

“You heard me, Evelyn,” Pastor Thomas said, his hands resting firmly on the closed, velvet-bound ceremonial marriage book. He didn’t blink. He stood behind the continue reading …