Our Wedding Day Became Our Love's Funeral

From the back cover

David Hartman has spent seven years planning the wedding of his fiancée Vivian Carroll's dreams, filling a grand banquet hall with crystal lights and champagne roses. But when he opens the doors, the floral backdrop is gone, replaced by a funeral wreath and the portrait of Eric Turner, the father of Vivian's best friend Aaron Turner. Vivian is not surprised. She removes her veil, dons mourning garb over her wedding dress, and tells David to send his own guests home so the Turners can grieve. When David refuses to remove the funeral portrait, Vivian threatens never to marry him.

David books the hall next door and texts Carla Emerson, Vivian's longtime business rival, offering her the wedding, his loyalty, and the promise that she will be no one's stand-in. As his parents, Jeffrey Hartman and Amanda Summers, are told to wait elsewhere, Vivian assumes David will apologize as always. Carla arrives in a black gown with a lawyer, asking whether he wants a bride or merely to save face. David tells her the ceremony will be hers alone.