My name was Sara Sterling.  At 18, I became engaged to Alvin Hawthorne, heir to the Hawthorne family. In the dangerous world we lived in, he was the one person I thought I could always count on. I held on to that promise for seven long years. Again and again, he told me things were too unstable or the timing wasn't right, and I kept waiting while the years slipped by. Then, on our wedding day, just as the priest was about to begin the vows, Alvin got word that his assistant, Lina Parker, had been kidn*pped. He left me standing at the altar in front of everyone and went after her himself. In that moment, I saw something in his eyes I'd never seen when he looked at me: real fear, and a depth of feeling he had never once shown me. He came back later with his men and promised we'd try again in three days. But when I caught the scent of Lina's freesia perfume on him, then looked at myself in the mirror, I suddenly felt exhausted. I didn't want him anymore.