Ruth Clement

I watched my fiancé put a bullet through my parents' heads before he blew my brains out—so why am I staring at my own funeral on the car radio?

"Splash!" The icy water woke me up to a nightmare. I had been tied to a chair in a godforsaken warehouse for three days without food or water.

Standing before me was Kurt, the man I was supposed to marry, and clinging to his arm was Vera, my best friend of seven years. They didn't just kidnap me; they drained my billionaire empire dry.

"Let's just kill her and get it over with!" Vera pouted, playing with my fiancé's chest.

I refused to beg. I promised them the Vaughn family would skin them alive. But Kurt just laughed, snapping his fingers. Thugs dragged my parents in and threw them to the blood-soaked floor. Before I could even scream, Kurt pulled the trigger. Two bullets. Two dead bodies.

"NO!!!" I thrashed against the ropes, tearing my skin to the bone. Kurt just smiled, pointed the gun at my forehead, and whispered, "I never loved you."

Boom. A gaping red hole in my head. Darkness.

But then… I jerked awake.

I wasn't in hell. I was in the passenger seat of a moving car, looking into a rearview mirror at a face that wasn't mine. Black hair, striking green eyes.

"Have you gone deaf, you stupid country bumpkin?!" my new "step-sister" screeched from the driver's seat. "You're marrying into the Graves family today as a substitute! You're marrying the paralyzed vegetable, Lucian Graves!"

My heart stopped. Lucian Graves? My biggest, most ruthless rival in the business world?

The radio crackled: "Breaking News: Heiress Elara Vaughn and her parents found brutally murdered..."

I touched my new face as a vicious, bloodthirsty smile spread across my lips. Kurt. Vera. You thought you killed the Queen. But I've just been reborn.

And my new, comatose husband is going to help me destroy you.