wife?”
She stared up into Cooper’s vivid blue eyes. Like the minister and those few guests, most of which were his family, she waited for his reply. She wouldn’t blame him if he changed his mind—if he refused to marry her.
She held her breath. And the church grew eerily quiet again.
Cooper cleared his throat and finally spoke, “I do.”
For a moment Tanya let herself believe it was real—that Cooper Payne was so in love with her that he wanted to become her husband. That he wanted a happily-ever-after with her—and not just until the annulment.
Tears of happiness burned her eyes and she furiously blinked as she tried to clear her vision. But the tears kept burning her eyes and the back of her throat.
She coughed and choked, struggling to breathe. Finally she realized that it wasn’t tears of emotion but smoke that was blurring her vision.
The church was on fire.
Tanya knew it couldn’t be an accident, not after everything that had happened last night. It was arson. Someone had purposely set the church on fire. The only question was, had the exits been blocked or would they be able to escape the building before flames engulfed the guests and the groom?
She would be dead long before the flames claimed her. Tanya’s lungs burned and her airway swelled as she struggled for breath. The asthma that had haunted her childhood flared again, choking her. Usually her asthma only acted up in the spring with seasonal allergies or in the winter if she was unfortunate enough to catch a cold.
But smoke had always been her biggest trigger. Cigarette smoke and bonfires had brought on embarrassing and life-threatening attacks during her teenage years. Back then, her inhaler had saved her. But she didn’t have it with her now. It was in her purse, which she had left in the bride’s dressing room.
She would never make it that far before passing out—before dying. Mrs. Payne had definitely been right to be superstitious. Seeing the groom before her wedding had brought Tanya terrible, fatal luck...
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