"And now for the other big announcement," Chadwick declared, his voice booming through the hall. "The union of the Whitman family and the Murphy family. Ashton will be marrying Betty Murphy in three months."

His words hit me like a slap of ice, leaving me completely numb.

So that was why Ashton had really ended things with me.

Betty Murphy—I knew exactly who she was. Alfred’s sister, the one who’d been studying abroad. I’d come across her name before while ...