Rejecting Three Suitors For One King

One year ago, a cruel, calculated game tore twenty years of history to shreds.

My supposed best friend, Melanie, hit a "Royal Flush" during a high-stakes poker night at the club. With a predatory smile, she pointed at the three men my father had hand-picked as my potential suitors and demanded they ghost me for an entire year.

She called it a "litmus test for true love," a way to see which of them was truly worthy of my hand.

I had been standing in the shadows that night, my heart racing, fully expecting them to laugh in her face.