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the room was silent, punctuated only by the occasional cough.
    She let the moment drag on for a few seconds longer, and then she parted her lips. "No." The word rang loud and clear. "I will not marry you, Craig."
    Craig dropped her hands and his eyes widened. For a few seconds, he just stared at her, the muscles in his face tense, his mouth twitching in an odd way. "What... Why? What's going on?"
    Kelsey kept her gaze locked on his. "Because you're not the man I thought you were. Are you, Craig?"
    A gasp came from one of the guests, and from the corner of her eye Kelsey saw her father rise and approach them. "What are you doing?" he whispered, his voice loaded.
    Kelsey faced her dad. He was handsome in a hand-tailored, classic black suit. The sprinkling of gray at his temples was the only clue he was approaching sixty.
    "You want me to marry Craig Carnahan, Dad? Are you sure about that?"
    "That's why we're here," he whispered between clenched teeth. "What kind of nonsense is this?"
    "You want your daughter to marry a criminal?" Kelsey quivered as she glared at Craig.
    "Kelsey, don't do this." Craig's face hardened, but only for a fraction of a second. As if a button had been pressed, his expression softened. "Let's go... let's go and talk somewhere more... private." He touched her arm, but she yanked it away.
    "Don't you dare touch me." His touch, his smell, even his face disgusted her. And all the more so when she pictured the scene in the hotel room—him panting, grunting, and dripping with sweat as he pounded into another woman, the day before he was going to marry her. The mental image made her stomach lurch.
    Another gasp from the crowd was followed by whispers. She didn't give a damn what they thought. She wanted to hurt Craig the way he had hurt her.
    Avoiding eye contact, the minister leafed through his Bible as if searching for instructions on how to handle the situation.
    "What the hell are you talking about?" Craig asked, but his voice cracked.
    "Well, Craig—or should I say Tom Malone? It doesn't matter. Whoever you are, I will not marry you."
    "No problem." He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "We can postpone the wedding."
    "You don't get it, do you? I will not marry you today, tomorrow, or ever." Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She hadn't even realized she was crying. "I will not marry a man who's already married under a different name. I will not marry a stranger."
    Kelsey felt, rather than saw, her father turn to the guests. In a firm, controlled voice he said, "ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid we have to end the day here. I apologize for the inconvenience caused, but we have some personal matters to discuss."
    He had hardly finished speaking when the guests stood and started walking out of the church. The minister disappeared through a small door. Kelsey's eyes were still locked on Craig, but she heard the hurried movements, the whispers. She felt the wave of shock and disbelief, smelled the thick scent of scandal. They all couldn't wait to leave, to gossip about what had just happened.
    When silence descended, a hand wrapped around her arm and her father whispered in her ear, "Kelsey, these accusations are ridiculous. What's gotten into you?"
    Why was he whispering? Kelsey laughed and cried at the same time. "Not only did he sleep with another woman yesterday, in our suite at the Muriel, he's a conman. And I have proof."
    Her father and Craig watched as she stepped to one of the chairs decorated with ribbons—the one reserved for Delia, who had left with the other guests—and removed a bag hanging from it. She pulled from it a thick white envelope and handed it to her father, who looked like a volcano about to erupt. "Everything you need to know about him is in there."
    Craig's expression changed from confident to horrified. His face turned puce. "How dare you," he said between clenched teeth as he pointed a shaking finger at Kelsey. "How dare you—"
    "Shut up. Just shut up." Kelsey's father