Reborn As The Billionaire's Vengeful Queen

"Do you, Carter Rivera, take Adelina Hughes to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

The officiant's voice bounced off the grand ballroom walls. White roses everywhere, heavy in the air, mixed with that old-money smell. Adelina's heart slammed against her ribs like something trapped. She stared at the man in front of her and held her breath.

Carter didn't answer.

One second passed. Then another. The air turned thick, hard to breathe. He tilted his head just a little, and the corner of his mouth lifted-cold, almost mocking. No warmth. No love. Just a smirk.

Adelina's stomach dropped.

Then the big screen behind the altar flickered. The romantic slideshow of their photos vanished. New images appeared. A hotel room, dimly lit. A woman-her, or someone who looked exactly like her-half-dressed, tangled with a man whose face you couldn't see. The angles were sneaky, intimate. Left nothing to the imagination, and everything to blame.

A wave of gasps rolled through the room. Polite whispers turned sharp.

"Is that...?"

"I always knew she was trouble."

"On her wedding day... how shameless."

The words hit like slaps. Adelina's mind went blank. She didn't remember any of that. None of it was real. Her stomach twisted.

"Carter," she whispered, voice cracking. She reached for his arm, fingers shaking. "That's not real. I don't know who that is. I would never-"

He pulled back like her touch burned. His eyes-once soft on her-were now ice. Disgust. "You make me sick, Adelina."

"Sister, are you okay?"

Caroline, her stepsister and maid of honor, hurried to her side. Perfect worried face. She put an arm around Adelina's shoulders, like she was helping. But her lips brushed Adelina's ear, and her breath came out poisonous. "Just admit it, sister. This is what you deserve."

Adelina's blood went cold. She tried to push Caroline away, to get to Carter, to make him see. "It was you," she said, realization hitting. "You did this."

As she shoved, Caroline let out a loud, fake scream and stumbled backward, collapsing onto the white aisle runner like she'd been thrown hard.

That sealed it.

"Adelina!" Carter's voice boomed. He didn't see a desperate woman being framed. He saw a vicious girl attacking her own sister.

From the front row, Richard Hughes, her adoptive father, stood up. His face went purple. "The Hughes family has no daughter as shameless as you!"

The guests stopped whispering. Accusations flew out loud, each one a stone thrown at the woman alone on the altar.

Carter strode to her. Close now. His voice dropped low, only for her, each word dripping venom. "You are nothing. You were never worthy of the Rivera name. I don't know what I ever saw in you."

The world tilted. White roses blurred into nothing. As she swayed, Caroline was there again, "supporting" her.

"Go to hell," Caroline hissed, triumphant, venomous, only for Adelina to hear. "Everything you have is mine now."

In the same motion, hidden by the big skirt of her bridesmaid dress, Caroline pressed her hand flat against Adelina's lower back.

And pushed.

Adelina was already at the edge of the raised platform. A small, choked gasp escaped as her balance broke. Time seemed to slow. She saw Carter's face-eyes wide with shock-but his feet stayed planted. He didn't move to catch her.

Then a blinding, searing pain as the back of her head hit the hard edge of the marble step below.

Red bloomed against the white of her wedding dress. The smell of roses drowned in copper-her own blood. Her last clear thought was Carter's face, frozen in a kind of distant horror.

The darkness that swallowed Adelina Hughes was total. But in the dying embers of her mind, something else stirred. A different mind. A different soul. Old. Powerful. Flickering to life.

Code name: Alpha.

And she was awake.