Catalina froze in the doorway, her breath caught in her throat.

Her fingers tightened around the breakfast tray until the silver rattled. She must have misheard him. She had to.

But then Frederick’s voice came again, calm, deliberate.

“Yes, I think it’s time. Isabella’s been patient with me… she’s helped me more than anyone. Maybe proposing is the right thing to do.”

The right thing to do.

The words sliced through her like a knife.

She stood there, half-hidden by the doorframe, unable to move or breathe. The man she had once loved so deeply, the man who had promised her forever, was talking about marrying someone else, her enemy....