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“But I told you ahead of time my wife wasn’t going to be here.”

“That’s too bad, I wanted to meet her.”

John laughed loudly and then turned serious. “Okay. Jig is up. Who are you and why are you pretending to be Summer Rosewood”

“How do you know I’m not?”

“For one, I know Summer. She has red hair. You do not. And second, I certainly would know the woman who has been my mistress for three years.”

Nora gasped. “Wait. Seriously? Or is this a joke for me crashing this event.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“You just blurt it out like that?”

“Well, if you’re gonna crash my event. Doesn’t matter. My wife filed for divorce four months ago…”

“Still. You dick.”

“What?”

“You cheated on your wife for three years.”

“Do I need to call security?”

“Um. No. How about the moral police. Good Lord, mister.”

He laughed again, “Look at you judging when you crashed my event.”

“Um, there’s a bit of a difference between crashing an event and crashing a marriage.”

“Deceit is deceit, don’t you think?”

The microphone squealed just a little and the Master of Ceremonies said, “If I can have everyone return to their seats.”

“I believe you are at my table.” John, with a gentle hand, escorted her.

“Yeah, I’m not your mistress, keep that in mind, so I’m not putting out.”

“Ah, too bad for you.”

Nora opened her mouth to gasp in shock. He had to be joking, but she never found out.

A loud and deafening ‘boom’ resonated through the ballroom and the ground shook.

The entire room erupted with chaos. People screamed and ran about. Security made their way in, yelling out they were escorting people from the hotel.

John actually took interest in holding on to Nora, grasping her arm to see her out.

But he stopped in the middle of the ballroom.

“John?” Nora called him.

His hand released her and he swayed.

“Are you okay?”

“I can’t… I can’t see…” He blinked and then without warning, he toppled to the floor.

Nora shrieked and that was when she noticed, everyone started to drop. Thump. Thump. Thump. as they hit the floor.

Knowing that she had to get out, Nora raced toward the exit, stepping over fallen bodies. She nearly made it before her vision went. Things switched from cloudy to gray to black and then Nora, like John and everyone else, dropped to the floor.

It didn’t end there for her. She woke up to being wheeled down a hall.

She remembered everything. From the moment they put her in the encasement, until they shut out the lights in her room.

It was cold, so cold. She sensed her own heart rate dropping and breathing growing shallow.