Coleen remembered clearly the lump that formed in her throat as she watched Gloria walk out of the brothel that night with a smile on her face. It was a smile that filled Coleen with unspeakable fear and dread.

And her feelings were right.

Without stopping to breathe, she shoved the last piece of her clothing into the spilling trunk, certain it wouldn't close. But there were too many precious items in there, none she could even imagine parting with.

Gloria had threatened to burn down the brothel, and she had done just that. Much more damage than a literal fire could cause, Gloria had set a fire on the brothel, which had spread to the entire town. And Coleen knew she had less than an hour to leave or risk being burned in an actual fire.

She saw the dread in Max's eyes as he broke the news to her less than an hour ago.

Coleen had only just woken up and was about to have her usual morning coffee when Max barged into the kitchen with the news; Gloria had ruined them all. She wrote expository and revealing letters to the wives of her top ranking solicitors; describing her nights with their husbands; giving perfect details of the smallest birthmark the man might have possessed that wasn't visible to the rest of the public; and leaving souvenirs behind. She left locks of hair, buttons, pocket watches and whatever it was, the slimy, conniving ingrate could lay her hands on! Not only that, but Gloria somehow left her precious treasures in the town's newspaper publishing house and by the next morning, the whole town was buzzing.

Coleen knew her business was automatically dead. It was a scandal she knew her brothel could never survive. Gloria did not spare the mayor in her quest for vengeance, either. And when all was said and done, the whole town was left to crash and burn, and Gloria, the perpetrator, was nowhere to be found.

Gloria Grande, the town's fiercest prostitute, had single-handedly destroyed the entire town; there was not one soul who was spared her wrath.

*

A smile played at the corners of Gloria's lips as her body bounced up and down in sync with the movement of the carriage on the bumpy road. She could only imagine the state of the town she had left behind.

As it was, they were only a few days away from Arkansas, which meant the damage to San Francisco must already be done, and every snobbish woman who existed must have had their heads buried in shame.

Good. Let them crash and burn and may their ashes never be sprinkled, she mused, a soft giggle escaping her lips.

She felt both Howard and Stuart's questioning eyes on her, but she didn't bother to acknowledge any of them, clasping her hands before her instead. Both men would fail to understand the reason for her joy. Besides, she enjoyed having a secret she could laugh at alone.

Her mind wandered to the wives of her illicit solicitors. It took an entire night to get every woman's package delivered, but thankfully, Gloria had enough wrath in her to energize her for the task.

In every individual letter she penned down, she created a vivid image of every man, every escapade, every money spent, hotel rooms, and time of meeting. There were times those men were drunk enough to entrust her with a family secret. She included every secret in her letter.

Gloria was surprised by how much her memory could store, but she realized that vengeance was a powerful tool, and she was glad for it. She was glad that Coleen would pay a drastic price for cheating Gloria these years of her money. She was glad that those perfect housewives — with their perfect homes and raised chins as they looked down on her — would finally see how imperfect their entire life really was. They'd see that hated or not, Gloria was the indispensable card in the stack of cards of San Francisco and the day they all decided they were going to pluck her out of the stack, they all came crashing down and she... well, she was safe and sound in a wagon, on her way to her new life.

It was only then, as she thought of a new life, that she realized what she had done by agreeing to marry Howard, a man she knew next to nothing about. Perhaps she should not have been in a rush to accept his proposal. She wondered if she could turn back now. She should. She should just tell Stuart she made a mistake and she would like to change her mind.

Then what, Gloria? You have no money and heaven forbid you need to turn to another brothel, working for another boss as conniving as Coleen, she chided herself. She hated to admit it, but there was no turning back, for she was stuck in this marriage to a complete stranger.

*

EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS.

Howard's gaze searched Gloria's that evening, failing to find passion in them as he held her in his arms. He hadn't seen the need to wait another day, so the moment they arrived in town, he took her to the courthouse and married her.

Perhaps he had rushed into the marriage. There was a part of him that had wanted to wait and find out something about the woman he was agreeing to get married to, but he found it impossible to do so. He longed for Gloria. He wanted to be the husband of this fair-skinned woman whose eyes held the mystery of the world.

But as his hands glided down the length of her body, he saw no desire in her eyes, just emptiness. She didn't love him; he knew that, and he didn't even expect love from her. But he was looking for something; something to show that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. The more he kissed her, the less interested he became in her. She laid there, doing and saying nothing. It made him feel despised by her.

Frustrated, he pushed himself off of her and reached for his clothes. Pulling his shirt over his head, he fought the desire to frown. Fully dressed, he turned and made for the door. He was halfway to the door when she finally said, "Leaving so soon, Howard?"

He turned around to find her with a cocky smile on her face as she lay naked on the bed. She reminded him of a prostitute, and the longer he stared at her, the more disgusted he got.

This was not the marriage he bargained for.