Chapter 2

Twenty-one days ago, I was just as calm.

The bridal shop was on the fourth floor of the downtown mall, called WEISS. Their prices started at thirty thousand.

That afternoon at two o'clock, I was trying on my third wedding dress.

In the full-length mirror, I could barely breathe from how tight it was. The white train was six feet long.

Michelle was outside helping me with accessories, saying she'd ask the staff for a longer veil.

I was in the dressing room trying to reach the zipper on my back. When I couldn't, I pushed open the door to call her.

Then I heard her voice.

Behind a row of clothing racks, with her back to me, phone pressed to her ear.

"Yeah... she's trying them on now. Pretty ugly."

She laughed quietly.

"Her waist has gotten so thick and she doesn't even know it. I'm too embarrassed to say anything."

I stood behind the rack, silent.

"Okay, okay, you pick the restaurant for tonight. I'll come over after I finish helping her shop."

She hung up. I retreated to the dressing room and pulled the curtain closed again.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears like drums.

My first reaction wasn't anger—it was confusion.

Who was she talking to?

Three minutes later, Michelle came back with a lace veil.

"Sophia, try this one! It's gorgeous!"

I took it and smiled.

"Where did you just go?"

"To get the veil from the staff."

Her eyes showed not a ripple of emotion. I didn't press further.

But that evening when I got home, I opened Michael's phone bill for the first time.

He used a secondary card under my name. The bill came to my email every month. I'd never looked at it before.

That night I went through six months of transaction records.

I found three transfers that shouldn't exist.

One for forty-three thousand, noted "necklace."

One for twenty-seven thousand, noted "hotel."

One for a hundred and twenty thousand, noted "ring."

The hundred-twenty-thousand-dollar ring matched the number Michelle mentioned in the speakers exactly.

In that moment, sitting on the living room couch, my face illuminated by the phone screen.

Outside, the sound of traffic surged in waves.

I suddenly felt that for the past three years, I'd been watching a play.

And I was the only one who didn't know the script.