Chapter 1

My fiancé, Ethan Carter, had a younger sister named Lily Carter, who was born with an intellectual disability.

Lily was usually quiet and kept her distance from strangers, yet she was deeply attached to me.

I was the only person she willingly spoke to and the only one with whom she shared the fruit candies she secretly saved.

Every night before bed, she insisted on calling me.

She would not close her eyes until I finished telling her a bedtime story.

Even when she was sick, she refused to take her medicine unless I handed it to her myself.

The night before our wedding, Lily suddenly developed a high fever and was rushed to a private hospital in the city.

The moment I heard, I went straight there to take care of her.

Ethan contacted me soon afterward and said we would have to postpone the wedding.

But the next morning, Lily woke up and looked at me innocently.

“My brother is getting married today. Mom and Dad are already there.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

I had not told her the wedding had been postponed, so I teased her.

“Because Lily is sick, and I need to stay here and look after you.”

She did not understand that I was joking. She thought I was upset.

“It’s okay, Natalie.”

“My brother said I can’t go to the wedding, but I can watch it on the tablet.”

She picked up the tablet beside her bed and opened a wedding broadcast link in the family group chat.

The video loaded within seconds.

The groom standing at the front of the ceremony was Ethan.

But the bride beside him was Maya Harrington.

***

The smile froze on my face.

I pulled out my phone and opened the family group chat I had joined.

It was completely silent.

The latest message was still the one Ethan had sent the previous night.

Lily had refused a shot and would not take her medicine.

He had told me to get to the hospital immediately.

I quietly let out a breath.

I had been awake all night, and my exhausted eyes were beginning to blur.

Maybe I had seen the man in the video incorrectly.

Maybe he only looked like Ethan.

Then Lily pushed the tablet toward me.

She pointed at the people on the screen and introduced them one by one.

“That’s my brother.”

“That’s Dad, and that’s Mom.”

Then she pointed at me and herself.

“That’s Natalie.”

“That’s Lily.”

Without thinking, I took the tablet from her.

When I looked at the man on the screen again, the last trace of my smile disappeared.

Ethan had told me that morning that he needed to go to the office.

Yet there he was, wearing the suit I had personally chosen for him.

He stood in the hotel ballroom I had booked, exchanging wedding vows with another woman.

I had planned every detail of that venue.

The flowers, table settings, and ceremony backdrop had all been approved by me, more than once.

But I was not the bride standing beside Ethan.

On the broadcast, Ethan’s mother smiled as she brought his hand and Maya’s together.

“If Ethan ever mistreats you, tell me.”

“I’ll make sure he answers for it.”

Yet only the night before, when I arrived at the hospital to take care of Lily, that same woman had sat beside the bed, held my hand, and cried with gratitude.

“Natalie, having you marry Ethan is the greatest blessing our family could ask for.”

I could no longer tell whether anything she had said to me was true.

The camera slowly moved across the guests.

Finally, it stopped on my friend Chloe Wilson.

She was wearing a bridesmaid’s dress and smiling as she adjusted Maya’s veil.

After college, Chloe had been assigned to work in a remote northern district.

Her requests for a transfer had repeatedly been denied, so she rarely returned to the city.

But after receiving my wedding invitation, she had called me and made a promise.

“We’re best friends.”

“A long flight is nothing.”

“Even if your wedding were in another country, I would still be there.”

But she was not at my wedding.

She was serving as a bridesmaid at Ethan’s wedding to another woman.

I picked up my phone and called her.

She answered quickly.

I forced the tremor out of my voice and asked as casually as I could.

“My wedding has been postponed.”

“Have you landed yet?”

Chloe did not hesitate.

“Ethan told me last night that the wedding was postponed.”

“So I changed my flight to next week.”

I held the phone without speaking.

I did not hang up either.

The other end of the call gradually fell silent.

After several seconds, Chloe finally realized something was wrong.

Her tone became serious.

“Natalie.”

“You already know, don’t you?”