Chapter 1

My breath caught in my throat. Unable to believe what I'd just heard, I pressed the button again.

Only when Cameron Finch's voice sounded again did I realize I hadn't misheard the first time.

With trembling fingers, I tapped into Marissa Becker's Instagram, where the latest post was unmistakably a photo taken in a bridal shop.

The caption read, "Picking out wedding dresses with the love of my life! I'm going to be the prettiest bride."

The man in the photo was only half-visible, but I'd recognize that silhouette anywhere, even with my eyes closed.

My heart was pounding out of my chest. I typed out a message to Cameron, my hands still trembling.

"Marissa said she's getting married. Is it with you? You're not dead? Why aren't you answering me? Why would you lie to me?"

Hours passed, and all I got was complete radio silence. I opened Marissa's Instagram again, only to find that she had already deleted that post.

The only thing pinned to the top now was a post looking for bridesmaids. My heart ached as if thousands of needles were piercing it.

Still shaking, I used a newly created alternate account to add her on Instagram. That was when I saw all the posts she'd hidden from me. "Seven years of waiting finally paid off. From now on, we'll walk hand in hand into the future."

The photo showed Cameron on one knee, proposing to her on the beach. The date below read July 23rd.

That was the day Cameron's plane supposedly went down, the day I got into a car wreck looking for him and lost our baby. That day, I had spammed him with countless texts, but I didn't get a single reply.

So he hadn't been on a business trip. He had gone to the beach to stage a romantic proposal for her. I clamped a hand over my mouth, choking back a sob, and kept scrolling.

"The person who loves me understands my pain."

In the picture, Marissa was wearing a dark dress, raising a wine glass. On her wrist was a vibrant emerald bracelet.

Agnes Field, Cameron's mother, had talked about that bracelet ever since I was little. She'd always said that she'd give it to me as a wedding gift when I married Cameron. Yet even on the day of our engagement, it never made an appearance.

At the time, Cameron said he had forgotten to bring it and would give it to me at our wedding. It turned out that he hadn't forgotten. He had simply given it to someone else.

"Graduation at last. Oh, shooting stars, please let me be with the one I love."

I remembered that night. I got trashed at our graduation party and got cornered by some creeps in an alley. I called him dozens of times, but he never answered once.

Afterward, he told me he had passed out in the lab from exhaustion and slept through his phone ringing. I believed him without a second thought. I even blamed myself, feeling guilty that I was no longer untouched.

My heart clenched painfully. I pressed a hand to my chest and took a deep breath before scrolling all the way to the very first post in one go.

"I ran into my crush on campus today and finally got the nerve to ask for his Instagram. Oh my gosh! It's the first time I've met someone who's on the same wavelength as me."

That was the exact day Cameron and I officially got together. I'd been so stupidly happy that I sent Marissa a picture of him to show off. "Look, this is my boyfriend. Isn't he hot?"

So for the past seven years, there had always been someone else who secretly shared all our sweet and happy moments.

I laughed through the pain, yet my tears still fell against my will.

Just then, my phone buzzed. Marissa had sent a message to my alternate account. "Hey, miss, I need someone with great style and a good vibe. Could you send me a full-body picture?"

I stared hard at that message. After a long pause, I sent her a picture of my cousin, who was studying abroad.

Marissa quickly agreed to have me as her bridesmaid and sent me an address.

"My wedding is at the end of this month, so you'll need to show up a day early. Someone might try to crash the wedding and make a scene. I'm hoping you can help stop them. Don't worry. There will be security guards, so it won't be dangerous."

She had it all figured out. She even predicted I was going to crash it.

Gritting my teeth, I grabbed my car keys off the table, pulled up the address, and headed out. As soon as I got to the wedding venue, I spotted them.