2.

Callista

The word slipped out before I could stop it. “That scumbag!” I suddenly shouted, louder this time. Several guests turned around, a few frowning.

I barely noticed them. My eyes were locked on the stage… on Daelan but he wasn’t looking at me, he was smiling at Elysia.

That soft smile I knew so well, the one he used when he was pretending to be sweet.

My nails dug into my palm, but the pain barely registered. Tears flooded in my eyes but they refuse to fall.

Then someone leaned close to my ear. “Where the hell were you, Callista?” I blinked. The voice belonged to Marissa… one of Elysia’s bridesmaids.

“You were supposed to read the farewell letter to your best friend,” she continued in a whisper. “You promised, remember? Everyone’s been looking for you.”

I stared at her blankly. Words felt meaningless like my brain had suddenly forgotten how to process language. “I… was…?” I murmured faintly.

Marissa rolled her eyes. “Yes. The emotional goodbye speech? Ring any bells?”

I didn’t respond.

She sighed impatiently. “Don’t worry. I’ll ask them to let you do it now.” Before I could react, she was already walking toward the stage. I stood frozen. My entire body had started trembling. Inside, it felt like an earthquake was ripping through my bones. Sweat trickled slowly down my spine, and my heart pounded so violently it hurt.

“H…” I whispered. How?

The master of ceremonies suddenly stepped forward, smiling brightly. “Ladies and gentlemen!”

The crowd quieted.

“We have a special moment prepared for the beautiful bride tonight.”

Excited murmurs spread.

“The bride’s best friend would like to give a farewell speech!”

Soft “aww” sounds rippled through the audience. Some people even started clapping.

My feet moved before my brain could stop them. Each step toward the altar felt unreal  like I was walking through someone else’s nightmare.

When I climbed onto the stage, the bright lights hit my eyes. Pain stabbed instantly through my skull, and my vision blurred again, but I forced myself to look up.

My gaze collided with Daelan’s and my heart stopped. He looked straight at me but his expression didn’t change. He stared like I was a stranger, he wasn’t shocked.

My stomach dropped. He was pretending not to know me…my own husband. The man I had shared a bed with for five years standing there like I didn’t exist.

My hands started shaking as I reached for the folded paper I had prepared earlier which is the farewell speech. The sweet goodbye letter I had written for Elysia.

The audience waited patiently. Some guests were already dabbing their eyes, expecting something heartfelt.

I stepped up to the microphone, the metal freezing cold against my trembling fingers. I unfolded the paper, intending to read the sweet, heartfelt words I had written for my childhood best friend.

But as I looked down, the letters melted together, swimming into dark, unreadable shapes. Panic clawed at my throat, my eyesight was failing me completely, right now, in front of high society and the media.

I dropped the useless paper. Looking past the blurry shapes, my eyes locked directly onto Daelan's cold, utterly uncaring face. The fear evaporated, replaced by a wave of pure, unadulterated rage that exploded inside my chest like a bomb. My hand clenched fiercely around the microphone, and my head snapped up.

My throat burned then suddenly anger exploded inside my chest like a bomb. My hand clenched around the microphone and my head snapped up.

My tear-filled eyes landed on Daelan. “Why do men cheat?” My voice rang across the room.

The audience froze. Confused murmurs rippled through the crowd.

I laughed, but it came out broken. “Why?” I shouted again. My chest heaved. “Why would a husband marry another woman while he’s still married to his wife?”

A wave of shocked gasps spread through the hall.

“What did she say?”

“Did she say husband?”

“Oh my God…”

I could barely see the crowd anymore. My eyes burned, but I didn’t care.

I pointed directly at him, my hand shaking. “He!” I screamed. My voice cracked with rage. “He’s still married to me!”

The words slammed into the room like a bomb. “You hear me, Daelan?!” I yelled. “We’re still married! Why on earth would you do to me?”

Guests stood as their voices rose. “What the hell is happening?”

“Is this real?”

Elysia’s face had gone pale and Daelan stood frozen beside her. My vision darkened at the edges. The pain in my head exploded again.

My fingers tightened around the microphone. “You dare exchange vows with someone else… not even a stranger…my fucking bestfriend while I’m still your wife,” I whispered hoarsely.

“You lied to me.” My chest heaved violently. “You told me you were on a business trip.” Tears slid down my cheeks. “I waited for your calls like an idiot.”

My legs wobbled. The stage lights turned blinding. My vision flickered, darkness creeping in but I forced myself to keep speaking.

“Daelan…” His name came out broken. “You destroyed me.”

The microphone slipped from my fingers. It hit the stage with a loud thud.

I swayed and then everything went dark. The last thing I heard was the crowd erupting into chaos.

The first thing I felt when I opened my eyes was cold, the kind that seeped into your bones. Something brushed gently across my forehead. A soft voice murmured nearby. “Easy… she’s waking up.”

My eyelids twitched. My head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it and kept swinging. Every pulse of blood through my skull sent another wave of pain crashing behind my eyes.

What the hell happened?

My fingers moved weakly against the sheets.

Hospital white.

A bitter curse formed in my throat. “Oh… you’ve got to be kidding me. It was’nt a fucking nightmare?”

I blinked again, trying to focus. My vision was still strange. Not completely gone but foggy around the edges, like someone had smeared grease across glass.

A hand suddenly gripped my arm.

For a brief second, I smiled.

“Daelan…” I whispered hoarsely. My voice cracked like broken glass. “Please tell me that was a fucking prank.”

I forced my eyes open wider but the man sitting beside my bed wasn’t Daelan. It was my lawyer, Barrister Felix.

The smile slowly fell off my face. “…What the hell are you doing here?”

Felix looked exhausted. His neat suit jacket hung open, his tie loosened slightly. Dark circles sat under his eyes like bruises. He studied me carefully before answering. “I attended the wedding,” he said quietly.

I stared at him.

The word wedding slammed back into my mind like a punch and my chest tightened painfully.

He continued. “You collapsed on stage. People panicked. I helped get you out before the press could start recording everything.”

I glanced around the hospital room. There are no flowers, family or friends. Just my lawyer sitting beside my bed like a witness to a crime.

“Well,” I said slowly, my voice turning cold, “isn’t that fucking poetic.”

Felix didn’t reply.

I pushed myself up slightly against the pillows. Pain stabbed through my head, but I ignored it. My jaw tightened. “He didn’t even come to see me… I want to sue him.”

Felix blinked. “Callista”

“I want him arrested,” I cut in, my voice rising. “Fraud, bigamy, emotional damage..whatever the hell you can dig up. I don’t care.”

My breathing quickened. “I want to destroy him. I want him fucking gone… just do something.” The words spilled out faster now, hot and furious. “I want everything he owns taken away. Every damn thing. His accounts, his properties, his reputation.”

My hands trembled. “I want him crawling through the same dirt I found him in before I married him.”

My voice dropped into a hiss. “I built that man. I made him something. Without me, he was nothing but a broken nobody with a pretty smile and big promises.”

Felix leaned forward slightly. “Callista…”

My eyes burned. “I want revenge.”

He stared at me like he was weighing how much truth I could handle and then he said it. “You can’t sue him for bigamy.”

I frowned. “Why the hell not?”

He hesitated. “Because you’re not married to him.”

I blinked slowly. “What?”

“You and Daelan divorced five years ago.”

For a moment, nothing made sense. My brain refused to process it. “…What did you just say?”

“You signed the papers yourself.”

I laughed. “That’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking.”

My stomach twisted violently. “That’s impossible.”

Felix reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thin folder. He placed the documents carefully on the bed. “Your divorce settlement.”

I stared at them like they were about to explode. My pulse pounded in my ears. “This is bullshit,” I whispered.

He said nothing.

Slowly, I reached for the folder. My fingers shook so violently the paper rattled as I flipped it open. The text was a blurry smudge, but one thing stood out with horrifying clarity at the bottom of the page: my own signature, written in my distinct, sharp handwriting.

My blood ran entirely cold. The hospital ward felt suffocatingly quiet.

“...No,” I whispered, shaking my head as a cold sweat broke out across my skin. “That’s not possible. Felix, I’ve shared a bed with him every night. He calls me his wife. We live in the same house. How could we be divorced for five years?!”

Felix watched me, his eyes heavy with a pity that I absolutely hated. “Callista… do you remember the car accident? The one that happened exactly five years ago?”

A sudden, brutal spike of pain shot behind my eyes, so sharp I gasped. Something dark flickered at the very edge of my memory, shattered glass, headlights, a deafening crash but it slipped away into the fog before I could grasp it.

My chest rose and fell in ragged, panicked breaths as the terrifying truth began to settle into my bones.

My husband was marrying my best friend. He had stolen my life, my company, and my sanity. And I was the only idiot in the world who didn't even know I was already a divorcee.