Chapter 2

Cyrus avoided my eyes.

I felt a cold ache in my chest, like a chill was sinking into my bones.

“Cyrus, what about me?” I asked with teary eyes.

“She gets to have her wish at my wedding, but what about everything I planned? Does it mean nothing now?”

I spent more than two weeks planning everything for the wedding. I even wrote the invitations by hand and barely slept.

Just last night, I stayed up with Cyrus talking about how perfect today would be.

I thought I would be the happiest bride. I thought our seven years together meant something.

But none of it seemed to matter anymore.

I waited for his answer.

Cyrus sounded annoyed. “You’re being unreasonable. We still have a future together. She’s dying. What’s wrong with letting her have this?”

I knew Cyrus. He was always calm and polite.

This was the first time he had raised his voice at me in seven years, and it was for another woman.

“I’m sorry.” Cyrus grabbed his hair in frustration.

“The wedding’s about to start. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Cyrus!” I chased after him.

But the only response I got was the door closing in my face.

He was gone.

On the other side of the door, the wedding music began to play.

I stood there in the inner garments of my wedding dress and felt like an idiot.

Just because his crush was dying, I had to lose everything?

The wedding had already started.

A staff member suddenly walked into the dressing room and turned on the big screen.

“Ms. Jagger, Ms. Clarkson asked us to do this.”

After that, he left.

My phone lit up. It was a call from my mom, but I did not get to answer it.

Then, the wedding ceremony played on the screen.

Yara was walking toward Cyrus with a big smile. She was wearing the wedding dress I had designed and walking on the bridge I had stayed up many nights to build.

The vows I had written were being read aloud, but they were meant for her.

The custom wedding rings had her initials.

The video of our memories had been edited to show her with Cyrus.

AI had been used to replace my face with hers in the wedding photos I worked so hard to take.

Sadness, pain, and frustration spread through my chest like tiny bugs crawling under my skin.

It hurt a lot.

But I had no way to let it out.

My whole body shook.

Every place on my body that was bruised and sore from the wedding preparations felt like it was burning.

I spent hours under the hot sun to make sure the photos were perfect, only for Yara to steal them.

I saw Cyrus smiling at her with so much love.

He smiled at me too, but he never looked at me that way.

I realized today that he had never really loved me.

I wrapped my arms around myself. I could not stop my tears.

Then, the screen changed again.

I saw my parents in the corner. They were being held down, with their mouths gagged.

“Dad! Mom!”

I jumped up in shock.

How could Cyrus do this? How could he be so cruel?

I ran to the door and pounded on it. “Let me out! Let me out!”

But the only thing I could hear was the sound of the wedding march playing outside.