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“What are you saying?” Elara’s voice cracked as she half-yelled into the phone, her fingers trembling slightly around it.

Today was her wedding day. She and her boyfriend are getting married, they're supposed to meet by 9am but this is almost twelve and he hasn't showed up.

"Henry we agreed to meet by nine and this is almost twelve o'clock." She complained on the phone.

She was standing in front of the courthouse in her white gown, the delicate fabric clinging to her body, the veil resting lightly over her shoulders. Everything about her appearance screamed the bride except the panic rising in her chest.

"Elara, we won't be getting married today again." Henry said from the phone.

"What do you mean we won't be getting married today? We planned to meet and get married, and we'd be doing exactly that. I'm waiting for you please!" She said, her voice shaky.

“I'm sorry, Elara, I can’t come today.” Henry’s voice came through the phone, coldly, nothing like the man she thought she knew.

Her breath hitched. “What do you mean by that?” she snapped, her voice rising despite being worried. “Henry, we’re getting married today, if you don't remember please. I’m waiting for you.”

There was a brief pause on the other end, and for a second, she clung to hope that this was some kind of mistake, some terrible joke.

“Elara, you have to understand. I won’t be coming and we’re not getting married. I don’t see you as a woman to get married to.”

Her lips parted, but no sound came out at first. The words she just heard didn’t make any sense to her.

“Henry...” she called, her voice came out softer this time, almost like a plea.

“Elara, I told you this morning not to stress, and you thought it was a joke?”

Her brows furrowed instantly. That wasn’t Henry talking, that voice sounded like her best friend's voice.

Her grip on the phone tightened. “Jessica?” she whispered with disbelief.

"Who's Jessica? You're hearing things." he quickly said.

A faint rustle came from the other end, followed by a laugh.

She staggered back a step, her heels scraping slightly against the ground.

“Jessica is with you… when… where? What the hell is going on?” The question felt pointless even as she asked it. Deep down, she already knew and she had suspected them before but just didn't want to accept it.

"Elara...

"Don't you dare lie to me, I know Jessica is with you!" Elara yelled, a tear dropped from her eyes.

The late-night calls. The inside jokes she wasn’t part of. The way Jessica sometimes looked at Henry when she thought Elara wasn’t paying attention.

But she had ignored it. Brushed it off. She trusted them. After all they were the closest people that stood by her when she needed someone the most.

“Elara go home I'll send some money to you for the stress.” Henry said in a dismissive tone.

"Henry, i do not want your money, we're getting married today, why are you with Jessica?!"

“Elara, I'm with Jessica because my heart chose her not you. Now that I made this clear, let's break up,” Henry’s voice cut in again, impatiently.

The least person she had ever expected to betray her was Henry.

They had known each other since childhood. He had been there through everything—school days, heartbreaks, dreams whispered under the stars. When he asked her to be his girlfriend, it felt natural and so inevitable.

They've been dating for three years.

Three years of loving him, of building a future in her mind, of believing every promise he made. She even went against her mother’s wishes for him.

Her mother had warned her again and again to marry a man with wealth, someone who could guarantee stability, because love had failed her.

But Elara had believed she could be different. That her story wouldn’t end the same way.

Elara rolled in her tears trying not to laugh, just like that, he broke up.

“Babe, drop the phone.. kiss me.” The call ended immediately.

Something inside Elara broke completely. Her hand shook as she pulled the phone away from her ear, staring at the screen like it might suddenly change, like this nightmare might undo itself if she just looked hard enough.

“No…he can't leave me like this.” she whispered, shaking her head in tears.

Desperately, she redialed his number. It rang, once, twice, again, the call failed, he had blocked her line.

Her knees became weak, and she fell on her knees on the ground, the weight of her gown pooling around her as she burst into tears. He didn’t only leave her, he left her to be with her best friend.

She held her chest, crying so loudly.

“What am I going to tell my mother…?” she choked out between cries. What would she say?What would anyone say?

In a city where women were judged so easily, where a failed wedding would become gossip before the day even ended, how would she survive the humiliation?

Her mother had warned her but she didn't listen.

He had proposed after three years of loving her so deeply or at least, that was what she believed. How was she supposed to refuse him?

How was she supposed to know this was how it would end?Her mind spiraled, questions piling over questions with no answers in sight.

Where would she even begin again?

She doesn’t care if people are watching her. She's heartbroken and she just want to cry her eyes out right there before thinking of a solution.

Then she overheard a man talking on the phone, standing beside her.