Chapter 2

The video cut off abruptly.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

The dress did not fit. It gaped at the bust but dug into my waist, leaving angry red marks across my skin.

Becky had chosen the design. It had been ordered in her size.

I took off the wedding dress.

The zipper caught halfway down my back. I struggled with it for several minutes before finally wrenching it free.

The absurdity of it all suddenly struck me.

I was the bride, yet I had been shut out of my own wedding from beginning to end.

My phone screen lit up.

A new message appeared in the family group chat.

“Congratulations, Bec…”

Before I could read the rest, the message was deleted.

A second later, Becky and Daniel both tagged me in the chat.

Becky: I’m sorry, Gem. I’m having stomach pains, so Daniel and the others are taking me to the hospital.

Daniel: You’ve had a long day too, Gem. What would you like to eat? I can pick something up for you on the way back.

Before I could respond, Becky answered for me.

[Gem loves the chicken pot pie from that diner near school.]

Daniel replied immediately: Got it.

However, I could barely even remember the place.

It was Becky who loved it. She had dragged me there with her several times.

At some point, everything she liked had somehow become something I supposedly liked.

Of all the things she claimed to remember about me, not one of them was ever truly mine.

The family kept chatting in the group. Messages poured in faster than I could read them.

I had known for a long time that they had another group chat without me.

Whenever someone accidentally posted something in this one, everyone would immediately bury it beneath a flood of new messages.

I began typing a question about the congratulations, then deleted it halfway through.

The tears I had only just managed to stop began falling again.

Whenever they talked, I could never get a word in.

On the rare occasions when I sent a message or two, everyone silently skipped over them.

I had tried confronting them about it before.

Becky had simply said, “Gem, you’re so quiet. You only send one or two messages at a time, so we honestly don’t notice them.”

After that, I made an effort to say more. When no one responded, I repeated myself a few times.

At that point, Daniel had frowned and cut me off.

[Gemma, you only need to say something once. We all can read.]

Of course they could read.

They simply chose which words to ignore and when to treat me as though I had no voice.

A message from one of my coworkers had been left unanswered on my phone.

[Gem, the network still needs a sign-language interpreter for the reporting team being sent to Selvaria. Are you interested?]

Ever since I heard about the overseas assignment, I had been waiting for a chance to discuss it with Daniel.

There was no longer such a need for it.

After accepting the offer, I went straight to my room and began packing.

I had moved everything important to the new house and left behind nothing but a pile of old clothes.

All of them were hand-me-downs from Becky.

After I finished packing, I threw every last one of them away.

Daniel and Becky did not return until late that night.

My mother and Becky’s father came back with them.

Even Daniel’s parents were there.

Thinking I was not home, the entire family settled into the living room to talk.

I was about to step out of my room when I heard Becky sobbing.

“Daniel, what are we going to do? You and Gem only just had your wedding, but I’m already pregnant with your child.”

The words hit me like a physical blow.

Then, Daniel stroked Becky’s back and pulled her tightly against his chest.

“We’ll go to the courthouse and make ours legal first. We can explain everything to Gem afterward. As long as we talk to her properly, she’ll understand.”

Mom stared anxiously at Becky’s stomach. “Don’t cry, Bec. You need to think about the baby.”

Daniel’s mother, Stephanie Pearson, chimed in. “You two have gone through the ceremony together. All that’s left is the marriage license. You might as well make it official.”

My stepfather, Richard Imrie, and Daniel’s father, Robert Pearson, shook hands with broad smiles. “Now we really are going to be family.”

“You can skip the handshake. We’re family now.”

A wave of icy dread washed over me.

I blinked against the burning in my eyes.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

The message they had deleted from the family chat had been to congratulate my best friend on carrying my husband’s child.

I knew I could never compete with Becky when it came to winning our parents over.

I just never imagined that not only did everyone know they were together, they had even kept it from me.

Like a fool, I had let them make every decision for me while I played my part in their charade.