Chapter 2

After seeing Nora off, I returned to the dressing room and changed out of my wedding gown.

Before the enormous mirror, white fabric flowed through the light and shadow, the rose embroidery along the train almost alive.

Derek had flown overseas to have that dress custom-made.

It was one of the few gifts from him that had ever felt truly thoughtful.

The day I tried it on, he had said, "You're the rose in my heart. Marry me, and I'll make sure you spend your whole life in bloom."

I believed him then.

I thought ten years of love had finally brought me to the moment everything opened into flowers.

I had not realized the bloom would last only an instant.

I lowered my eyes, removed the gown, and turned away.

As the dressing-room door closed, the gown slipped to the floor and the embroidered roses disappeared beneath layers of white fabric.

I was about to leave the reception early when a burst of laughter near the exit forced me to stop.

At the center of the crowd, Derek and Vanessa had been dared to bite opposite sides of the same apple.

Just as they leaned in, someone lifted the apple away.

Their mouths met instead.

The ballroom erupted in whistles and shouting.

Derek's friends had not noticed me standing in the corner and began talking without restraint.

"Look at Derek smiling. I'll bet ten grand he's still in love with Vanessa."

"So if Derek gave Vanessa the wedding, does that mean Elise got dumped?"

"Obviously. She grew up with nothing and spent seven years chasing him. You think a man like Derek was ever really going to marry her?"

"Imagine wasting seven years and still failing to keep him. If I were her, I'd disappear from embarrassment."

The mockery swarmed around me like insects.

For a moment, I was back in the summer ten years earlier.

My father, who had abandoned us long before, had lost money gambling again and showed up at my school.

He grabbed my hair and tried to force me into an older man's car.

People gathered everywhere, laughing, whispering, pitying me, but no one stepped forward.

Until Derek appeared.

He had his security team pull my father away and called the police.

From that day forward, Derek became the disaster I mistook for a rescue.

But the disaster had finally run its course.

The laughter continued, yet it seemed to come through glass. It could no longer cut inside me.

"Elise?" one of the groomsmen suddenly said, and Derek jerked his head toward me.

His mouth was still smudged with her lipstick.

Our eyes met.

Panic flashed through his expression before he quickly arranged his usual smile.

"We were just playing a party game. Don't overthink it."

"Sure. I won't. Keep playing."

I stepped around him toward the exit.

Derek's gaze tightened, and he caught my wrist.

"You're going home? I'll take you."

Before he could move, Vanessa made a soft sound beside him.

She pressed one hand to her forehead and leaned against his chest.

"Derek, I think I've had too much to drink."

He immediately lifted her into his arms, then looked at me with hesitation.

"I'll take Vanessa somewhere to rest first. You..."

I glanced at Vanessa's perfectly clear eyes and interrupted him calmly.

"It's fine. I'll get home myself."

Whatever he had planned to say died in his throat. Derek studied me strangely, then finally nodded.

"Wait for me. I'll be back soon."

He stopped looking at me and carried Vanessa away.

I watched them go, opened my phone, and canceled the courthouse marriage appointment scheduled for the next day.