I was left behind at my own wedding. He found someone better. My maid of honor smirked as she delivered the news.
I stood frozen in my dress, everyone watching. Instead of crying, I just smiled and left. Three months later, my phone exploded with messages when they both discovered what I had been planning all along.
Hello everyone. Thank you for being here with me today. Before I begin my story, I’d love to know which city you’re joining us from.
Please feel free to share in the comments. Now, let me take you into this story. My story starts on what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.
I was left behind at my own wedding. I can still see the scene in my head: me standing frozen in my white dress, one hundred eighty pairs of eyes staring at me, and my maid of honor, my best friend, standing in front of me with this cold little smirk on her face as she delivered the news. “He found someone better,” she said.
I should have screamed. I should have cried. I should have thrown my bouquet at her head.
But I didn’t. I just stood there frozen. And then I smiled.
I smiled, I turned around, and I left. Three months later, my phone exploded with messages—vicious, angry, desperate messages from both of them. That’s when they finally discovered what I had been planning all along.
My name is Karen. I’m thirty-two, or at least I was thirty-two when this all happened. I’m a software engineer, a coder.
My brain works in logic, in lines of code, in cause and effect, which is probably why I never saw this coming. I met Gregory—Greg—five years ago at a mutual friend’s birthday party. I’ve always been a bit of an introvert, more comfortable with a keyboard than a crowd.
I was hiding by the snack table, pretending to be fascinated by a bowl of pretzels, when he walked up. He had this easy smile. He looked just as out of place as I felt.
We started talking and it was just easy. He was funny, ambitious, and he seemed to genuinely like that I was smart. He didn’t seem intimidated by it.
He’d ask me about my coding projects and his eyes wouldn’t glaze over. We just clicked. We dated for three years—good years.
We built a life. He wasn’t a grand-gestures kind of guy, but he was steady. He was the one who would remember to make my coffee in the morning before a big meeting, exactly how I liked it: two creams, no sugar.
He was the one who would rub my shoulders after I’d been hunched over my keyboard for twelve hours straight. We adopted a dog, a goofy golden retriever named Buster. We argued about paint colors and which show to binge-watch.
We talked about our futures, our careers. It felt real. It felt solid.
When he proposed on our third anniversary, down on one knee by the lake where we had our second date, it was the easiest yes of my life. We spent the next year planning the wedding. And, of course, my maid of honor was an obvious choice—my best friend since our first day of college, Brenda.
Brenda. She was the other half of my life. Where I was quiet and logical, she was loud, charismatic, and fearless.
She was the one who dragged me to parties in college, who proofread my essays, who held my hair back when I got sick. I’ll never forget: I was twenty years old, just a junior. I got a call from my mom on a random Tuesday.
My dad was leaving. Just like that. After thirty years.
I was a wreck. I thought my entire world was ending. It was a terrible, messy divorce, and I was caught right in the middle of it.
I locked myself in my dorm room for two days. I didn’t answer calls. I didn’t go to class.
I just broke. Brenda was the one who didn’t just knock. She used a credit card to jimmy the lock, marched in with a large pizza and a terrible comedy movie, and just sat with me on the floor.
She didn’t say a word for an hour. She just put her arm around me and let me cry. That’s the woman I trusted.
I trusted her with my life. She was more than just my friend. For the last four years, she had been my business partner.
We’d started a small tech company right out of college. It was my code, my product. I was the architect, the engineer, the one who built the entire platform from scratch.
But I was terrible at selling it. I’m an engineer, not a salesperson. That’s where Brenda came in.
She was the charming frontwoman, the networker, the one who could charm clients and investors with that million-dollar smile. We were a perfect team. Or so I thought.
I built it. She sold it. And we were on the verge of greatness.
After years of eighty-hour weeks, of eating cheap ramen and pouring every cent of our savings and meager salary back into the company, we had finally done it. We’d secured a major acquisition offer from a huge tech firm. The kind of offer that changes your life.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page to discover the rest 🔎👇
