Nothing about that felt strange to me. If anything, it felt mature. Like a partnership.
Three months before the wedding, I came home early from work because a client meeting got canceled. Nick’s car was already in the driveway. I smiled when I saw it.
He was supposed to be working late, and my first thought was that maybe we’d get an unexpected quiet night together. I walked in quietly, kicking off my heels by the door. Then I heard voices in the living room.
“Andrea still has no idea,” Lori said. Nick snorted. “Of course she doesn’t.
She trusts us completely.”
I froze. What did I not know about?
Then Lori said, lower this time, “So when are you actually dumping her, baby?”
What?
Nick chuckled. “Once the wedding day comes, we’ll handle it.
By then, she’ll have paid for everything, and you can just take her place. It’s perfect.”
I wanted to believe it was all a bad dream, but there was no mistake, and no misunderstanding. Nick and Lori… Talking about me like I was stupid.
Like I was a wallet in a white dress. I backed away quietly, walked out the front door, and got in my car. I cried first.
Then I got angry. Then I started planning. If they wanted to humiliate me, I was not going to make it easy.
Over the next three months, I learned how deep it went. They were sloppy because they thought I was blind. Or maybe because people get reckless when they believe they’ve already won.
Nick showered with his phone on the sink one night, and messages lit up the screen. The photos and texts Nick and Lori had been exchanging cleared away the last of my doubts — my fiancé was cheating on me with my sister. But that wasn’t even the worst part.
One day, I was at my parents’ house when a message preview from Lori lit up Mom’s iPad. What do we do if Andrea freaks out?
Mom was in the bathroom, and she hadn’t locked the device. I tapped on the message.
That’s when I saw the message that changed something in me for good. She won’t. She’s always been too soft to fight back.
I stared at it so long that the words blurred.
My mother was in on it. I took a screenshot and sent it to myself, then deleted it. The three of them were in for a big surprise on the wedding day!
The church looked beautiful on the wedding day. The flowers, the decorations… it was all perfect. It brought tears to my eyes knowing that it was all a sham, but I wiped them away.
I had to ensure all the plans were in place for my surprise. Little did I know just how thoroughly Lori and Nick intended to betray me. I entered the bridal suite in time to get ready for “my wedding.”
But my gown was gone.
I stared at the empty hanger.
