Now here he was, telling me they hadn't crossed any lines.

Isabel's posts kept coming, one after another.

Serving tea to the in-laws, collecting the gift money for changing how she addressed them, pouring champagne, the parents' toast...

Before I even realized it, all of this had gone far past what Anthony had promised me. She was only supposed to walk through the entrance. Nothing more.

It wasn't until the very last part, the bouquet toss, that Anthony's message finally trickled in.

【Are you at the hotel yet? Wait a while longer in the lounge. Izzy's having fun, so she went ahead and did the rest of the ceremony too.】

【Don't be upset about it. Just think of it as making up for how you made her cry earlier.】

The lounge was only two rooms away from the banquet hall.

Even so, he wouldn't come look in on me. Not once.

I didn't answer Anthony.

I just cropped a corner of the video Isabel had posted, the one showing my wedding cake already smashed beyond recognition, and sent it to him.

【Why did you let her touch my cake.】

【It's just a cake, what's the big deal, I'll have the hotel go buy another one.】

I bit my lip until it went white.

【Everything you promised me. Have you forgotten all of it?】

Why, when I was already this far past disappointment, did my heart still hurt this much?

The wedding gown I'd searched more than a dozen shops to find, the one Isabel secretly tried on and stretched out of shape. Anthony had said, what's the big deal, just get another one.

The little garden chapel I'd fallen in love with, the one Isabel quietly swapped for a dreamy-styled banquet hall. Anthony had said, do what she wants, she has better taste.

By the very end of the wedding planning, my one and only request was that I make the wedding cake with my own hands.

I'd told Anthony this was the biggest wish I had as a pastry chef.

Isabel hadn't come back to the country yet, then.

Anthony had stood outside my soon-to-open pastry shop and gently tweaked my nose.

"My baby's so easy to please."

"Fine. When the day comes, I'll keep an eye on every single guest at the wedding. Everyone has to clean their plate and then write our master pastry chef an eight-hundred-word rave review."

I laughed and threw myself into his arms.

"Such a smooth talker!"

I dragged the progress bar back again and again, watching that short clip.

The cake I'd come to the hotel early to finish had been cut to pieces.

Before anyone had even taken a bite, Isabel smeared it across the face of one of Anthony's buddies.

The whole crowd burst into laughing and shoving, wiping frosting on each other.

My wish, trampled underfoot, smeared across the wall, scraped into the kitchen scraps.

The reply on the other end paused for a few seconds.

The next second, it drove straight into my heart again.

【Trudy Bishop, a person shouldn't be so ungrateful.】

【It's just a cake, why make such a fuss. Not a single one of your relatives showed up, even your bridesmaids were people Izzy rounded up to save you from an empty room.】

The scar was ripped open all over again.

I jabbed at the screen so hard it clicked and clicked.

【The reason my parents wouldn't come. Aren't you the one who knows best?】

The other end went silent.

The pain I'd buried settled back down into my lower belly, dragged up by the memory.

That day. Blood everywhere on the floor, a tearing, ripping agony.

On instinct, I'd dialed the number I trusted most.

The instant the call connected, a spoiled, shrill female voice was already yelling.

"Hey, hey, big busy man, you promised to hang out with us all day today, turn it off, turn it off, no answering calls!"

Along with the clanging, festive racket of the wedding car, and then the "beep, beep" of the call being cut off.

I lost a child.

When I woke, I was lying in the hospital.

The first face I saw wasn't Anthony's. It was my roommate's.

She was the one who'd found me collapsed at home after her shift, rushed me to the hospital, and signed the surgery consent form for me too.

I'd known her less than a month then. She took the risk and signed her name for me.

My fiancé, Anthony, hung up on me to go watch the parade floats with his girl buddy.

The doctor's face was tight with sympathy.

"This is a threatened miscarriage. If you'd been brought in even half an hour sooner, we could have saved the baby."

Suffocating despair closed over me.

I called Anthony over and over.

Not until night fell did I finally have someone at my side, my parents, who had come from hundreds of miles away, not Anthony, who was only three miles off at the amusement park, keeping Isabel company.

That day something in me went dead, and I went home with my mom and dad.

Something occurred to me, and I opened the chat thread with the cousin I was closest to.

Before the wedding party set out, she'd texted me.

【Hey, is the ceremony about to start?】

A few minutes later.

【Don't be too upset. I know Aunt and Uncle wouldn't let us come to the wedding, but honestly, they've been having regrets.】

【I really believe things between you can smooth over.】

She'd sent me a video.

Looking at my mom and dad on the thumbnail, I couldn't work up the nerve to open it.

Now, with a shaking finger, I pressed play.

On the sofa at my aunt's place, my parents' eyes were already red.

Mom kept wiping at her tears.

"Why does that girl have to be so stubborn? We told her that man was no good."

"Who plays around with another woman while his own fiancée is having a miscarriage?"

"And then what? He kneels in the snow all night, kneels himself right into the hospital, spits out some hollow little vow, and she goes soft on him."

Dad gripped his teacup and said nothing.

Mom, furious, smacked his arm.

"And you, why did you have to say such harsh things? Telling her if she dared marry him, she was no daughter of yours."

"Well, now look. Our girl's actually gone."

Watching the new white in my parents' hair, my tears fell one by one.

Dad was quiet for a long while,

then took a bank card out of his wallet and handed it to my cousin.

"Effie Bishop, take this to your cousin when you get the chance."

"There's a five-hundred-thousand-dollar dowry in there. Don't let her be treated badly by her husband's family."

A whole day of held-back feeling broke loose.

I buried my face and couldn't stop the sobs, crying until my throat went hoarse.

There was only one thought in my head.

I want to go home.

I didn't bother straightening anything, just grabbed my things and stuffed them into the suitcase.

I couldn't even wait for the early train the next morning, so I paid two thousand for a long-distance cab straight home.

The moment I clicked the suitcase shut, Anthony called.

"Why aren't you answering my messages?"

I didn't respond.

He clicked his tongue, but didn't press it, his tone offhand.

"Things got a little out of hand. A good bit of the banquet hall décor got wrecked."

"I had the hotel set up a small hall on short notice. We'll just run our program in there."

The main hall was ten thousand square feet, the small one a thousand.

The ones there to sample a wedding got the main hall. The real bride got the small one.

In Anthony's mouth it was as easy as switching parking spots.

But I couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.

I answered flatly:"Fine."

Not hearing the complaint he'd expected, Anthony paused.

Once it sank in, he let out a breath of relief.

"Now that's more like it."

"The hotel's already setting up, and I just had someone custom-make an identical wedding cake."

Something crossed his mind, and his voice dropped lower, edged with a bit of tenderness.

"Trudy, you're about to become my wife."

"The wedding starts at nine. Make sure you're there on time."

The call ended.

I slid the diamond ring off my finger and dropped it on the hotel nightstand.

Then I turned, and got into the cab home.