Chapter 1 - Thirty-Eight Minutes Before
My Sister Ruined My $4,600 Wedding Dress With Black Dye 38 Minutes Before the Ceremony—Then My Groom Played Her Secret Recording, Exposed Why She’d Been Sending Me Fake Cheating Messages...
Thirty-eight minutes before I was supposed to marry Caleb Donovan, my older sister poured black fabric dye down the front of my wedding dress.
She didn't spill it.
She didn't trip.
She looked me directly in the eyes, lifted the bottle over the ivory lace I'd spent nearly nine months paying for, and squeezed.
The first stream hit just beneath my collarbone.
Cold liquid soaked through the delicate embroidery and spread across the bodice like ink through paper.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then Mallory smiled.
"There," she said. "Now it actually looks like you."
I stared down at the dress.
Black dye crawled over the lace, dripped across the fitted waist, and splattered onto the skirt of my $4,600 gown.
My maid of honor, June Hartley, screamed from behind me.
"What the hell did you just do?"
Mallory tossed the half-empty bottle onto the vanity.
"I was kidding."
"Kidding?" June shouted.
My mother stood beside the window.
She wasn't running for towels.
She wasn't yelling at Mallory.
She wasn't even looking particularly shocked.
She was holding up her phone.
Recording.
I looked at her.
"Mom."
She lowered the phone half an inch.
"What?"
"Stop filming me."
Her expression tightened as though I were embarrassing her.
"Lauren, don't make a scene."
I almost laughed.
My sister had just destroyed my wedding dress thirty-eight minutes before my ceremony, but apparently I was the one making a scene.
Mallory folded her arms.
"It can probably be cleaned."
"It's fabric dye!" June snapped.
Mom sighed.
"It's a dress, June. Nobody died."
I looked down again.
For months, I'd pictured that dress walking through the glass doors of the Riverstone Hotel in Pittsburgh, sunlight falling across the train while Caleb waited beneath the floral arch.
I had worked overtime at the orthopedic clinic to buy it.
I'd skipped weekend trips.
I hadn't replaced my ten-year-old laptop when the screen started flickering.
I'd packed lunch instead of ordering food with my coworkers.
None of that was because Caleb expected some extravagant wedding.
He would've married me at city hall wearing jeans.
I bought the dress because, for once in my life, I wanted something beautiful that belonged completely to me.
Mallory knew that.
Maybe that was exactly why she'd destroyed it.
She stepped closer.
"Come on, Lauren. Cry."
The room became very quiet.
"What?" I asked.
"You always do that thing where you act strong for five minutes and then cry somewhere until everybody feels guilty."
June moved between us.
"Get away from her."
Mallory rolled her eyes.
"Oh my God. She's thirty years old. She doesn't need a bodyguard."
I stared at my sister.
Then I remembered something Caleb had told me thirteen hours earlier.
Something Mallory didn't know he'd told me.
Something that suddenly made the black dye feel less like a cruel prank and more like the last desperate move of someone who knew she was about to lose.
So I smiled.
Mallory's confidence flickered.
"Why are you smiling?"
I wiped a drop of black dye from my wrist.
"Because this doesn't change anything."
Her jaw tightened.
"You can't seriously walk down the aisle like that."
"No."
I looked toward June.
"Bring me the reception dress."
Mallory blinked.
"What?"
I had bought a simple champagne-colored satin dress for dancing later that night. It cost less than three hundred dollars.
It wasn't what I'd imagined wearing during my vows.
But it was clean.
And suddenly, that was all I needed.
Mom finally put away her phone.
"Lauren, maybe we should delay everything."
"No."
"You don't want people seeing you upset."
"I'm not upset."
That was only partly true.
My hands were shaking.
But beneath the shock, something else had settled inside me.
Clarity.
For thirty years, Mallory had been allowed to hurt me as long as she had a reason.
She was jealous.
She was struggling.
She was sensitive.
She was going through something.
And whenever I reacted, Mom reminded me that I was the calmer sister.
The reasonable one.
The one who should know better.
When Mallory took my car without permission at seventeen and wrecked it, Mom asked why I'd left the keys where she could find them.
When she announced my college acceptance before I could tell our grandparents, I was told she was "just excited."
When she wore my favorite dress to a party and returned it torn, Mom said clothes weren't worth damaging a relationship over.
Apparently wedding dresses weren't either.
But this time, Mallory had made one mistake.
She had assumed Caleb was just another person she could manipulate.
I picked up my phone.
Mom immediately frowned.
"Who are you calling?"
"Caleb."
Mallory's face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
"No."
It was the first word she'd spoken without confidence.
I looked at her.
"No?"
"He's not supposed to see you before the ceremony."
June gave a bitter laugh.
"That's what you're worried about?"
Mallory ignored her.
"Lauren, don't drag him into some stupid sister fight."
I pressed Caleb's name.
Mallory stepped toward me.
"Seriously. Don't."
I put the phone to my ear.
He answered on the second ring.
"Hey, beautiful."
His voice almost broke me.
Almost.
"I need you upstairs."
Silence.
"What's wrong?"
"Bring your phone."
Another pause.
Then his voice hardened.
"Did Mallory do something?"
My sister went pale.
That answered a question I hadn't even asked.
"Yes."
"I'm coming."
I hung up.
Mom looked between us.
"What does he mean, did Mallory do something?"
Mallory reached for her purse.
"I don't have to stand here while everyone attacks me."
I moved between her and the door.
For the first time in my life, my older sister looked uncertain of me.
"Actually," I said, "I think you're going to stay."
Mom shook her head.
"Lauren, you're behaving irrationally."
"No. For once, I'm not."
Mallory's eyes narrowed.
"You think Caleb's going to take your side because you're wearing a wedding dress?"
I looked down at the black stains.
"Technically, I'm not anymore."
June covered a laugh.
Mallory's expression hardened.
Then we heard footsteps outside.
Fast.
The door opened.
Caleb walked inside wearing black tuxedo pants, his white dress shirt still unbuttoned at the collar.
He stopped when he saw me.
His eyes dropped to the dress.
Then to Mallory.
Then to the bottle of black dye on the vanity.
For several seconds he said nothing.
I had never seen that expression on his face before.
Not anger exactly.
Disgust.
He looked at Mallory.
"Tell me you didn't do that."
She shrugged.
"Lauren's exaggerating."
Caleb stared at the ruined dress.
"How exactly does someone exaggerate black dye?"
"It was supposed to be funny."
"It wasn't."
Mom stepped forward.
"Caleb, everyone is emotional. Maybe you should go downstairs."
"No."
He walked toward me and gently took my hand.
Then he looked at Mallory.
"You told me last night that Lauren didn't deserve me."
Mom froze.
Mallory's mouth opened.
Caleb continued.
"You asked me not to marry her."
"Caleb—"
"And that wasn't even the worst thing you said."
Mallory's face drained completely white.
"Don't."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
I looked at my mother.
"You might want to start recording again."
Caleb unlocked the screen.
Mallory backed away.
"Lauren, he's twisting this."
"Then let's hear the untwisted version."
Caleb pressed play.
And my sister's voice filled the bridal suite.
"You picked the wrong Whitaker sister."
Nobody breathed.
Then the recording continued.
"Cancel the wedding, Caleb. Give me one chance, and I swear you'll never think about Lauren again."
My mother slowly sat down.
May you like
But Caleb wasn't finished.
Because what happened next would finally explain the anonymous messages, the lies, the secret meeting—and why Mallory had been trying to destroy my relationship for months.
