Chapter 1 - The Wedding Crasher
The silence in the chapel was absolutely deafening.
Every single eye in the room was locked onto Eleanor Vance as she stood tall in the front pew.
Chloe’s perfect, porcelain face flushed an ugly shade of crimson.
“Excuse me?” my sister whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of embarrassment and fury.
Eleanor did not back down, taking a deliberate step into the center aisle.
“I said, she saved your life, Chloe,” Eleanor repeated, her voice projecting effortlessly to the back of the room.
“I am perfectly aware of the sacrifices your sister made for you when you were a child.”
“My son, Liam, has told me the story of how she pulled you from that burning house.”
Liam was staring at his bride, his jaw slightly open in utter disbelief.
“Eleanor, please, this is a misunderstanding,” my mother, Susan, finally sputtered, stepping forward with her hands raised.
“My daughter was just trying to ensure the photographs are symmetrical.”
Eleanor turned her piercing gaze toward my mother, and I watched my mother shrink back under the scrutiny.
“Symmetrical?” Eleanor asked, the word dripping with venomous sarcasm.
“You would banish your eldest daughter to the shadows for the sake of an aesthetic?”
“If this is the kind of shallow, callous family my son is marrying into, then we have a serious problem.”
Chloe gripped her heavy lace skirt, tears of genuine panic finally welling in her eyes.
“Liam, tell your mother to sit down and stop ruining our wedding!” Chloe demanded, her mask completely slipping.
Liam looked from his mother, to Chloe, and finally, his eyes landed on me sitting in my wheelchair.
I had not moved a muscle, my scarred hands gripping the wheels tightly.
I saw the exact moment the illusion of his perfect bride shattered in Liam’s mind.
He slowly pulled his hands away from Chloe’s grasp.
“Liam, what are you doing?” Chloe gasped, reaching for him again.
“My mother is right, Chloe,” Liam said, his voice quiet but incredibly firm.
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“If you can treat the woman who gave up her body to save yours like a piece of ugly furniture, I don't know who you really are.”
He took a step back from the altar, leaving Chloe standing alone under the floral archway.
