Chapter 4

The snow was coming down harder now, sticking to the windshield of my car. I didn't bother to turn on the wipers. The cold seeped into the car, but I didn't feel it. A deeper, more profound cold had settled in my bones, a chill that came from the utter devastation of my heart. I sat there, frozen, watching the two silhouettes in the window.

Liam had taken me to a place just like that once. A historic mansion on the outskirts of the city, a place we both fell in love with. We had wandered through the empty rooms, planning our future. "This is where we'll get married, Chloe," he had said, his voice echoing in the grand ballroom.

"Right here. We'll fill this place with flowers and music and all the people we love." We had spent hours there, dreaming of the life we would build together. It was our special place, a symbol of our love and our shared future.

And now, I had a sickening feeling he was desecrating that memory too. The next day, I found the invitation tucked away in his desk drawer. A lavishly embossed card for the wedding of Liam O'Connell and Sienna Reed. The venue? The historic Lantham Mansion. Our mansion. The date was this Saturday. In two days.

The betrayal was so immense, so all-encompassing, that I felt a strange sense of calm wash over me. The pain was too great to process, so my body simply shut down. I had to see it. I had to witness the final destruction of everything we once were.

On the day of the rehearsal, I drove to the mansion. I parked my car down the road and walked through the snow-covered grounds, feeling like a ghost haunting the ruins of my own life. I slipped in through a side entrance, my architect's knowledge of the building's layout giving me an advantage.

The ballroom was filled with flowers, just as we had planned. White roses and lilies, my favorites. A small group of people were gathered, watching as Liam and Sienna stood on the dais where the altar would be.

Liam was handsome in his tailored suit, a confident smile on his face. But it was Sienna who took my breath away. Not because she was beautiful, but because she was wearing my dress. The wedding gown I had spent months designing for myself. A unique, one-of-a-kind creation that I had sketched out in a notebook I kept by my bed. He must have found the notebook and had it made for her.

My knees felt weak. I leaned against a marble column for support, my hand flying to my mouth to stifle a sob. It was a violation so intimate, so personal, it felt like he had reached into my soul and ripped out a piece of it.

Then, I saw the ring. As Liam took Sienna' s hand, he slid a ring onto her finger. It wasn't just any ring. It was the O'Connell family heirloom, a vintage sapphire and diamond ring that had been passed down through generations. He had shown it to me once, telling me that one day, it would be mine. "This ring is for my wife," he had said, his eyes shining with sincerity. "For the woman I will spend the rest of my life with."

He was saying those words now, to her. The vows they were rehearsing, the promises of eternal love and fidelity, were the same vows we had written together on a rainy afternoon, curled up by the fire. Every word was a dagger in my heart.

Overwhelmed, I stumbled backwards, desperate to escape. I bumped into a floral arrangement, sending a vase crashing to the floor. The sound echoed in the silent ballroom. Every head turned in my direction.

Liam' s eyes widened in shock when he saw me. "Chloe?"

Sienna' s perfectly made-up face twisted into a smirk of triumph. She knew. She knew I was watching.

Liam started towards me, his face a mask of confusion and panic. "Chloe, what are you doing here? I can explain."

I didn't wait to hear his lies. I turned and ran, a searing pain shooting through my abdomen. I ran without looking back, the sound of his voice calling my name fading behind me. I ran from the mansion, from the dress, from the ring, from the man who had systematically destroyed every beautiful thing we had ever shared.