The Stolen Bridal Carriage

I stared at the diagnosis my brother had just shoved into my hands. The hospital's name was smudged past reading, and the corner bore a crooked, obviously forged stamp.

How many times was this now, Lena getting sick? Stomach cancer last year. Bone cancer the year before that. Before that, it had been heart disease, leukemia, and depression.

Even I could tell it was fake at a glance. I refused to believe our parents couldn't see it too.

The drums and instruments of celebration rattled through the banquet hall, stabbing straight through my eardrums and into my chest.

Megan Hayes stood beside me in the pale pink bridesmaid's dress I'd picked out for her with my own hands. Her voice was clipped with impatience.

"Take my advice and don't make a scene. You're from a small town, remember—marrying Nathan was already reaching above your station. If you humiliate him in front of everyone, don't be surprised when he really doesn't want you anymore."

She glanced past me, into the hall.

"And it's not like we were hiding it from you on purpose. You're just too petty, always acting like the whole world owes you something. Honestly? Nathan and Lena look good together."

I stared at her, my throat scalded shut as if someone had poured molten lead down it. I couldn't get a single word out.

She'd been my only friend since I'd moved to this city. Years ago, when the other students had ganged up on her, I was the one who'd stood between them and her. We'd been inseparable all four years of college.

Just days ago, trying on my wedding dress, she'd thrown her arms around me, laughing. "Back home, they say an unmarried girl only gets to stand as a bridesmaid once in her life. Hazel, I have to be the one standing up there with you. I want to see your happiness with my own eyes."

Now she stood on the other side of it from me.

The noise from the hall swelled louder.

"Nathan, if you ever dare mistreat my darling Lena, I don't care how old I am, I'll come after you myself." That was my grandmother—the one who'd always doted on me.

"Landing a girl as wonderful as Lena, Nathan's going to spoil her rotten. The rest of us can only be jealous." That was one of Nathan's friends, the same one who'd been so friendly to me just last night.

Every blessing landed on me like a blade.

My brother could see I wasn't ready to give this up. He frowned and caught my arm. "Don't go in there and embarrass yourself. I'll tell you straight—this wedding was Nathan's idea from the start."

A shudder ran through me, and a ringing filled my ears, drowning out everything else.

"Hazel, I like you. Be with me."

Back then, nobody believed the proud, unreachable Nathan Sinclair would actually sit quietly in the library for three straight years, just to be near me. Or that he'd be the one to drop to one knee in front of me the tenth time my own parents forgot my birthday.

"Hazel, I'll marry you on your birthday. That way, everyone will have to celebrate you, whether they mean to or not. You deserve the best this world has to offer."

I looked down at the ring on my finger, the diamond scattering little shards of light that made my eyes sting.

Today was my birthday.

I peeled my brother's fingers off my arm and stepped into the banquet hall.