Chapter 2 - Bianca Had Lied About the Most Important Woman in My Life
I canceled the wedding before I asked Bianca another question.
Not postponed.
Canceled.
Lila came first.
A pediatrician examined her within the hour. The red mark on her forehead was minor. No serious injury. No glass had cut her.
Physically, she was safe.
That sentence mattered.
But whenever anyone in white clothing approached, she immediately reached for me.
The bridal suite had turned a wedding dress into something frightening.
Bianca kept calling.
I did not answer.
Instead, I sat beside Lila in a quiet guest room and studied the pendant.
Natalie’s portrait was unmistakable.
Not a photograph copied from social media.
This image was old.
Natalie looked perhaps twenty-two.
Her hair shorter.
A smile I remembered from the first years we were together.
On the back of the pendant was a tiny engraved date.
June 14, 2012.
I had not met Natalie until 2016.
I searched her old digital photographs.
Eventually I found one from college.
Natalie stood outside a small bridal-design studio with three other young women.
One of them made my stomach tighten.
Honey-blonde hair.
Different styling.
Less polished.
But the face was unmistakable.
Bianca.
Under the photograph Natalie had written:
Opening night with Bianca, Maya, and Claire. We actually did it.
Bianca had not merely met my late wife.
They had built something together.
May you like
And for fourteen months of our relationship, she had looked me in the face whenever Natalie’s name came up and pretended they were strangers.
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