The Fake Wedding Was For Me, The Real One For Her Chapter 02

The Fake Wedding Was For Me, The Real One For Her Chapter 02

[Are you sure about this?] The reply came fast.

[I’m sure.] My fingers stayed steady on the screen. [Today’s my engagement. The whole family will be there — they can all be witnesses.]

A long pause. Then the agreement came through.

I exhaled—slow, measured, final. But I hadn’t even gotten to my feet when the bedroom door slammed open. Mom stormed in, flanked by a team of stylists.

“Clara, do you have any idea what time it is? Hurry up!”

“Get dressed — now!”

She snapped her fingers, and the women closed in, yanking my pajamas off without a word.

“It’s your engagement day. Don’t embarrass me.” Her eyes swept over me, and she sighed like looking at me physically hurt. “If Chloe had her own body, she’d outshine you effortlessly.”

“And you can’t even talk. God only knows what Julian sees in you.”

I stood there and took it.

I’d heard it all before. A thousand variations of the same thing.

To them, I would never measure up. Not in any way that mattered.

“Wait — this dress is ripped!” One of the women held up the fabric. “Someone’s already worn this. You can’t make her wear a hand-me-down for her engagement dress!”

I glanced down at my waist. The fabric was frayed along one side — a jagged tear running through the seam.

“It was one of Chloe’s old dresses — she didn’t want it anymore, so we had it altered.” Arthur Sterling walked in, barely glancing at the tear. “It’s just an engagement. No need for a new one. Julian agreed.”

“Pin it closed. It’ll be fine.”

The pin went through the fabric and straight into my skin — a rough scrape that dragged blood to the surface and caught in the flesh.

I flinched. Arthur didn’t even look up.

“Deal with it. In a couple of weeks, it won’t matter anyway.”

A couple of weeks. That was when Chloe would be back.

That was how it had always worked. Chloe got the love. I got what was left over — which was usually the pain.

Mom used to time it perfectly—she’d let Chloe gorge on rich junk food the day before a swap, knowing full well the stomachache would hit after I came back. I’d spend the next day curled up in bed, pain so bad I wanted to die, and no one would check on me once.

Arthur caught Chloe stealing at school and said nothing — not until I swapped back. Then he dragged me in to apologize for something I never did. The entire class shut me out for a semester.

Chloe mentioned once—once—that she didn’t like the cold weather. Dad forced me to decline an Ivy League acceptance and re-enrolled me at some random college in a warmer state, just to keep her comfortable.

And every time, the excuse was the same. “It’s not a big deal — she had such a hard life before. What’s wrong with spoiling her a little?”

“You’ve had it easy your whole life — why do you have to be so selfish about everything?”

A tired laugh scraped out of me. They wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

They could spoil her all they wanted. I was done.

“Clara Sterling!” Julian showed up at the door a short while later.

His eyes caught on the dress — just for a second — before he tapped my head and smiled. “I’ll get you something nicer for the wedding, okay?”

I didn’t answer. My eyes had already landed on the car waiting at the curb—and the heap of dead, black roses spread across the hood.

“What the hell is this?”

Arthur’s expression soured — a rare crack in his composure. Julian pulled him aside, voice low.

“Chloe made the florist switch them. Said it was some custom from her hometown.”

“Probably just… one of her jokes.”

The moment he heard it was Chloe’s idea, Arthur’s whole face relaxed.

“Oh, then it’s fine. Let her have her fun.” He shrugged it off, then glanced at Julian — both of them watching for my reaction.

I gave them nothing. Just climbed into the car and sat down, stiff and blank, like someone had cut all my strings.

People stared the entire way. I could hear the whispers — what kind of bride shows up to her engagement like she’s going to a funeral? Bad luck. Terrible omen.

None of it touched me. I let Julian hold my hand and felt nothing.

We stepped out of the car and walked into the venue.

The second we crossed the threshold, every screen in the room went black.

“Clara—happy engagement day!”

“I recorded a little surprise just for you—so make sure you listen all the way through, okay?”

Chloe’s voice. Filling every corner of the room.

By the time the recording ended, the entire venue had gone dead silent.