My Best Friend Took My Man. I Gave Her the Whole Ceremony Chapter 01

My Best Friend Took My Man. I Gave Her the Whole Ceremony Chapter 01

A viral trend called “I Dare You” was making the rounds, and that was how I found out. A screenshot of messages between my best friend and my boyfriend.

Valerie Sterling had texted Ethan Vance: [Would you ever tell Clara we slept together?]

Ethan wrote back: [No way.]

Her caption read: [Coward. Honestly, I wouldn’t either. Clara’s been my best friend since we were kids. She matters more than you ever will.]

The comments were ripping them apart and taking my side.

What none of them knew was that Valerie and Ethan weren’t the ones who should feel guilty. I was.

Ethan had gone to prison for me after stabbing a man to protect me, and it cost him everything. His dream of running for office. His future. All of it, gone.

Valerie had been attacked because of me. She was beaten until she lost hearing in one ear, and she still woke up screaming from nightmares.

I looked down at the diagnosis in my hand. Terminal.

And for the first time in weeks, the tight knot in my chest finally loosened. I called Valerie. “Hey… come try on wedding dresses with me?”

I had nothing left to give either of them. Nothing except this.

…

Valerie met me at the boutique while I was browsing. I pulled a pearl-studded satin mermaid gown from the hangers. The kind of thing Valerie always gravitated toward. Classic. Understated.

She frowned. “Wait. I thought you wanted one of those huge beaded gowns with the insane train?”

“Trying something different.” I kept my smile easy.

She didn’t notice how pale I was. Her eyes were locked on the dress.

Before everything happened to her, we used to talk about our weddings all the time. She always said she wanted to walk down the aisle in a satin mermaid dress, with champagne roses everywhere…

I remembered every word.

I took her hands. They were cold, the way they always were now. I squeezed them. “Try it on for me?”

Valerie flinched, like my warmth had startled her. “I can’t. Clara, it’s your wedding dress. I shouldn’t.”

“Come on, I’m exhausted. Do it for me?” I leaned into her shoulder the way I always did when I wanted something.

She gave in, the way she always did. Valerie could never say no to me.

She slipped into the gown, setting her reluctance aside. When she turned to the full-length mirror, her whole face changed, wide-eyed and luminous, like a kid on Christmas morning.

Then, just as fast, her eyes filled with tears.

She turned away, wiping at her face and fighting to keep her voice steady. “Is this the one you’re wearing? To marry Ethan?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Her voice cracked. “Then I’m happy for you, Clara. I really am.”

I couldn’t answer. I just stood there, staring at the floor, until a voice cut through the room.

“What are you doing?”

I turned. Ethan was standing in the doorway. But before I could get a word out—

He seized my wrist and dragged me toward the fitting room.

His grip was brutal, tight enough that I felt the bones in my wrist grind together. He moved fast, taking long, furious strides, and I stumbled trying to keep up.

He was so lost in his own anger that when he shoved me into the fitting room wall, he didn’t even register how hard he’d thrown me.

The impact knocked the air out of me. Pain bloomed through my whole body, and tears came before I could stop them.

“What is wrong with you, Clara? You made Valerie try on a wedding dress knowing she’ll never get to have a wedding because of what happened to her. All because of you.”

My lips were numb. I tried to speak.

But Ethan was already looking at me like I was someone he didn’t recognize. “You might as well have stabbed her in the heart.”

No. That wasn’t what this was.

I wanted to explain, but where would I even start?

That I’d seen the screenshot? That I already knew he and Valerie had slept together?

That none of this was cruelty? That the dress, the wedding, even him, were all things I was trying to give her?

That I was dying?

But every word caught somewhere between my ribs and my throat, too heavy to say and too true to push back down.

Ethan looked at me one last time. “I can’t even look at you right now.”

And then he walked out.