I Saw My Tragic Future Through A Random Wedding Forum Poll Chapter 01

I Saw My Tragic Future Through A Random Wedding Forum Poll Chapter 01

I was scrolling through a wedding-planning forum when a strange poll popped up on my screen.

[How did you find out your fiancé was hiding something from you?]

The second I tapped it, my phone glitched.

A video call appeared out of nowhere. And the man on the screen was my fiancé.

Three years older.

I stared at Bastian Crowe for a second before excitement rushed through me.

“Bastian? Is that really you?”

I leaned closer to the screen, grinning. “So… three years from now. We’re happy, right?”

He said nothing.

The silence stretched until the smile slowly slipped off my face.

Finally, his voice came out rough.

“Don’t marry me.”

I froze.

“What?”

His eyes dropped.

I swallowed. “Are we… not happy?”

No answer.

A horrible thought hit me.

“Do we have kids?”

His shoulders started shaking. Then, somehow, he laughed.

“I do.”

My heart lifted for half a second.

Then he added, “With your sister.”

Everything inside me went still.

Bastian looked away, like he couldn’t bear to watch my face.

“Three days from now, the night before the wedding, we’re going to put something in your chamomile tea.”

My fingers tightened around my phone.

“We?”

“Your dad. Your mom. Darcy.”

He finally looked up. His eyes were red.

“And me.”

I stopped breathing.

“Maribel lost Keaton right before their wedding,” he said. “She completely fell apart. All she wanted was one chance to wear the dress, walk down the aisle, have the wedding she never got.”

His jaw tightened.

“We all felt sorry for her.”

“So we decided to give her yours.”

For a second, I couldn’t even understand the words.

Bastian kept going. “Later, things between Maribel and me became real. Behind your back, I built another life with her.”

He swallowed hard.

“Everyone knew.”

“Everyone except you.”

“When you finally found out, you lost it. You confronted all of us.”

His voice cracked.

“Your parents had you taken away.”

He looked down.

“And I signed the papers.”

I stared at him.

“By the time I regretted it, you didn’t even recognize me anymore.”

His eyes filled.

“I’ve watched you struggle for three years because of what we did.”

His voice broke completely.

“So I’d rather tell you now and let you hate me than watch it happen all over again.”

He looked straight at me.

“This time, the wedding three days from now is your choice.”

***

The screen went black.

Just like that.

The video vanished, and the wedding forum reappeared as if nothing had happened.

I sat frozen on my bed.

One sentence kept replaying in my head: This time, the wedding three days from now is your choice.

My grip tightened around my phone until my nails dug into my palm.

No.

Absolutely not.

Bastian loved me. My parents had always been good to me, and Darcy was my best friend. How could they all drug me and give my wedding to Maribel?

It had to be some sick prank.

And yet, a few minutes later, I found myself standing in Bastian’s study room.

I knew the password to his laptop.

My birthday.

The desktop had barely loaded when a notification chimed.

I clicked it and found a group chat titled MARIBEL’S WEDDING 💍.

Mom, Dad, Maribel, Darcy, and Bastian were all in it.

Everyone except me.

A new message from Mom sat at the bottom.

Mom: [Got everything ready. No one will notice a thing. I’ll make sure Carys drinks the tea tomorrow night.]

My blood turned cold.

Dad replied almost immediately: [I’ll handle the staff at the Bellcourt. Once she’s taken care of, I’ll tell them we’re switching brides.]

Then Darcy sent an OK emoji.

Darcy: [I’ll grab her phone. She won’t be able to interfere. Problem solved.]

My hands started shaking.

A voice message from Maribel came through.

I tapped play.

She sounded hesitant.

“Maybe we should just forget it.”

“I mean, yeah, I want a wedding more than anything, but if Carys finds out, she’s gonna lose it.”

“I don’t want everyone fighting because of me.”

Mom answered within seconds. “Let her be mad. She’ll get over it.”

“Carys acts tough, but she always caves eventually. She’s obsessed with Bastian. As long as she still gets to call herself his wife, she’ll be fine.”

My vision blurred.

Dad joined in. “Maribel, stop overthinking this. You lost your fiancé days before your own wedding. You’ve been through enough.”

“We’re borrowing one ceremony for one day. Carys should understand that.”

“She already has Bastian. What is she actually losing by giving her sister the wedding?”

Darcy sent Maribel a hug emoji.

Darcy: [Exactly. And you and Bastian are already legally married anyway. If anything, that ceremony SHOULD be yours.]

The room tilted.

I grabbed the edge of the desk.

Legally married?

Two weeks ago, Bastian had told me there had been a problem with our marriage-license appointment.

He said the paperwork could wait until after the wedding.

Mom and Dad had agreed.

“The legal stuff is just paperwork.”

“What difference does a few days make?”

“Focus on having the wedding you’ve always wanted.”

I had believed every word.

Turns out the legal paperwork I’d been waiting for already existed. It just had Maribel’s name on it.

The chat went quiet for a moment.

Then Bastian finally spoke.

Bastian: “I’ll deal with her when she wakes up.”

Her.

Just her.

In the group chat planning the wedding I had spent months creating, I wasn’t even worth naming.

I was just a problem Bastian expected to “deal with.”

Nausea rolled through me.

I braced both hands against the desk.

I had toured venue after venue across Harrowmere before choosing the Bellcourt Grand.

I had rewritten the wedding timeline twelve times.

The floral arrangements. The chocolate favors. The invitations. Every detail had been chosen during late nights when I was too excited to sleep.

I had even handwritten the place cards for every guest.

And all this time, I hadn’t been planning my own wedding.

I had been building Maribel’s.

A tear splashed onto the back of my hand.

I flinched.

Then my phone buzzed.

A new message. From someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time.

Cillian Rowe.

I stared at his name for a second before opening it.

Cillian: [Heard you’re getting married in three days.]

[Funny coincidence. So am I.]

[Only problem?]

[I’m missing a bride.]