He Asked Me to Pick a Bridesmaid Dress for Their Wedding Chapter 02

He Asked Me to Pick a Bridesmaid Dress for Their Wedding Chapter 02

Ethan left with Sierra and I sank into the past. We grew up together. Best friends since we were kids. When she was seventeen, her dad died and her mom remarried.

But Sierra got quieter. She’d cry and tell me her stepbrother treated her like garbage. I hated that she felt trapped, so I started staying over more. Then came her birthday.

I’d saved up for months to buy her this dress she’d been obsessed with. I walked into her house, drank a glass of spiked lemonade, and everything went black. When I opened my eyes, my body was screaming. Sierra was holding me, sobbing, screaming at her stepbrother.

Life didn’t let me go. When I finally decided to end it, I found out I was pregnant. My parents begged me to keep living and took me to another state after the abortion. But the pain followed.

I met Ethan when I was still climbing out of the dark. He looked at me like I mattered and pinched my cheek. “Why do you always look so sad?” I couldn’t trust him. Not yet.

But he kept showing up. Held my hands and whispered, “It wasn’t your fault.” He was sunlight cutting through fog and I let my walls down. The day we made it official, he promised he’d protect me forever.

From dating to marriage, Ethan gave me everything. Until now. Tears fell hard and fast. I thought my life had started over. The two people I loved most just ripped open every scar I had and poured salt in the wounds.

The pain woke me up. I cried until I couldn’t breathe, until I was numb. My phone buzzed when my eyes were swollen shut. Messages from Ethan and Sierra.

[Holly, pick up some prenatal vitamins. Things got a little rough earlier. Scared the baby.]

Sierra sent one photo. Her and Ethan tangled together. I stared at it and my breath shook. My phone rang and shattered the silence. Ethan’s voice was lazy and satisfied. “Holly. You get my message?”

I forced the words out, every syllable trembling. “Ethan. You’re disgusting. Aren’t you afraid I’ll snap and kill you both?”

Silence on his end. Then Sierra’s laugh. “Holly, you cry when people yell. You don’t have the stomach for it. Yeah, you killed my brother’s kid. But you’d never hurt mine. Not when it’s Ethan’s.” She rushed me for the pills and hung up.

I laughed, the sound scraped out of me. I flinched at loud noises because the night her stepbrother raped me, I heard him laughing. That was my damage. But I wasn’t afraid of death. I wouldn’t let them win.

I went to them and pushed open the door. Clothes everywhere. They were on the couch kissing like they wanted to swallow each other. The wet sound of it drilled into my skull. I gripped my phone and walked closer.

Sierra saw me and her breathing got louder. Performing. And then she brought up that night. “Ethan, when I caught Holly with my stepbrother, they were on my bed kissing just like this.” Her lies hit me like a wave of gasoline. I burned.

I lifted my phone, camera pointed at their flushed, dazed faces. I blinked back tears and smiled. Spoke straight into the lens. “This is a live broadcast. Catching my husband and my best friend. Go ahead. Give them a show.”