Oops, Wrong Bride? Fine. No Wedding. Chapter 06

Oops, Wrong Bride? Fine. No Wedding. Chapter 06

That’s impossible.”

The words were out of Ethan’s mouth before he could think.

One of Iris’ old coworkers walked past and pulled up the wedding video. “She was the other woman, obviously. Shameless.”

Ethan scrolled through the pile of insults online, each one uglier than the last, and the fear didn’t hit him until then. So this was what those days had been like for her. She’d been torn

apart…

They raced to the hospital and ran to the room where Iris’ mother had been. It was empty.

Ethan stood there, stunned. He grabbed a passing nurse, and she told him, “The patient in that

room transferred out a long time ago.”

Ethan stood in the busy hallway, and a piece of his heart went hollow. He slid slowly down the wall until he was sitting on the floor with his back against it.

Her phone went unanswered. She’d been fired. Her mother had been moved.

For the first time, it hit him that when Iris didn’t want to be found, he had no idea where to look for her. She’d been like a splinter under his skin, and it had hurt. But the second he let go, she was gone from his world without a trace.

Chloe’s voice shook, thick with tears. “Ethan, didn’t you say Iris wouldn’t be mad at us? What is this? Didn’t you say it was just a game, and she’d forgive us?”

Zach stood there, stunned. He suddenly remembered the way Iris had looked at him at the wedding. He hadn’t moved. He’d hardened himself and looked away.

All this time, he’d thought of himself as her big brother. When she was scared and someone picked on her, he was always the first to step up. At the wedding, and again in the apartment,

he’d had a hundred chances to stand up for her.

He hadn’t taken a single one.

He’d become one of the people picking on her.

Zach’s fist slammed into the left side of Ethan’s face and knocked his head sideways.

“Ethan, explain yourself! We agreed to play along because you said it’d toughen her up! So why did you drive her away?”

In a flash, the two of them were brawling in the hallway. Bruises bloomed across their foreheads and the corners of their mouths in every shade of purple.

A phone started buzzing.

Wendy’s voice came through choked, sobbing so hard she could barely speak. “Ethan! Iris… she’s pressing charges against me! I’m so scared…”

When Wendy got to the hospital, she still had the letter from Iris’ lawyer in her hand. Iris was

pressing charges for reckless endangerment.

She saw the bruises on Ethan’s face and froze.

Ethan’s voice was cold. “That day, in Iris’ mom’s room. Did you really not do anything?”

They all knew Iris. She would never accuse someone out of thin air.

Wendy’s eyes darted away, and she hurried to grab the hem of his shirt. “Ethan, I’m sorry. I lost my head for a second. I love you too much. I only wanted to rattle them a little, so Iris would leave you. I never meant to hurt her!”

“So back then you really… to her mother…” Ethan couldn’t get the sentence out. All he could see was Iris screaming that day, and he’d chosen to believe Wendy without a second thought.

He deserved every bit of what was coming.

Wendy grabbed at his sleeve with both hands. “Ethan, please, help me. I don’t want to go to

prison.”

When he didn’t answer, she turned to the other two. “Chloe, Zach. Aren’t we friends? Please,

help me…”

Her tears hit the floor.

Both of them shook her off. “Get lost! We were never friends with someone like you!”

They turned and walked away, and behind them, Wendy screamed until she broke.

No one looked back.