The Day Another Woman Became the Bride Chapter 04

The Day Another Woman Became the Bride Chapter 04

I didn’t reply to Mason.

Instead, I took a screenshot of the ruined wedding cake in the corner of Paige’s video and sent it to him.

“Why did you let her touch my cake?”

“It’s just a cake. No big deal. I’ll have the hotel get another one.”

I bit my lip hard.

“Have you forgotten every promise you made me?”

Why did it still hurt this much even after I’d been disappointed beyond belief?

The wedding dress I’d visited more than a dozen shops to find had been secretly tried on and stretched out by Paige. Mason said it was no big deal. We could simply replace it.

Paige had secretly replaced the garden chapel I chose with a fantasy-themed ballroom. Mason told me to listen to her because she’d better taste.

By the end of the entire planning process, my only request was that I make the wedding cake myself.

It was my greatest wish as a pastry chef.

Paige was still in Paris then.

Mason stood in front of my soon-to-open bakery and gently brushed the tip of my nose.

“My baby is so easy to please.”

“All right. At the wedding, I’ll watch every guest myself. They’ll all finish their slices and leave our pastry chef a detailed five-star review.”

I’d laughed and thrown myself into his arms.

“You always know what to say!”

I replayed the short clip again and again.

The cake I’d made at the hotel ahead of time had been cut into a shapeless mess.

Before anyone had taken a single bite, Paige had shoved it into one of Mason’s friends’ faces.

Everyone laughed and started smearing frosting on each other.

My dream had been trampled underfoot, smeared across the walls, and thrown into the hotel kitchen bin.

There was a short pause before his next message.

Then it stabbed straight into my heart.

“Claire Holloway, you should at least be grateful.”

“It’s only a cake. Why make such a fuss? None of your relatives even came. Paige had to ask her own friends to fill in as bridesmaids at the last minute.”

That memory rushed back.

I hammered out a reply.

“You know exactly why my parents refused to come.”

Silence on the other end.

My lower abdomen seemed to ache again with the memory of that day.

A floor awash in bright red. The tearing pain.

I instinctively dialed the number I trusted most.

The moment the call connected, Paige’s impatient voice rang out.

“Hey, Mr. Busy! You promised your friends the whole day. Turn it off. No calls!”

Festive parade music blared in the background. Then the call ended with a beep.

I lost my baby that day.

When I woke up in the hospital, the first person I saw wasn’t Mason. It was my roommate.

She’d come home from work, found me unconscious, called 911, helped complete the emergency contact forms, and stayed by my side.

We had known each other for less than a month. She owed me nothing, yet she stayed with me.

Meanwhile, my fiancé, Mason, had ended my call and gone to watch the parade with Paige.

The doctor had paused, then spoken gently.

“This was a severe pregnancy complication. Half an hour earlier, and the baby might have survived.”

Suffocating despair swallowed me whole.

I called Mason over and over.

By nightfall, my parents had arrived from Providence. Mason never came. He was still at Six Flags New England with Paige.

That day, I stopped hoping. I returned to Providence with my parents.

Remembering something, I opened my chat with Sophie, the cousin I was closest to.

She’d messaged me before the wedding motorcade left.

“Claire, is the wedding starting soon?”

A few minutes later:

“Don’t be too upset. Even though your parents wouldn’t let us attend the wedding, they actually regret it now.”

“I believe things can still get better between you two.”

She’d sent a video.