Chapter 1
Seven days before our wedding, my fiancé disappeared.
His car was found by the river, with his wallet, phone, and wedding ring left behind.
For three days and nights, I barely slept. His mother collapsed from crying twice, and my best friend helped me put up missing-person posters across the city.
Until, while she was taking a shower, her phone lit up with a group chat notification.
The group was called "Dreamcatchers."
I clicked it without thinking.
The latest message was from the fiancé I thought was missing and possibly dead. [Is she still searching for me by the river?]
My best friend replied: [Don't worry. She's so exhausted that she can barely stand. She'll never guess you're watching the sunrise with your first love.]
*****
Seven days before the wedding, Adam vanished.
At two in the morning, the police called to say they'd found his car on Riverside Highway.
The car door was wide open.
His wallet, phone, and wedding ring were all left on the driver's seat, and there was a trail of messy footprints by the riverside railing.
By the time I got there, the police had already set up the crime scene tape.
The rain was pouring down, and the river churned in the darkness, like a mouth waiting to swallow everything.
Adam's brother, Lucas, rushed over to steady me.
"Emily, don't panic," he said. "Maybe Adam just needed some air. He's probably just feeling down."
I stared at the wedding ring sitting in the car, my legs going weak.
Just seven hours ago, Adam had called to ask if I wanted white roses or champagne roses for my bouquet.
I joked that he was overthinking it and told him to just pick one himself.
He just laughed. "Then I'll go with white roses.
"Emily, I promise you'll be the most beautiful bride."
That was the last thing he ever said to me.
The cops asked if Adam had been acting weird before he went missing.
I shook my head.
We'd been together for six years, and our wedding was only seven days away. He was busy sending out invitations, making last-minute changes to the schedule, and even practicing his wedding speech in secret.
Just last night, before heading out, he even warmed up some milk for me.
How could someone like that just walk away and leave his phone and wedding ring sitting there by the river?
When Adam's mom arrived, her shoes were on the wrong feet.
The moment she saw her son's car, she collapsed right there. "Adam! My son!"
I forced myself to go over and hold her, and she clung to my arm so tightly her nails dug into my skin.
"Emmy, you have to bring him back," she begged. "He loves you more than anything. He'd never leave you."
My throat was tight, but I kept promising her over and over.
"We'll find him. Madyson, he'll be back for the wedding."
Adam's mother, Madyson, was shaking all over, sobbing uncontrollably.
My bestie Grace Turner slipped off her jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders, then hugged me hard.
"Emmy, go sit in the car for a bit," she said. "We're here for you. You can't break down now, not with us here."
I shook my head.
How could I sit there when Adam was still missing?
The rescue team was scouring the riverbank.
Lucas and a couple of our friends fanned out to check the woods, some old factories, and the villages nearby.
Grace stayed by my side the whole time.
Just before dawn, she got a message, and her expression shifted in an instant.
I reached out and grabbed her arm. "Is it news about Adam?"
She instinctively turned off her phone screen, then forced a smile.
"Someone said they saw a guy who looked just like him near Eastbridge," she said. "I already sent Frank over to check it out."
I was about to rush off, but Grace grabbed my arm.
"You haven't eaten all night. If you go now, you'll just make things harder," she said. "Frank knows Adam. He'll call us as soon as he's sure."
I refused to wait.
In the end, Grace had no choice but to drive me to Eastbridge.
We searched there for three whole hours.
The supposed witness was already gone, and the nearby surveillance cameras only caught a shot of someone in a black jacket from behind.
It was impossible to make out the face.
I stood in the surveillance room, staring at that blurry figure on the screen, replaying it again and again.
He didn't walk like Adam at all.
He was a whole head shorter.
That wasn't Adam, not even close.
Grace let out a disappointed sigh and supported me as we walked out.
"Don't lose hope. At least someone spotted a guy who looked like him," she said. "Maybe Adam really is okay."
I nodded, numb.
When we got back to the river, Madyson was already awake.
Her eyes were red as she handed me a cup of hot water.
"Emmy, Adam is so lucky to have you," she said. "Don't worry. When he comes back, I'll give him a piece of my mind."
I took the cup, and before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face.
*****
The next day, the rain still hadn't let up.
The river kept rising, forcing the rescue team to widen their search.
The cops checked the cameras near Riverside Highway.
At 1:17 a.m., Adam drove onto Riverside Highway alone.
He parked right by some construction barriers, and there was this old path under the riverbank that led to the abandoned dock.
That path had been out of use for years, and there weren't any cameras there.
The footage only caught his car going in; after that, he just vanished. Nobody saw where he went.
The rescue team found a black leather shoe downstream.
Madyson broke down and rushed forward, sobbing, insisting it was Adam's.
I held the soaked shoe in my hands, my heart almost stopping.
Adam had bought an identical pair just before the wedding.
I tried to push through the crowd to get to the river, but Grace and Lucas grabbed me tightly, refusing to let me go.
"Emily, calm down!" Grace shouted. "We haven't even confirmed if it's his shoe yet. What do you think you can do by rushing over there?"
I struggled so hard my arms ached.
"Let me go! I have to find him!" I cried. "He's terrified of water. If he really fell in, he must be so scared!"
Lucas, his eyes red, shouted at me, "Emily, stop it. The rescue team is already searching. If you go down there, you'll just make them have to rescue one more person."
I finally collapsed, sinking down in the muddy water, crying so hard I couldn't catch my breath.
Grace knelt down and pulled me into a hug.
"Emmy, look at me," she said. "Adam promised to marry you. He'd never just leave you behind."
I gripped her clothes, repeating over and over, "Why did he take off the wedding ring? Does he regret wanting to marry me?"
Grace kept shaking her head, denying it over and over.
"How could that be?" she said. "He loves you more than anything. Everyone knows it.
"Maybe he just accidentally dropped the ring when he got out of the car."
I couldn't bring myself to tell her that the ring had been carefully set right next to his phone.
It didn't look like it had fallen by accident. It felt more like some kind of farewell.
These past couple of days, the details from before Adam disappeared kept flashing through my mind.
He held me for a long time before he left.
He asked, if something happened on our wedding day, would I wait for him?
I was busy checking the guest list and answered without thinking, "Depends on what happens."