Chapter 1
It is the eve of my wedding when a five-year-old girl who is the spitting image of my fiancé, Ryan Carter, shows up on my doorstep.
She claims to be from the future. Clinging to Ryan's hand, she points a tiny finger at me. "If it weren't for you, my mommy and daddy would still be together!" she wails. "All Mommy wants is one wedding! Just one! Why do you have to be so selfish?"
Ryan even nods in agreement. "Sophia," he begins, his voice oozing with a carefully rehearsed guilt. "I know I messed up with Emily; I'll have to live with that. But she's the mother of my child. And all she's asking for is a ceremony. It's not a real marriage. Can't you just try to understand?
"After I give her the wedding of her dreams, we'll have ours right after. I promise. What do you say?"
I stare at the father and daughter. A long silence stretches between us.
Finally, I broke it. "Fine," I reply. "Go marry her."
I go home and rip our wedding invitations to shreds. And then I call Ryan's nemesis, Ethan Brooks, and marry him instead.
Of all the cosmic jokes the universe can play, this is the punchline: Ryan and I have chosen the exact same wedding day.
Our bridal limousines meet at an intersection, and for a fleeting moment, tradition demands the brides exchange bouquets for good luck. That's when our eyes meet through the glass. Ryan looks ghostly pale.
*****
The moment Ryan Carter showed up with his five-year-old daughter and announced he was staging a wedding for his first love, I picked up my phone.
I dialed the one number I swore I never would again.
"Ethan Brooks, will you marry me?" I asked.
On the other end, Ethan's breathing hitched. "Sophia Lane, listen. This isn't something to joke about."
I knew why he was stunned.
Ethan and I grew up together, our families were intertwined, and we were once inseparable. But he absolutely despised my boyfriend, Ryan.
From the first day I started dating Ryan, he and Ethan were like fire and gasoline.
The constant explosions only stopped when I chose Ryan and pushed Ethan away.
Before I made this call, we hadn't spoken in years.
"I'm not joking," I said calmly. "I have a wedding next week, and I'm in need of a groom."
His reply was instant, his voice dropping low and serious. "You need to be sure, Sophia. Once you say yes to this, there's no going back."
A shiver went down my spine, but I didn't hesitate. "I'm sure."
The second I hung up, Ryan walked in, the little girl trailing behind him like a shadow.
"Sophia," he said, watching me carefully. "Have you thought about it? Will you let me give Emily Grant the wedding she deserves?"
The little girl's eyes instantly filled with tears.
"Lady, please," she begged, her lower lip trembling. "Can I just borrow my daddy for one day? So he and my mommy can have a wedding?
"I promise I'll give him right back! Please don't be so selfish, okay?"
She called me selfish, and Ryan said nothing.
Looking at the two of them, so eerily alike, felt like a physical blow. A giant hand squeezed my heart, making me feel heartbroken.
Even though I knew, at that moment, that we were over, his ridiculous request still hurt.
"Did you get a paternity test?" I asked. "Is this child from the future actually yours?"
He handed me a folded paper. "I know it sounds insane, but the report says she's my daughter."
I stared at the results, and the last flicker of hope inside me died.
"She's five," I said, my voice trembling with a rage I couldn't contain. "If she's really from five years in the future, that means she was just born. We've been together for two years, Ryan. Do you think I'm an idiot?"
Whether she time-traveled or not didn't matter. She was his child. And if her story was true, it meant he had cheated.
His face paled. "Sophia, don't jump to conclusions! I swear, since we've been together, I've never betrayed you!" he insisted.
"I love you. You're the only woman I'll ever legally marry."
He ran a hand through his hair, flustered. "Maybe she got her age wrong. Maybe she was conceived before Emily and I broke up. Either way, she's my daughter. I have to make things right with them. Please, try to see where I'm coming from."
I met his gaze calmly. "I understand. Go marry her. Just remember, a man only gets one wife."
A relieved smile spread across his face as he deliberately ignored the second half of my sentence. "I knew you'd understand! After this is over, we'll have our wedding!"
His phone buzzed. "I've got to take her out for a bit. You wait here for me, okay? Call me if you need anything."
I saw the name on his screen. It was Emily.
But I didn't try to stop him from seeing her.
He grabbed his jacket, but as he headed for the door, the little girl pulled away and ran to me.
She was an undeniably cute kid. Even though she was my rival's daughter, spouting words that felt like tiny daggers, it was hard to truly hate her.
She took my hand, her face breaking into a sunny smile.
"Lady, my daddy really, really loves you!"
Ryan, overhearing, chuckled, "See? Even a child can see how much I love you."
He didn't see her lean in, her smile turning vicious as she lowered her voice to a whisper meant only for me.
"But if my daddy really loves you so much, then how am I here?"
With that, she spun around and skipped back to Ryan, taking his hand.
I heard her ask, her voice carrying back to me, "She said yes, but she seems mean. Will she try to hurt me and Mommy?"
"Don't worry, sweetie," Ryan soothed. "She's a good person. And even if she wasn't, I would never let anyone hurt you or your mom."
They walked away, a perfect picture of a happy family, until they disappeared from view.
I laughed as a single tear traced a path down my cheek. The pain in my chest was so intense that I could barely stand.
I reflected on the five years since I met Ryan. I wasn't blind. I knew his heart belonged to Emily. But he was my savior, the man who rescued me from an attempted assault. That was why I fell for him hopelessly and completely.
When he was at his lowest, his mother sick and Emily gone, I had stayed. I gave him my time, my money, and my heart. After three years of me chasing him, he finally agreed to be with me.
He proposed the day he launched his company. I thought he was being a gentleman, waiting until after the wedding to touch me. In fact, his heart was just never truly mine.
The little girl's words were cruel, but they were true.
If Ryan had ever truly loved me, she wouldn't exist.
I went to our room and began to pack. The love letters, the photographs from the photography class he took just for me, and the scarves he knitted were thrown into the fireplace as I watched them turn to ash.
Fighting back the heartache, I forced myself to make a vow: these were the last tears I would ever shed for him.
There was so much to pack. I shipped most of it home, booked a train ticket for the next day, and planned to be gone for good.
At five o'clock, Ryan rushed back in.
He looked a little guilty, but he didn't seem to notice the empty spaces on the shelves as he hesitated in the doorway.
"What is it?" I asked.
He took a deep breath, stammering, "Sophia, that 80 grand I gave you for the wedding... Can I have it back?"