Chapter 1

My parents canceled my wedding one hour before the ceremony.

Then they dressed my sister in my wedding gown, and the man waiting at the altar didn't object.

I stared at the locked door, my hands shaking as I pressed against the wood. I could hear my mother's heels clicking past, her voice too low to make out the words.

"Mom!" I called, pounding harder. "Mom, please!"

Silence.

The clock on my nightstand read 2:47 PM.

I grabbed my phone and called Mason, and he finally picked up on the third ring. "Mason, I don't know what's happening… My parents locked me in here. Please, come get me..."

"Elise, I need to do this, let's talk later." He hung up.

The door swung open.

My mother stood there, perfectly composed in her champagne-colored mother-of-the-bride dress. Behind her, my father in his tuxedo, his expression unreadable.

"Sweetheart," my mother said softly. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" My voice cracked. "You locked me in my room on my wedding day!"

"Vivian had a panic attack," my father said. "The guests are being told you're too overwhelmed to continue."

Vivian. My younger sister.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's taking your place," my mother said, as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. "She and Mason have been seeing each other for weeks. They're in love."

My ears rang.

"You can't... she can't..." I looked down at my hands. Still trembling. "This is my wedding."

Two hundred guests downstairs… They were being told that the bride had lost her mind.

"Vivian needs this more than you do," my father said. "She's fragile, and you've always been the strong one."

The strong one. That phrase again. In high school when Vivian got the car I'd saved for. In college when my parents paid her tuition but made me take loans. Every holiday, every birthday: Vivian was delicate. Vivian needed support, and I was strong enough to handle it.

"Where is she?" I whispered.

"Getting ready. She looks beautiful in your dress."

I pushed past them and ran down the hallway. My bare feet slapped against the hardwood as I reached the guest room that I had converted into a bridal suite. The door was ajar.

Inside, Vivian stood in front of the full-length mirror in my dress. The ivory silk hugged her perfectly. We were the same size, after all. My veil cascaded down her back.

She saw me and turned. "Elise." Her voice was soft, apologetic even. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" The words came out strangled. "Take it off!"

"I can't." She twisted my engagement ring on her finger. "Mason loves me. He proposed to you because he thought you had money, but he loves me."

It felt like the floor dropped out from under me. “What?”

"He told me everything," she continued, tears glistening. "About how he needed a business merger, but then we fell in love, and..." She reached for my hand. "Elise, please understand. I've never had anyone choose me before. Let me have this one thing."

One thing. She'd had everything I’d ever wanted, handed to her on a silver platter and now she wanted my husband too.

"The ceremony starts in five minutes," my mother said from behind me. "Vivian, you look perfect. Elise, go back to your room."

I looked at my sister, at my parents in the doorway, then I walked past all of them and out the front door.

Behind me, the wedding march began to play.