Chapter 4

That night, I found myself flipping through our wedding album on my tablet, searching for... what? Signs I'd missed? Evidence that even then, Nate's heart had belonged elsewhere? The photos showed a smiling couple—me in a simple white dress from a department store, Nate in a suit he'd already owned. We'd opted for city hall, promising each other a proper celebration "someday." Seven years later, and that someday had never come. Until now—when it felt like a desperate attempt to salvage something already lost.

My finger paused on a photo taken just two weeks before our wedding. Nate's smile didn't…