Chapter 2
So calm, it felt like she was always meant to stand here—she'd just come back after three years to finally say the words that belonged to her.
Serena finally found her voice, speaking first. Her tone was strained, but she forced it to stay gentle.
"Tessa... you're alive?" Serena asked, barely managing to keep her voice steady.
Tessa glanced at her, her expression indifferent.
"Yeah," Tessa said. "Did I let you down?"
With those words, the room fell completely silent.
The blood drained from Serena's face. She clearly had not expected Tessa to speak so directly. She turned instinctively toward Ethan. But Ethan's eyes had never left the doorway.
From the moment Tessa appeared, it was as if his whole mind had been pulled out of the wedding. He no longer had room left for appearances.
At last, Ethan stepped down from the stage.
He moved slowly, each step steady and deliberate. The black suit made his expression seem even colder, and as he drew closer, the storm of emotion in his eyes became impossible to hide. It wasn't surprise or anger—more like a tidal wave of chaos, something huge and uncontrollable that shouldn't have happened, but did.
He stopped when only two steps separated him from Tessa.
"You..." Ethan started, his voice hoarse. "When did you come back?"
Crazy, isn't it?
He was standing at his own wedding, his bride still up on stage, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "When did you come back?"
Tessa looked at him, not a single tear in her eyes—she didn't look like she was about to cry at all.
"Today," she said.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Ethan asked.
"Tell you what?" Tessa gave a faint, almost indifferent smile. "Tell you I'm not dead, so you could cancel the wedding before it even started?"
Ethan's breathing faltered for a moment.
"Tessa, that's not what I—"
"Whether it is or isn't, we'll talk about it later," Tessa cut him off, her gaze finally drifting from his face to the boutonniere on his chest.
She paused for a couple of seconds, then looked up again, calmly taking in the stage behind him, the guests, the wall of flowers, and Serena's blindingly white wedding dress.
"I'm not here to talk about old times," Tessa said, her voice steady.
Her voice wasn't loud, but the hall was so quiet you could hear a glass touch the tablecloth. Every word rang out for all to hear.
"I only have one question," Tessa said.
She paused.
"Ethan, after you buried me, you couldn't wait to marry her, could you?"
With that, whatever was left of the wedding's facade was torn to shreds.
Someone in the back gasped.
The Ford family elders in the front row couldn't hide their embarrassment anymore—their faces were dark with discomfort. Serena stood on stage, her fingers digging into the hem of her wedding dress, like she was struggling to breathe. But Ethan looked the most miserable of all.
Because he couldn't say a word.
It wasn't that he didn't have an answer. It was that every answer was too messy to admit in front of everyone.
Was he supposed to say he thought she was dead, so that's why he was marrying Serena today?
But now, she was standing right here, alive.
Was he supposed to claim the wedding wasn't rushed?
But she'd only been "dead" for just three years.
Was he supposed to say Serena was the one who helped him survive his darkest days?
But Tessa was right in front of him, her cool composure unraveling every truth people thought they knew over the past three years.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and Ethan finally spoke in a low voice.
"Tessa, we shouldn't talk about this here," he said.
Tessa looked at him, like she'd heard exactly what she expected him to say.
She didn't answer right away—just glanced down at the little girl beside her.
The little girl had been quiet the whole time, but now, as if she finally realized the man in front of her looked a bit like the one in the photos, she slowly lifted her face and stared at Ethan.
Tessa gently let her go.
The little girl walked up, stopping right in front of Ethan.
She looked up at him, her voice sweet and innocent. "Are you the daddy Mommy told me about?"
The whole room went dead silent.
That question cut even deeper than Tessa's earlier one.
It was like a knife that had only skimmed the surface suddenly plunged right into the core of everything. All eyes shot to the little girl, then back to Ethan.
The little girl looked so much like Tessa.
Especially her eyes and chin that anyone could spot the mother-daughter resemblance instantly. But under the bright lights, at this close distance, people finally saw it: her nose and the look in her eyes, impossibly similar to Ethan, too much to be just a coincidence.
Ethan froze.
He looked down at the little girl, who barely came up to his knee, and for the first time, real panic flickered in his eyes. It wasn't just shock—it was like the world he'd kept tightly under control suddenly split open.