Chapter 2

I leaned over the edge of the bed and retched until my throat hurt. Nothing came up.

When it stopped, I lay back, too weak to sit straight.

I'd known Vanessa for almost twenty years. When a teacher struck my palm at school, she was the one who held my hand afterward. When I got into graduate school, she was the first person who came to celebrate.

She was as close to a sister as I'd ever had.

That was why I'd wanted her to like Ethan. When even Vanessa couldn't find a reason to doubt him, I'd been so happy.

Now I was reading what the two people closest to me had done behind my back.

The comments were multiplying.

COMMENT:

“People like you are why women get warned about their own best friends.”

COMMENT:

“Imagine being her. Betrayed by the two people she trusts most. You're both responsible. And he's the one who just promised to marry her.”

Vanessa kept replying.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

“He's good to her. He's not a bad person.”

“I was jealous. I lost my head.”

“I won't do it again. For her sake, I'll stay away from him.”

Tears landed on the screen. I wiped them off, only to find myself reading her defense of him again.

Even now, she was worried about what strangers thought of Ethan.

I put the phone down and curled onto my side.

Tomorrow, we were supposed to go wedding-dress shopping. Vanessa and I had promised we'd be the first to see each other in our dresses.

I had no idea how I was going to look at her.