For Paige, betrayal is insufficient when her sister takes her fiancé; she wants to show off her small triumph.
After a year, an invitation is sent. Erica wants Paige to witness her marriage to the man she cheated on. Erica, however, is unaware of Paige’s strategy. And the bride will have ruined her ideal day before the night is out.
This wedding wasn’t meant for me to attend. The sidelong glances and whispered conversations that followed me as I passed into the big hall made that much evident.
Admittedly, the wedding setup was gorgeous. It had taken Erica a long time to arrange the ivory and gold hues. Expensive gowns and tuxedos were worn by the attendees. All of it was… breathtaking. The rot underneath, however, could not be concealed by any amount of elegance.
This wedding wasn’t your typical one. Her wedding was this.
Erica.
my younger sister. Golden kid of my parents. While I struggled for every success I achieved, that person received everything on a silver platter. Right now?
The one thing I was meant to have had been taken by her.
Stan.
I was engaged to Stan. My future had belonged to him. Up until the night I got home early from work and discovered them entangled in our bed, he was the man I trusted and loved.
His face contorted in remorse as he froze, as I still recall. But what about my sister? She had merely grinned, her voice brimming with self-satisfied smugness.
She’d declared plainly, “I won, Paige,” “Checkmate.”
I had planned the wedding for more than a year, and all of the vendors tried to keep my deposits when it was canceled a month later. How are Stan and Erica doing? Now they didn’t have to go stealthily. At long last, they were formally a couple.
Following that, I spent a few weeks out of town working remotely while staying in various motels. After a while, I managed to move past it all. I got myself a kitten when I was ready to move back in.
The invitation then came.
And here I was, a year after that whole mess, standing in the midst of their celebration, invited to see their alleged triumph as a spectator.
She probably pushed her to invite me because of my parents. Erica would never have asked me to come if she had her way. Otherwise, perhaps she would have… simply to boast. The worst of them all was her.
However, Erica was unaware—no one knew—that I wasn’t present to lament my loss tonight.
I was here to ensure Erica would always remember the harm she had done to me. The surprise I had prepared for her wedding celebration would be something she would never forget.
It was a hazy ceremony. The officiant was droning on about love and commitment, and I was standing close to the rear, barely paying attention. In all honesty, these were meaningless words.
I could tell Stan was acting adoringly as he gazed at Erica while wearing a gorgeous black tuxedo. Her response was to smile up at him as if she had won the biggest prize of all.
Almost laughing.
As I sipped my champagne, I thought, “Enjoy it while you can, my love.”
Laughter and clinking glasses filled the hall by the time the reception started. Behind the dance floor, a huge screen displayed a montage of their engagement pictures. Stan lifted Erica into the air, and they grinned at each other while their foreheads touched.
If you didn’t know their relationship’s background, you would honestly believe they were content.
They might have been. Perhaps this was how it was meant to happen.
I was determined not to give in so easily, though. I couldn’t afford to ignore this.
After all the suffering and treachery I had experienced, why should Erica obtain the happily-ever-after?
No, no. Not possible.
Their ideal little fairy tale was about to change course.
With my elegant black dress perfectly enveloping my body, I slipped through the crowds undetected. I didn’t have a guest outfit on. In addition to feeling more confident than I have in a long time, I was dressed like a princess.
As I arrived at the laptop that was linked to the projector, I inserted my flash drive. Several clicks, a long inhale, and then…
Time to show.
It was missed during the first few seconds. While engrossed in conversation, the visitors kept drinking champagne and munching on canapés. As the bridal couple moved through the crowd, they stopped to greet and give hugs to everyone.
Next, the hall was filled with Stan’s voice.
“Please, don’t leave me!”
The video from the security camera installed in my bedroom was fuzzy when it played on the enormous screen. With tears streaming down his face, Stan lay on the bed. Listening to him attempt to “explain” what had transpired between him and my sister, I stood on the other end.
“Erica means nothing to me, Paige! Absolutely nothing!” He was crying. “She was a mistake! I love you, Paige! I made a huge mistake!”
The room was enveloped in a thick hush.
Erica caught my attention.
She lost the color in her face.
Stan was likewise motionless, his eyes wide. The hands at his sides twitched.
Still, I wasn’t finished.
More security footage was shown in the video. Since my neighborhood was quiet and frequently targeted for break-ins, I had security cameras put in every room and everywhere.
According to the video, Erica and Stan entered my home jointly and entered my bedroom when they believed I was working late. Time after time, treachery after treachery.
Next came the last nail in the coffin.
Erica laughed when she lay in my bed.
With a breathy, airy voice, she said, “She’ll never know…”
Stan asked, sharing her laughter, “Paige who?”
The audience let out a collective gasp. A glass of champagne was dropped by someone.
A woman whispered, “Oh my God,”
It appeared as though my mother may pass out. My father tightened his jaw so firmly that I thought I heard his teeth grind.
Then total mayhem.
Erica’s hands were shaking as she staggered back.
Her voice trailed off, “This… this isn’t real!”
The evidence, however, was there, shining brightly in the screen’s light.
With her hands up in the air, she exclaimed, “Dinner will be served now!” “Everyone just take your seats and enjoy!”
With a look of utter anger on his face, Stan turned to face her.
“Erica, you told me that you went onto Paige’s computer and deleted the footage.”
“Oh?” I asked, my tone brimming with sarcasm. “You mean you knew about it? You knew that the security cameras were going to catch you in the act?”
He revealed himself as his face went white.
Now, with disdain and condemnation flashing over their features, the guests whispered louder.
Before Erica could respond, a voice broke the tense silence.
“Paige.”
I looked around.
Jack moved out of the crowd, showing off his white shirt underneath his waiter’s black vest.
When I explained my plans to Jack a month ago, he was determined that he had to be with me. The first thing he saw when he arrived home from work was my sister’s wedding invitation on the table.
“I want to go to the wedding,” I stated. “I just don’t want to be… I don’t know. Jack, Erica is a problem. She’s used to everything being about her. I want to teach her some kind of lesson.”
As I ordered him to cut something, Jack moved about the kitchen.
“Then I’ll come with, Paige,” he stated.
“But I don’t want to draw attention to you,” I replied as I gave him a bowl of ramen…. “I don’t want Erica to spoil my moment before I even get to it. And if she sees you, that’s exactly what she’ll do.”
“Then I’ll come in as a waiter, if that’s what it takes!” answered the man. “But I want to be there. That way, if you need me, I’ll be right there.”
I finally gave in. I had not been connected to my family for a long time and was cut off from my parents, so it was comforting to know that Jack was there.
Putting his tray of champagne glasses on a table, Jack now grinned at me.
His blue, piercing eyes met mine. They were steadfast and dependable… And comforting.
I had never in my life been so thankful to see someone. Even though my family was all around me, the one thing that had held me rooted during the ceremony was Jack. Despite my hatred for Erica and Stan, I felt sad when I saw them get married.
However, now? Looking at Jack?
It was consoling.
Then I said, “Shall we go?”
Jack approached me and shook his head.
His steady, deliberate strides toward me caused gasps to reverberate through the audience. Then he sank to one knee without hesitation.
There was a startled stillness in the room, which was already reeling from the drama on screen.
A tiny velvet box was taken out of Jack’s pocket. When he opened it, the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen was inside.
He continued, “I’ve waited long enough to ask you this, my love,” in a firm, direct, and confident voice. “Paige, will you marry me?”
The crowd had a sudden intake of breath.
Erica sounded as if she were strangled.
“Are you… are you kidding me right now?” she screamed. “Paige! Why? What the hell? Now? At my wedding?!”
Like a deer caught in headlights, she also had the appearance of a canon poised to charge through the room, destroying everything in her path. For an instant, I felt guilty. However, in general… I was satisfied.
I grinned as I felt the burden of the previous year subside.
It was the incorrect man she had taken. Jack was far more impressive than Stan. Stan wasn’t anything compared to Jack. He had faith in life and his love for me, and he was trustworthy.
Stan? All Stan had hoped for was fun.
But now when I was looking at him, he appeared to be devastated. He appeared to be suffocating under the weight of that which had happened to him. He turned to face the still-enraged Erica. Even though he reached out to grasp her hand, she pulled it away so violently that he appeared shocked.
I’d have had a look at him. He wasn’t my problem, though.
Instead, with emotion clenched in my chest, I turned back to Jack.
“Yes!” was my resolute voice. “Yes, Jack! I will!”
It shook the room. Still in shock after the news, a few guests now applauded. With tears of joy instead of embarrassment, my mother wiped them away.
Erica screwed her face in unadulterated anger. Something was different about her anger. In all my life, I had never seen her so distraught. Despite being accustomed to obtaining all of her desires, Erica lost control on the most significant day of her life. There was no pleasure in what she did. Now there was no triumph over me.
Just like that… rage and anguish. Together with disappointment. I ought to have felt guilty.
I couldn’t, though. It was simply too much for me to handle.
She screamed, pounding her foot and toppling her chair, “This is my day!”
Tilting my head, I turned to her.
My voice brimmed with tenderness as I said, “Oh, honey,” “You stole that fool from me and my wedding. I just returned the favor and stole the show.”
And then I left my sister standing at her wedding reception, humiliated, deceived, and devastated, with Jack’s hand still firmly in mine as I left the hall.
My heart continued to race even though the wedding was long gone. The sounds of murmurs, gasps, and Erica’s scream continued to linger on the periphery of my consciousness.
But it was just Jack and me now.
Sitting opposite one another at a little 24-hour diner, we were both ridiculously overdressed for an establishment that served milkshakes in broken glasses and greasy fries. Jack appeared to have just stepped out of a movie scene, and my beautiful black outfit felt out of place against the cracked leather booth.
Nevertheless, this was the most cozy feeling I had had all evening.
Jack came over to me with a dish of fries.
A “Eat,” he ordered. “You’ve had a long day.”
Though I laughed, I still picked up a fry. “That’s an understatement,” I said.
We sat there for a time, the diner’s buzz in the background. It was easy, not unpleasant. Since I met Jack, however, that had been my life.
At last, I put down my glass and took his eyes.
“So… how long were you planning that?”
He grinned, “The proposal?”
He let out a breath and leaned back against the booth.
“I’ve wanted to ask you for months, Paige. But I knew you weren’t ready. Not just for marriage, but the whole commitment thing? You needed time to heal. I wasn’t going to rush that.”
After making patterns with his fingers on the table, he took up his milkshake.
“But when I found out that she invited you? That was the final straw. I wasn’t going to let you stand there alone while she flaunted him in front of you.”
“And you got a job in the catering industry, or you snuck in?”
“I called in a favor, honey,” he smiled. “Apparently, I look good holding a tray.”
It had been a long time since I had laughed so hard.
Leaning forward, Jack’s face softened considerably.
“I meant every word, Paige. I love you. And I’ll wait as long as you need. But this evening felt like the right moment to finally ask.”
I said, “I believe you picked the ideal moment,” after a brief pause.
And I seemed to have won for the first time in a long time.
And what would you have done?
