The day I went wedding dress shopping with my best friend, Alice Wilson, I heard her fiancé whispering to another woman behind a fitting-room door—and this time, instead of trying to save Alice, I stood perfectly still and listened.
Chapter 1
Three minutes earlier, I had opened my eyes with the memory of dying still burning through me.
“Sophie, where have you been?” Alice called from the bridal salon. “I’ve been standing here forever.”
I stepped around the curtain and saw her on the fitting platform in a satin gown, one hand planted impatiently on her hip. The same crystal chandeliers glittered overhead. The same saleswoman adjusted the train. The same pale roses stood in a vase beside the mirrors.
I knew this room.
I knew this day.
And I knew that in the dressing room next door, Alice’s fiancé, Matthew Price, was with Fiona Lane—the woman Alice always called his “oldest and dearest friend.”
Ten minutes ago, I had heard them kissing. In my first life, I had run to Alice with the truth. She had stared at me for one stunned second, then slapped me so hard my ear rang.
“You’re jealous,” she had said. “You can’t stand that I’m marrying a successful man.”
I had begged her to believe me. I had warned her that Matthew was lying, that Fiona was more than a friend, that something felt deeply wrong about the business he had recently put in Alice’s name.
Alice married him anyway.
Then she told everyone I had tried to destroy her happiness. Her social-media post spread through our circle, then beyond it. People I had never met called me bitter, unstable, poisonous. Matthew never forgot that I had discovered him. Months later, men connected to him cornered me after work, terrorized me, and left me running blindly into traffic.
The last thing I remembered was headlights.
Then I woke up here.
Back in the bridal salon.
Back before the wedding.
Back before everything.
“Sophie?” Alice frowned. “You look awful.”
I was about to answer when Fiona’s voice floated through the adjoining dressing-room wall.
“Are you really going to put those pictures of Alice on the wedding screen?”
My entire body went cold.
Matthew gave a low laugh. “If it keeps her under control, why not?”
“You’re terrible.”
“She’ll survive. Once everyone turns against her, she’ll depend on me for everything. And we still need her signature.”
My fingers tightened around the veil I was holding.
In my first life, I had never heard this part.
Alice stepped down from the platform. “What is wrong with you? Did you see Matthew out there?”
The truth rose automatically to my lips.
Then another memory struck me: Alice watching while Matthew’s men tormented me, refusing to call for help because she believed I deserved punishment for “spreading rumors.”
I looked at the woman I had once considered my sister.
For years, I had crossed town when she was sick. I had sat beside her through breakups, family fights, bad jobs, and lonely birthdays. I had lent her money without contracts or questions. Once, when my own relationship ended, she had brought cheap beer and sat under a blanket with me until sunrise.
I had believed friendship like ours could survive anything.
I had been wrong.
I lifted the veil.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I said. “I found this for you. Try it on.”
Alice studied me suspiciously, then turned back toward the mirror. “Where is Matthew?”
“Haven’t seen him.”
Less than five minutes later, he appeared.
His dark hair was rumpled. His jacket was buttoned crookedly.
Alice immediately noticed. “Matthew! Look at you. What happened?”
He smiled with practiced warmth. “I was rushing because I couldn’t stay away from my beautiful bride.”
Alice melted.
She actually giggled as he pulled her against him.
Standing behind them, I watched their reflection in the mirror and felt something inside me become very quiet.
I would not lie for Matthew. I would not help him hurt anyone. But I would no longer throw myself under a moving train to drag Alice away from tracks she insisted were safe.
The next afternoon she called me.
“Sophie, I’m shopping for wedding jewelry. Come with me.”
“Why doesn’t Matthew take you?”
There was a pause.
Then Alice laughed. “I’m an independent woman. I don’t need him buying everything.”
I knew that tone. She wanted something.
Sure enough, she added, “Actually, you could get me a gold bracelet. Consider it your wedding gift.”
In my first life, I had bought her one that cost nearly two thousand dollars.
This time I said, “I thought Matthew gave you a company.”
“He did.” Pride filled her voice. “He made me the president. He said I’ll never have to work again.”
Something in me still reacted before common sense could stop it.
“Alice, did you have an attorney review the paperwork?”
“Oh, here we go.”
“If the company has debts or legal problems—”
“Sophie Moore, what is your problem?”
I closed my eyes.
“You’ve always been jealous that I found somebody successful,” she continued. “You work yourself half to death, and suddenly I’m supposed to feel guilty because Matthew wants to take care of me?”
There it was.
The same accusation.
The same contempt.
Only now I understood that Alice had been waiting for an excuse to say it long before Matthew came along.
I changed my tone immediately. “You’re right. Forget I said anything.”
“That’s better.”
“And congratulations on becoming a business owner.”
Her irritation disappeared. “Thank you.”
Then, incredibly, she added, “So about that bracelet…”
I almost laughed.
“You’re the president of a company now,” I said. “Surely you don’t need your poor working friend to buy your jewelry.”
Her voice hardened. “You used to be generous.”
“You used to appreciate it.”
Silence.
She hung up.
A few minutes later, my phone buzzed three times.
Alice had sent me links to a gold bracelet, a necklace, and earrings.
Underneath them she wrote:
Pay for these.
I stared at those three words for a long moment.
Then I turned off my phone.
For the first time in ten years, I let Alice wait for me to apologize.
She waited nearly two weeks.
Then, at two in the morning on the night before her wedding, she called seventeen times.
When I finally answered, music thundered in the background.
“Sophie!” she screamed. “I need thirty thousand dollars.”
I sat upright in bed.
“What?”
“Matthew’s bachelor party. There’s a problem with the bill.”
Of course there was.
Between the private room, imported liquor, and Matthew’s freeloading friends, they had spent almost forty thousand dollars. His cards had been declined. His “business funds” were supposedly tied up until the following month.
Alice had no savings large enough to cover it.
So naturally, she called me.
“He’ll pay you back,” she insisted. “And he said we could bring you on our honeymoon.”
I actually pulled the phone away from my ear.
“Why would I go on your honeymoon?”
“He’s bringing some friends. It’ll be fun.”
Fiona, I thought.
Matthew wanted Fiona there.
“I don’t have thirty thousand dollars,” I said.
“That’s ridiculous. You lent me twenty thousand for my condo years ago.”
“I lost my savings in the market.”
“What?”
“I’m broke.”
For a second, all I could hear was the nightclub bass.
Then Alice exploded.
“You are unbelievable! What kind of idiot loses all her savings? You know what? When you start making money again, you should let Matthew manage it. Men understand these things better.”
I nearly laughed.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Wait. If you don’t have cash, use your credit card. Or get one of those instant loans.”
She wanted me to borrow thirty thousand dollars so her cheating fiancé could finish his bachelor party.
I looked at the clock.
2:17 a.m.
“Alice, I’m tired.”
“Sophie, don’t you dare—”
I hung up.
By morning there were twenty-eight missed calls.
I put on a navy dress, did my hair, and drove to the wedding.
Alice was waiting near the hotel entrance in her white gown, greeting guests. She wore no necklace, no bracelet, no earrings. Her makeup barely concealed the shadows under her eyes.
She spotted me and marched over.
“You abandoned me last night.”
“Good morning to you too.”
“I had to max out three cards!”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
She glared at me, then somehow smiled smugly.
“It doesn’t matter. Matthew says it’s nothing. He’ll pay it all next month.”
“Of course he will.”
She missed the irony completely.
Then she glanced toward the hallway.
“The ceremony starts soon. Matthew went to the groom’s room to rest. Go get him.”
I walked down the hall.
Before I reached the door, I heard Fiona laugh.
Then Matthew murmured something too low to catch.
I stopped.
Even on his wedding day.
Even minutes before promising Alice forever.
I waited until the room went quiet before knocking.
Matthew opened the door only a few inches. Behind him, Fiona stood at the mirror fixing her lipstick.
I looked directly at Matthew.
“The ceremony’s starting.”
His face drained of color.
But I simply turned around and walked away.
Fifteen minutes later, Alice and Matthew stood beneath an arch of white roses before three hundred guests.
They exchanged vows.
They exchanged rings.
The officiant smiled.
“You may kiss the bride.”
The room erupted in applause.
Matthew bent toward Alice.
And behind them, the enormous reception screen suddenly flickered to life.
The first photograph appeared.
Alice screamed.
