I can barely breathe.
Katya closes her eyes briefly when he touches her.
Then he kisses her. Slowly. Like he’s done it a hundred times before.
His hand slides to her waist while hers fist against the front of his shirt, and suddenly every strange moment from the last two weeks crashes together in my head all at once.
Katya checking her phone constantly.
The secret smiles.
The distance from Dmitri.
The unanswered texts.
The late nights.
The feeling that everyone knew something except me. The realization burns through my chest so hard I can barely stand there.
Inside the room, Katya reaches for him again. “Dmitri, this is bad.”
I stare at the back of his head, at the man I was about to marry, and something inside me finally cracks.
Not heartbreak. Humiliation.
How stupid have I been?
I take a step backward before they can hear my breathing. Then another. My bouquet slips from my fingers onto the floor, white flowers scattering silently across the marble.
Neither of them notices. Because Dmitri’s mouth is already back on hers.
I turn around. I walk at first because running in a wedding dress is difficult and because some irrational part of me still thinks if I move quietly enough this won’t be real.
Then I hear Katya moan softly behind me, and my stomach twists violently. Dmitri murmurs something too low for me to hear, and I hear the unmistakable metallic sound of a belt buckle sliding loose.
That does it.
I run. The hallway blurs around me. My heels slam unevenly against marble as I gather my skirts in both hands and move as fast as I can without falling. Staff members turn toward me in confusion, but I don’t stop. I can still hear them in my head. Her voice. His voice.
I shove through the side doors into the cold afternoon air.
The garden is full of guests. Women in gowns. Men in suits. Music playing near the lake. Someone laughs nearby. The world keeps moving like mine hasn’t just collapsed.
I make it halfway toward the hedges before I throw up.
Hard. Painfully.
One hand braces against the stone wall while the other grips my dress away from the ground. My veil slips crookedly down my back as another wave hits me. I can taste champagne and bile.
I hear footsteps nearby, distant voices, but no one comes close enough to see me hidden behind the tall hedges.
Thank God.
Tears blur my vision. Rage burns through me so intensely it almost feels hot under my skin. I want to scream. I want to march back inside and destroy everything. I want to slap Katya until her lipstick smears across her face.
I want Dmitri to hurt the way I hurt right now.
Instead, I crouch there shaking in a wedding dress while the ceremony guests gather twenty feet away.
