Max is determined to marry the love of his life until he learns the truth. With only 72 hours until the wedding, he plans the ultimate betrayal. As Sofia walks down the aisle, she expects the fairytale wedding she’s planned. But Max is about to turn their wedding into a reckoning.
Everything was perfect.
The venue was bathed in golden light, the floral arrangements were immaculate, and guests smiled, chatted, and sipped champagne.
Everything was exactly as it should be. It was the kind of wedding people dreamed of, and the kind Sofia had dreamed of for months.
A beautiful wedding location | Source: Midjourney
She had planned every single detail, right down to the little bags of candy that would keep guests busy if they got hungry during the ceremony.
But just as my fiancée had planned her dream wedding, I had also planned every detail of my moment.
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I stood at the front, hands clasped together, and calmed my breathing. The music swelled, signaling the bridesmaids to prepare to enter.
A groom stands at the altar | Source: Midjourney
I looked around and observed the expectant faces of our guests, the carefully arranged decorations, and the warm glow of the candlelight. It was the perfect romantic wedding scene.
Everything felt exactly as it should.
And yet I wasn’t nervous. Not even a little bit.
No longer.
Smiling guests at a wedding | Source: Midjourney
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72 hours earlier
I don’t remember sitting down.
One minute I was standing at my apartment window, staring at the city skyline. The next I was lying on the couch, head in my hands, trying to breathe.
Elena sat across from me, silent and waiting. Her words still echoed in my head. Over and over again, like a song I just couldn’t turn off.
“I saw her, Max. With him. I wasn’t looking for her, I swear! But I saw her.”
A man sitting on a couch holding his head | Source: Midjourney
“And you’re sure? Elena, you have to be sure.” My voice sounded thin and strange to me.
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“Max, I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t sure,” she said.
The room felt too small. My apartment, once filled with wedding gifts, seating charts, and excitement, now felt like a prison cell. I wanted to run away, to escape this conversation.
How could Sofia cheat on me?
“Tell me everything,” I said.
An upset woman in an apartment | Source: Midjourney
Elena hesitated for a moment. Then she straightened her shoulders and looked me in the eyes with sympathy.
“I was at this new cafe that thrives on being vegan. I was just about to get a coffee when I saw Sofia sitting at a corner table.”
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She paused.
“She wasn’t alone, Max.”
“Who?” I asked.
The interior of a cafe | Source: Midjourney
“I don’t know his name, but he seemed so familiar. He could be one of her friends. I know I’ve seen him before. But I know how he looked at her, Max. And I know how she looked at him.”
“It doesn’t mean much, Elena,” I said.
“Sofia touched his face, whispered something, and then she leaned toward him first, Max. And then they kissed.”
A close-up of an angry woman | Source: Midjourney
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For a brief, pathetic second, I was almost convinced it was a misunderstanding. A mistake. But Sofia wasn’t careless. She was calculating.
She wouldn’t have let a man kiss her in public if she didn’t know she wouldn’t get caught. Unless she thought she had all the power and no one who knew either of us would catch her.
“Max, I know it hurts,” Elena said. “But I took a picture. I knew you’d need proof.”
A woman holds her phone in her hand | Source: Midjourney
“Show me,” I said, feeling my heart break as I looked at Elena’s phone.
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I blinked and stared down at my hands. They felt different. Detached from me.
“She said she loves me,” I murmured. “Our wedding is in 72 hours, Elena. What should I do now? Cancel the wedding?”
“No way!” said Elena. “Teach her a lesson!”
An angry man | Source: Midjourney
I raised my head and looked at Elena with clear, unbridled anger for the first time since the conversation began.
“She won’t get away with that.”
Elena didn’t look surprised.
“What will you do?” she asked.
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Something cold spread through my chest. I stood up and walked to the window. A deep, deadly clarity. I adjusted my tie as if I’d already made my decision.
A close-up of an angry man | Source: Midjourney
“I’ll let her have her big day,” I said. “But not the way she planned it.”
A slow grin curled around Elena’s lips.
“Tell me what you need, brother,” she said. “I will do whatever you ask.”
A close-up of a grinning woman | Source: Midjourney
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The present
The music grew louder and announced the first bridesmaids.
As one after another entered the frame, a wave of unrest swept through the crowd. The space, which had previously been filled with quiet conversations, changed completely.
The bridesmaids were dressed in black, as if they were in mourning. Some of them had to do some convincing, but when they saw the evidence Elena and I had provided, none of them wanted to stand behind a liar.
Bridesmaids dressed in black | Source: Midjourney
They didn’t wear the soft sky blue Sofia had wanted. They didn’t wear the carefully selected pastel shades that matched the invitations and bouquets.
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No.
They were dressed in black.
One by one, they came forward, their expressions unreadable. Their dark dresses formed a stark contrast to the delicate white petals scattered along the aisle.
White rose petals scattered along a wedding aisle | Source: Midjourney
That’s when the whispers started. Both Sofia and I came from traditional families, so it was a big problem that the bridesmaids wore black. A few heads turned to each other with confused frowns.
“This is so inappropriate, Max!” I could almost hear my mother screaming.
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“Oh, that’s a bad omen,” I imagined my grandmother saying.
A shocked elderly woman | Source: Midjourney
I held my gaze and watched as my sister Elena reached her place at the front. She met my gaze and winked so subtly that no one noticed.
I exhaled slowly.
Yes.
Everything was exactly as I had planned.
A groom stands at the altar | Source: Midjourney
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Then the doors at the back of the hall opened.
Sofia stepped forward, glowing. I admit, she looked absolutely stunning. A vision in white.
She took a step into the room and then froze.
For a moment, she didn’t understand. Her smile lingered on her lips as she scanned the crowd, expecting to see joy, excitement, and the warmth of celebration.
A smiling bride | Source: Midjourney
Instead she saw the black dresses.
And her expression darkened.
Her eyes darted from one bridesmaid to the next, taking in the dark silhouettes, the somber energy, and the whispers among the guests.
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The color drained from her face.
A shocked bride | Source: Midjourney
Her lips parted slightly, as if she were about to ask a question, but no words came out. Her hand clenched around the bouquet. She knew something was wrong.
As she continued on her way, hesitation crept into her movements. The usual sureness in her step was gone. Every step down the corridor felt uncertain.
When she reached me, she took mine with slightly trembling hands.
Her fingers were cold.
A smiling groom | Source: Midjourney
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“What’s going on here, Max? Why did they change their clothes? What’s the point? They’ve ruined the whole aesthetic!”
I smiled at her. But there was no warmth in it. I no longer felt any affection for this woman.
“Wait. You mean you don’t know?” I asked, my voice just loud enough for her to hear.
Silence fell over the room.
Sofia’s eyes darted around the room, from me to the bridesmaids and to my sister, who stood upright beside them.
A bridesmaid in black | Source: Midjourney
I turned slightly and gestured toward the row of women in mourning clothes.
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“This isn’t a wedding, Sofia,” I said, my voice calm.
Too calm. And I was calm. I had days to get my emotions under control.
“It’s a funeral,” I smiled.
A collective gasp went through the hall. Our guests looked horrified. My mother looked like she was about to faint.
A smiling groom | Source: Midjourney
Sofia’s fingers gripped mine in a desperate grip.
“What are you talking about?” she gasped.
I let out a small, humorless laugh.
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“We’re here to bury what’s left of our love. Or rather,” I said, watching her get nervous, “what you killed.”
A shocked bride | Source: Midjourney
The silence was oppressive. Then, a murmur. Someone in the second row covered their mouth with a hand.
Someone else turned to the person sitting next to him and whispered urgently.
Sofia’s face blushed.
The panic in her eyes turned into something else: anger.
An angry bride | Source: Midjourney
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And then, finally, it dawned on her.
She tore her hands from mine and turned around, her anger finding a new target.
“You told him?!” she snapped, her voice cutting through the air.
Sofia now looked directly at her bridesmaids.
Three bridesmaids standing together | Source: Midjourney
No, she blamed them.
Her face twisted with anger.
“How could you do that?! You’re my closest confidants! My closest friends! And this is none of your business. None of it. What the hell?”
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“At first, we didn’t want to believe Elena,” said Maddie, Sofia’s best friend. “But after she showed us the evidence… we all knew Max deserved better.”
A close-up of a bridesmaid | Source: Midjourney
Elena took a small step forward. I recognized the expression on my sister’s face. She was trying hard to maintain control. But when she spoke, her voice was calm, cold, and final.
“Sofia, this concerned us the moment we found out what kind of person you really are.”
She raised her chin slightly.
“It concerned us the moment we found out who my brother would spend his life with.”
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Sofia clenched her fists.
“You had no right to do that!” she screamed, her voice becoming hysterical.
A disgruntled bridesmaid | Source: Midjourney
I tilted my head.
“No right? Really not? To know the truth about the woman I wanted to marry?”
She turned back to me, her despair now creeping through her anger.
“I can explain… Max!”
I shook my head. I couldn’t bear to hear her explanation. Or the lack of one. On the one hand, I wanted to know everything. On the other, I just wanted Sofia out of my life forever.
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An angry groom | Source: Midjourney
“No, Sofia,” I said after a moment. My voice was calm. Controlled. Deadly.
“You just don’t like that you got caught.”
A strangled sound escaped her lips. A mixture of anger, humiliation, and something bordering on fear. Her eyes darted around the room again, searching for someone who would take her side.
But no one moved. No one dared to make a sound. No one came to her aid.
Guests at a wedding | Source: Midjourney
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The guests sat frozen in their seats, too stunned to react.
Sofia’s own bridesmaids stood silently, looking more like pallbearers than wedding guests in their black dresses.
She had never felt so alone. I could see it in her face.
Sofia’s breathing was gasping.
Then she turned and ran. She twirled around, the skirt of her dress billowing behind her. But in her haste, she stepped on the hem.
A bride walking down the aisle | Source: Midjourney
A cry rippled through the crowd as she stumbled, and she barely caught herself before stumbling again. Her hands clutched the fabric of her dress, lifting it just enough to escape down the aisle.
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No one stopped her. No one called out to her. Not even her parents or her brother.
I exhaled slowly, releasing a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding.
Then I turned to Elena.
A back view of a bride | Source: Midjourney
She stepped closer and reached for my hand. I squeezed it in gratitude. The guests around me stood frozen in shock, looking back and forth between me and the empty space where Sofia had just been standing.
I looked at my sister, my family, and the bridesmaids standing beside me today, not as part of a wedding, but as part of something else entirely.
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“I know this isn’t what everyone expected,” I said to the crowd. “But I’m done pretending. Go inside, eat and drink. I’ll be fine.”
An angry groom | Source: Midjourney
I walked down the hall and took a few moments to myself before going back inside. And then I saw her.
She sat on the curb, her white dress wrapped around her like a ghost of the life she had lost.
Her hands trembled, her shoulders hunched, and she was no longer the radiant bride she had been. She was just a woman who had run out of lies.
She looked up as I approached, her mascara smudged, her eyes red-rimmed and pleading. She brushed her fingers down my sleeve, then grabbed my wrist, holding it like a lifeline.
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A bride sitting on a curb | Source: Midjourney
“Max,” she said. “Please! I’ll do anything… just don’t let it be over.”
I didn’t respond. Instead, I withdrew.
“I messed up,” she said. “I was scared. I was stupid. But it was never real with him. It was always you, Max. It was always you…”
For a moment I just looked at her.
“If it had always been me,” I said quietly, “you wouldn’t have had to say that.”
A groom standing outside | Source: Midjourney
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“Please,” she begged.
“I’ll ask your mother to bring you something to eat,” I said.
I turned away and didn’t stop. I didn’t look back.
Instead, I went back into the hall and helped myself to the buffet that Sofia had prepared.
A wedding buffet | Source: Midjourney
This was supposed to be a fairy tale.
But fairy tales end when the villain reveals his true colors. And Sofia had just written the ending herself.
If you liked this story, here’s another one for you |
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Amber was one of those little girls who planned every moment of her wedding. So when Tim proposes, she knows exactly what she wants her day to look like. But when her friends ask her to meet for coffee, they spill more than Amber could have imagined. It turns out Amber’s friend Ellie cheated on her with Tim. So Amber decides to use her dream wedding as a stage for her revenge.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to living or dead persons or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims regarding the accuracy of the events or the portrayal of the characters and are not liable for any misinterpretations. This story is provided as is, and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.