The bouquet slipped from Clara’s hand, petals scattering across the aisle like pieces of her heart. Liam’s words echoed in her ears, hollow and unthinkable: Step aside. For a moment she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, as the world tilted beneath her feet.
And then Stephanie stepped forward, radiant in white, sliding into place beside him as though the altar had been meant for her all along. Gasps rippled through the crowd, whispers rising like a storm, but Clara heard nothing except the pounding in her chest.
Her parents rose in protest, voices trembling with disbelief, but Clara barely registered them. All she felt was the crushing weight of betrayal, the humiliation burning through her skin as she stood there, stripped of her vows, her future, her dignity—watching her sister claim everything she had dreamed would be hers.