My ex-husband invited me to his wedding to see me alone, so I hired an actor as a date… but when the bride saw him with me, her face turned colorless.
“I just wanted to show that there was no bad blood,” David stammered, using that smooth, gaslighting voice Natalie knew all too well.
Julian let out a cold, sharp chuckle. “How fascinating. Chloe used to say the exact same thing when she was cheating on me with a married man.”
The silence that fell over the pavilion was deafening, like glass shattering in the middle of a church service.
“What did you just say?” Chloe whispered, though everyone nearby had already heard it.
Julian didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “I said that while you were wearing my engagement ring, you were sleeping with a married man. I guess now I know who it was.”
The champagne flute trembled in David’s hand.
Natalie watched him with a profound, sudden clarity. For months, David had told their entire social circle that their marriage ended because she was “unstable, insecure, and impossible to live with.” He never mentioned there was another woman. He certainly never mentioned that the woman was engaged to someone else.
Chloe gripped her bridal bouquet so hard the stems groaned. “You have no right to come here and ruin my wedding.”
“Your wedding was ruined long before I got here,” Julian replied smoothly.
An older aunt of David’s gasped loudly. Two of Chloe’s bridesmaids stopped recording on their phones, but it was too late—half a dozen other devices were already raised in the crowd.
David tried desperately to claw back control. “Alright, enough. This is a celebration. Natalie, I don’t know what kind of stunt you thought you were pulling, but this is entirely uncalled for.”
Natalie felt something snap inside her—not from pain, but from sheer exhaustion.
“Uncalled for? You invited me, David. You wrote on the card that you hoped I’d show up alone. You wanted to use me as a prop to showcase your big win. You wanted me humiliated.”
Chloe turned slowly to face her new husband. “Is that true?”
