Chapter 1: The Note in the White Dress
MY DAUGHTER HANDED ME A CRUMPLED NOTE BEFORE I SAID "I DO" — WHAT MY BRIDE HAD WRITTEN ENDED THE WEDDING
Ten minutes before my wedding, I found my seven-year-old daughter crying behind the chapel.
Emily was wearing the white dress she had chosen herself, but the flowers in her hair were coming loose and her small hands would not stop trembling.
I dropped to one knee.
"What happened?"
She pressed a crumpled note into my hand.
Then she whispered:
"Rebecca said after you say 'I do,' I have to leave forever."
For several seconds, I could not breathe.
Rebecca was the woman I was about to marry.
For two years, she had smiled through family dinners, helped Emily with homework, and promised she would never try to replace her mother.
But the note was written in Rebecca's handwriting.
*After the wedding, you will live somewhere better suited for children like you.
Do not upset your father.
He has already agreed.*
My daughter looked at me with terrified eyes.
"Did you agree, Daddy?"
"No."
The answer came out harder than I intended.
I folded the note and placed it inside my jacket.
Then the chapel doors swung open.
Rebecca appeared in her lace wedding gown, smiling as nearly two hundred guests turned toward her.
She spotted me holding Emily and kept walking.
"Darling," she said softly, "the priest is waiting.
Give her to the nanny."
Emily gripped my collar.
Rebecca's smile stayed perfect.
But her eyes moved toward the note in my hand.
And for the first time that day, she looked afraid.
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What will he do when he walks back through those chapel doors?
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Will Rebecca finally answer for what she wrote to a seven-year-old girl?
Comment **"NEXT"** if you want Part 2 — it's in the comments below.
