My Family, My Friends, My Fiancé, All Hers Chapter 01
I came home early over Labor Day weekend, hoping to surprise my family.
The moment I stepped inside, my brother called 911. “I want to report a burglary. There’s a thief in the house.”
It wasn’t until the police stormed in and cuffed me that I finally found my voice.
“Dad, Mom, Ethan! Tell them who I am. I’m Claire!”
But my parents shook their heads together. “We don’t know her.”
Even my boyfriend of five years turned away. “She’s probably some obsessed underclassman with a crush on me.”
I spent fifteen days in custody before my best friend finally posted bail.
With tears in my eyes, I told her the whole unbelievable story.
“Emily, how could my brother call the cops? This prank went way too far…”
Instead of answering, she drove me in silence to a luxury hotel.
I was about to ask why we were there when I stopped cold.
Through the glass wall, I saw Ethan Carter kissing my twin sister in a sea of roses.
Nearby, my parents smiled as they raised their glasses to the guests.
Emily sighed.
“The truth is, Ethan had been in love with Chloe all these years. That was supposed to be their wedding day, but when Chloe saw you come home early, she nearly had another breakdown.”
“The only reason this happened was that you came back early and almost ruined their wedding.”
“You’ve had Ethan for five years. This time, let them have each other.”
As confetti drifted through the air, my tears fell without a sound.
So everyone had hidden the truth from me to protect her fragile heart. I was the only fool who had believed them.
…
I wiped my tears away, my voice trembling slightly.
“If you all hid it from me for so long, why tell me now?”
Emily wouldn’t meet my eyes. There was a faint warning in her voice.
“We’ve been best friends for ten years. I couldn’t stand watching you stay in the dark forever.”
“And Chloe has always wanted your blessing. She thinks the wedding won’t feel complete without you there to witness it.”
“So now you know the truth. After today, stop being the third person in someone else’s relationship, okay?”
As Emily defended Chloe, sentence by sentence, the whole thing struck me as laughable.
So she remembered that we’d been best friends for ten years.
I had taken a slap from her ex-husband meant for her and helped her land a job at a major corporation.
I had even arranged a job there for her younger brother.
And now she was calling me the other woman in someone else’s relationship.
I ignored Emily and watched the couple onstage begin their vows. All I wanted was to go inside and demand an explanation.
But the moment I reached the ballroom entrance, two broad-shouldered security guards blocked my path.
“Sorry, ma’am. The ballroom’s been rented out. No unauthorized guests allowed.”
I pointed at the bride and groom, unable to believe my ears.
“I’m the bride’s biological sister. Why can’t I go in?”
The guards exchanged an awkward glance, then pointed to a sign beside them.
“Biological sister? Then this is exactly right. The bride’s family specifically told us to put it here. They even showed us your picture…”
“They said the bride wasn’t well and that you couldn’t be allowed inside today.”
I followed his gesture. A beautiful floral sign displayed one blunt sentence.
【CLAIRE ANDERSON AND HER DOG ARE NOT ALLOWED INSIDE.】
The words hit me like a hard, ringing slap across the face.
I stared at the sign until the tears in my eyes finally spilled over.
My boyfriend, my family, my friends, even complete strangers had planned for the possibility of me showing up, all to give Chloe a perfect wedding.
Not one of them had ever thought I deserved an explanation.
Just then, soft music began to play, and a wedding slideshow came up on the giant screen.
Photo after photo and video after video filled the screen until they formed a massive heart.
I stared at it, numb, feeling as if my unsteady heart had nowhere left to belong.
In five years together, Ethan and I had so few pictures that I could count them on two hands. He’d always said he didn’t like taking photos.
But that video was packed with footage of him and Chloe.
As the images flashed past, my vision grew blurrier and blurrier.
On our July 30 anniversary, Ethan had told me there was an urgent meeting at the company and that he had to work overnight.
The truth was, he’d gone bungee jumping with Chloe that day.
On September 8, I’d been in a car accident and broken a bone. I needed someone to take care of me, but not one person in my family or friend group had been available.
Yet on the screen, the people who had claimed to be sick, heading home, traveling for work, or working a part-time job had all been lying to me.
Together, they had planned a surprise proposal for Chloe.
Only I had clung to that lie and believed it completely…
At last, the emcee smiled and turned to Ethan.
“Starting today, Ms. Chloe Anderson will have a new role in your life. Tell everyone here: who is she to you?”
“She’s the woman who saved my life, the woman I love, and now my wife.”
The moment I heard Ethan’s voice, I stood there in shock.
The woman who saved his life?
A sharp, sick sense of absurdity hit me, but before I could make sense of it, someone interrupted.
“What are you doing here?”
