CHAPTER 2: THE WOMAN IN WHITE
The door opened slightly.
A shadow fell across the tiled floor.
The groom instinctively shifted, shielding the girl behind him.
Then he heard it.
A familiar voice.
Soft. Controlled. Perfectly calm.
“Are you going to stand there before your own wedding?”
His fiancée.
She stood in the doorway wearing her wedding dress, flawless as porcelain. No signs of panic. No surprise. Only quiet composure—like she had expected him to be here.
Her eyes moved to the girl behind him.
Not shocked.
Not confused.
Just… measured.
“Come out, sweetheart,” she said gently, as if speaking to a pet that had wandered too far.
The girl shrank back harder.
The groom stood up slowly, blocking the view.
“What is going on?” he asked, voice sharper now. “Why is this child hiding in a bathroom at our wedding?”
A pause.
The bride exhaled softly, like she had rehearsed this moment.
“She shouldn’t have come here,” she said.
“That’s not an answer,” he snapped.
For the first time, something flickered behind her calm expression.
Not fear.
Control.
“She’s part of my past,” she said carefully. “A past I told myself I had already closed.”
The groom stared at her.
“Your past doesn’t hide in bathrooms crying.”
Silence stretched between them.
Then she spoke again, quieter.
“If she’s here… then someone brought her. And that means they know.”
The groom frowned. “Know what?”
May you like
Her gaze sharpened.
“Everything.”
