Chapter 1: The Black Stain
Ten minutes before I walked down the aisle, my sister destroyed the one thing I had spent two years dreaming about.
I thought the hardest moment of my wedding day would be standing in front of everyone and promising forever. I was wrong. The hardest moment was watching black ink crawl across my white gown while the person who was supposed to stand beside me laughed.
The venue was a small countryside estate outside Nashville, the kind of place with oak trees lining the driveway and golden sunlight spilling through the windows. My fiancé, Ethan, had chosen it because he said it felt peaceful.
“It feels like us,” he told me when we first toured it.
“Simple, warm, real.””
I believed him.
I believed everything was finally falling into place.
My mother stood behind me in the bridal room, carefully fastening the last buttons of my gown. The room smelled like roses from the bouquet sitting on the table and the vanilla candle my coordinator, Sarah, had lit earlier.
In the mirror, I saw myself smiling.
And for once, Chloe was smiling too.
My younger sister had spent months making little comments about the wedding.
“You’re really spending that much on flowers?””
“Do people even care about the dress?””
“Don’t you think you’re making everything too dramatic?””
But that morning, she had walked into the room wearing her maid-of-honor dress and acted like the supportive sister I had always wanted.
Maybe I was foolish, but I thought she had finally changed.
“Turn around,” Chloe said.
I looked at her reflection in the mirror.
“What?””
“I want to see the front of the dress.””
I laughed softly and turned.
The next second, the world stopped.
I heard the sharp click of a bottle opening.
Then something cold touched my chest.
A dark liquid spilled over the fabric.
At first, my brain refused to understand what I was seeing.
Black ink.
It spread like a shadow across the white gown, dripping down my waist and soaking into the layers of fabric I had carefully chosen.
I grabbed the skirt with both hands.
“Chloe…”
My voice barely came out.
“What did you do?””
She looked at me through the mirror.
And she laughed.
Not nervously.
Not accidentally.
She actually laughed.
“Relax,” she said.
“It was only a $200 cheap dress.””
My mother spun around so quickly that the chair behind her scraped across the floor.
“What did you say?””
Chloe shrugged, holding the empty bottle like she had just finished a harmless joke.
“I said it’s not a big deal.””
Mom grabbed the bottle from her hand.
“Tell me this washes out.””
Chloe looked away.
“How would I know?””
I stared at my sister.
The person who had shared my childhood bedroom.
The person who had cried in my arms after her first breakup.
The person I had defended when our relatives called her difficult.
“Why?”” I whispered.
She rolled her eyes.
“Oh, please. You’ve been acting like a princess all morning.””
My hands tightened around the ruined gown.
“A princess?””
“Yes,” Chloe snapped.
“Everyone has been running around for you. Everyone is worried about you. Everyone keeps saying how perfect everything is.””
Her expression changed.
For a moment, I saw something underneath the anger.
Jealousy.
“You always get everything,” she said quietly.
Before I could answer, someone knocked.
“Five minutes until photos,” a voice called.
My mother pressed a towel against the ink stain.
“It’s spreading,” she whispered.
I watched the black mark grow larger.
My wedding dress was disappearing beneath it.
Then the door opened.
Sarah, the wedding coordinator, stepped inside.
She stopped immediately.
Her eyes moved from my dress to Chloe.
“Don’t rub it,” Sarah said, walking quickly toward us.
My mother froze.
“Why?””
“Because you’ll push it deeper into the fabric.””
Chloe crossed her arms.
“Can somebody just find her another dress?””
Sarah looked at her.
Then she looked at the bottle.
“What exactly happened?””
Chloe smiled.
“She spilled something. It’s not like it was expensive.””
Sarah’s face changed.
“No.””
The room went silent.
“What do you mean, no?”” Chloe asked.
Sarah carefully touched the damaged fabric.
“This gown belongs to the boutique.””
Chloe frowned.
“So?””
“So it’s not a normal rental dress.””
She looked at me.
“You know that, right?””
I shook my head.
I knew the dress was special. Ethan and I had saved for months to afford the wedding, but I never knew the actual value of the gown.
Sarah took a breath.
“This is a limited runway sample.””
Chloe laughed again.
“Okay? And?””
Sarah looked directly at her.
“The replacement value is thirty thousand dollars.””
The smile disappeared from Chloe’s face.
“What?””
My mother lowered the towel.
“Thirty thousand?””
Sarah nodded.
“The alterations were two hundred dollars. The dress itself is worth much more.””
Chloe stepped backward.
“No. She told me it was two hundred.””
Everyone turned toward her.
I felt my stomach drop.
“What did you just say?””
Chloe’s eyes widened.
“I…”
Sarah narrowed her eyes.
“Who told you that?””
Chloe didn’t answer.
She looked toward the door.
And suddenly, she was no longer angry.
She was afraid.
Then Sarah pointed upward.
Above the bridal room entrance was a small security camera.
“We have footage.””
Chloe’s face went pale.
And for the first time that morning, my sister looked like she realized this wasn’t a joke anymore.
But the worst part was that she wasn’t the only one who had been planning something.
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Because when the boutique representative arrived ten minutes later, she looked at Chloe and said something that made my blood run cold.
“I need to show you an email your sister sent yesterday.””
