Chapter 1
The bride threw a dirty little girl out of her wedding. Seconds later, the child’s one word shattered the groom.
It was the kind of wedding that made you believe in perfect, fairy-tale love.
White lace draped every tent pole, catching the golden afternoon sun like scattered stardust.
Champagne flutes clinked, soft and bright, like tiny, happy bells ringing for the couple at the altar.
I sat in the third row, next to Ethan’s mom, and smiled. My cousin had waited so long for this.
He stood at the altar in a tailored black suit, his face lit up like he’d just won the whole world. His eyes never left his bride, Victoria, as she glided toward him in a silk gown that cost more than my first car.
No one noticed the small figure slip through the tent flaps at first.
Her white sneakers were caked in thick, brown mud, leaving wet prints on the white aisle runner.
Her mousy brown hair was matted with dry leaves and twigs, like she’d slept in the woods the night before.
The faded blue dress she wore hung loose to her knees, too big by half, held up at the waist with a frayed piece of string.
She clutched a crumpled piece of paper so tight her tiny knuckles turned white, like it was the only thing she had left in the whole world.
Victoria saw her first.
Her perfect red smile dropped so fast I thought her face would crack right down the middle.
She hiked up her silk gown with one hand, her white heels sinking into the soft grass at the edge of the tent, and marched over like a soldier going to war.
“Who let this little rat in?” she shrieked, her voice so sharp it cut through the music and the chatter.
The entire tent went dead silent.
You could have heard a pin drop on the carpet.
“Get her out of my wedding. Now.” Victoria’s lip curled, her nose wrinkled like she smelled something rotten. “She’s ruining everything.”
Two groomsmen stepped forward without a word, their faces blank.
They wrapped their big hands around the girl’s tiny arms, lifting her a few inches off the ground.
She didn’t kick. She didn’t scream. She didn’t even cry.
She just stared straight past them, right at Ethan, her big brown eyes wide and unblinking.
Ethan frowned, his forehead creasing like he was trying to grab onto a half-remembered dream, something just out of reach.
He took one shaky step off the altar, his shoes scuffing the white runner.
“Wait,” he said.
His voice was tight. Unsure. Like he was scared to say the wrong thing, scared to break whatever fragile thing was hanging in the air.
The girl wrenched her arms free of the groomsmen’s grip, twisting so fast they stumbled back.
She took three wobbly steps toward him across the grass, her bare calves brushing the damp blades.
Her lip trembled so hard I could see it from my seat, her chin quivering like she was holding back a flood of tears.
She lifted her chin, her shoulders squaring like she was about to go into battle.
She opened her mouth.
May you like
And she said one single word, loud and clear, so every single person in that tent heard it.
“Daddy.”
