Chapter 1

One month before the wedding, my boyfriend and my best friend picked out my wedding gown for me.

I looked at that gown and said nothing.

"When you two first sent me the photos, this was the very first one I ruled out. I told you I don't like this kind of revealing style…"

My best friend, already trying the gown on, cut me off with a pained look.

"Carissa, this one is the prettiest. It'll photograph beautifully. You really should learn to be open to new things."

Dirk Henson was still circling her, hunting for angles to shoot from.

Only after he'd gotten a few shots he liked did he speak.

"Katherine Pruitt has almost the same figure as you, so you don't have to bother trying anything on yourself. You should count yourself lucky."

"Besides, with taste as low as yours, you can't go wrong just listening to your best friend."

Before I could get a word out.

The two of them went right back to debating how to shoot the wedding day for the best photos.

Since I didn't get a say in the gown.

Then there was no need for me to be part of the wedding day either.

1

They didn't notice my mood sinking. They were absorbed in their photo plans.

"This angle, right here. We have to get more shots with this pose."

"When we post it to announce the engagement, it'll blow everyone away."

Katherine directed excitedly, then leaned in close to my boyfriend.

"Don't forget to shoot wide-angle."

Their bodies were pressed close together, and it drew an admiring remark from the wedding company's staff.

"The two of them are so in love. Handsome groom, beautiful bride. They're perfect together."

Katherine heard it and shot me an awkward glance.

"You've got it wrong. I'm just the bride's best friend."

The staffer hurried to apologize to me and even brought over a small gift to make up for it.

I couldn't blame them for the mistake.

Even standing there watching, I thought they looked more like the couple.

The three of us had known each other since college.

Dirk and I met because my best friend introduced us.

We fell in love because she was the one who passed along the love letter and set it up.

Even settling down in this city was because she said she didn't want to be apart from me.

So the three of us stuck together again, inseparable, like conjoined twins.

But I was too busy with work. So busy that somewhere along the way, I'd been shut out without even knowing when.

"Carissa!"

My best friend's voice broke into my thoughts.

"It's not often a workaholic like you gets free time, and since you're here anyway, why don't you try the gown on yourself after all?"

I looked at that gown with its exposed chest and pressed my lips together.

I didn't move from where I stood.

They both knew perfectly well that when I was eight, I got a burn across my chest.

Ever since, I never wear anything with a wide neckline.

Before we picked out any gown, I said it over and over.

"I'm not asking for much. All I ask is that the gown not have a wide neckline."

Dirk said he understood, and then turned around and locked in this one, the one Katherine chose.

Only because on her, it made her skin look fair and her face lovely.

I gently said I didn't want to wear this one.

Katherine's eyes went red. "Carissa, I went through more than a hundred gowns to pick this one out for you, and now you're telling me you don't like it?"

Before I could say anything, Dirk frowned.

"Carissa Simmons, don't push it too far."

"These past few days, so she wouldn't hold up your work, Katherine got up at the crack of dawn to plan your wedding and pick your gown. She was so afraid you wouldn't like it, she compared them over and over."

"Even if you don't credit the effort, at least credit the trouble she went to. What right do you have to be so picky?"

His tone was full of blame. Beside him, Katherine tried to soothe things.

"All right, don't talk to Carissa like that."

Dirk's temper had always been quick, and once he started lecturing he couldn't stop.

But the moment Katherine put in a word, he'd shut up immediately.

She turned back to work on me.

"Carissa, this gown was bought three days ago. If you didn't like it, you should have said so sooner."

I gave a cold laugh. Bought three days ago, so why am I only finding out now?

No one had asked what I thought.

Katherine ruffled my hair, coaxing me the way you'd coax a child.

"So now."

"For the sake of all my careful picking, why don't you do me the favor of trying it on first?"

"If you really don't like it, we'll change the plan."

Dirk's face was cold, his voice thick with impatience.

"She's been more than good enough to you as a best friend."

"If you're this hard to please, then choose it yourself. Stop acting like a princess everyone has to fuss over."

I lowered my head, digging my nails into my palm until it ached.

All these years, it had always been like this.

At a tourist spot, I wouldn't drink the mango smoothie that gave me allergies.

But because my best friend had stood in line to buy it, my turning it down meant I was being difficult.

My stomach is weak. I can't eat spicy food.

Yet every time we ate out, three bowls of noodles would be ordered, all of them extra spicy.

When I wouldn't eat mine and ordered another bowl.

They'd say I'd taken their kindness for an insult and was just throwing a tantrum.

They only ever saw my best friend's effort, and my pickiness.

Not one of them ever asked me.

Whether I wanted any of it.

Just like the gown being forced on me now.

Everything I wanted to say, I was made to swallow back down.

I gave a bitter little smile. "Fine. I'll try it on."