Left at the Altar

I started to hyperventilate when I looked through the last closet in the mansion and didn't see it. I fought the urge to pull at my neatly curled hair, but it was too much to bear. My wedding gown was missing. On my wedding day.

I sucked in air and breathed hard to try and control myself when one of the help rushed into the room with a sullied look on her face. I rushed to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Tell me you found it, Eliza. Tell me you found my wedding dress."

"I did see your wedding dress, miss, but I'm not sure you should know where it is." She muttered.

I watched her suspiciously before I let go, my eyes softening.

"Where is it, Eliza?"

She wrung her hands, looking away.

"Your wedding gown is already on the altar. Miss Veronica is putting it on. She's at the altar with Mr. James."

I blinked for a few seconds before my legs moved, rushing through the hallways and foyer. When I stepped out of the mansion, my jaw dropped. My guests sat with smiles on their faces as they watched the ceremony unfold, but that was not what caught my attention. It was my best friend of five years, wearing my wedding gown, staring up at my supposed fiancé who held her hand lovingly with pride in his eyes.

Time slowed down. My chest tightened. The pieces didn't fit together, but there they were, standing at my altar like this was always the plan.

I rushed forward, gasps filling the air as I pushed through to the altar.

"What the hell is this?!" I questioned, my eyes darting between Veronica and James.

A look of shock passed through their features, but it disappeared just as quickly.

"Scarlett, you're early." Veronica said, clinging to James' arm.

I fumed, wanting to rip her hand off.

"Why are you in my dress on my wedding day?"

"She's up here because she's the one I'm marrying, Scarlett. Veronica is to be my wife." James replied, locking eyes with me. I scoffed, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"You're lying." This had to be a bad dream.

"I'm not." He stepped down. "Do you really think I would marry you? You're a washed-up nobody."

Blood boiled in my veins.

"We've been dating for seven years, James. Are you really throwing it all away for her?" I queried, pointing at Veronica as tears welled up in my eyes.

James just stared at me, and at that moment, I knew he had been lying to me for the longest time.

"How long has this been going on?"

"What does it matter? You started this first. I only went through with mine." James retorted, a sly smile playing on his lips.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I know about your affair with those men. All those scandalous nights at the office and business dinners. I know what you were truly up to, whore!" His voice echoed over the venue.

I gasped before a slow chuckle left my lips. I couldn't believe it.

He had cheated on me for years, and here he was turning it all on me because there was a crowd. I turned to look at the guests. Sure enough their phones were all out, recording. Murmurs rippled through the crowd. I turned back, my anger barely contained.

"I treated you like my sister, and this is what you do? Betray me in the worst way possible?" I spat at Veronica, who stepped down beside James, her new engagement ring sparkling in the sunlight.

"I'm sorry, Scarlett, but after everything you've done to him, don't you think he should be happy? And what better person than me?" She responded in that sickly sweet tone I always teased her about. I frowned and turned to James.

"I built you from the ground up. I made you who you are."

"You didn't do shit!" James screamed before regaining his composure. "When I found out about your affairs, I made it my mission to strip you of everything. Your accounts, businesses, and assets all belong to me now. Be glad you could use that as some form of apology."

Dread ran up my spine as I remembered all the documents I signed. Every late night when he'd bring me papers, every time he'd distracted me with kisses while I scrawled my signature without reading. Did I just sign away my life?

"No. You wouldn't dare." My voice got shrill as I planned to jump him, but with a snap of his fingers, strong hands wrapped around my arms and locked me in place.

"You've disrupted us long enough. I think it’s time you left." James said with disdain before turning to the men. "Throw her on the streets. I don't want this filth here."

My body lifted off the ground as the men pulled me away. Curses left my mouth, pointed at the two people I trusted with my life. In ten steps, I was thrown out of my own house and onto the street, my knees bleeding as they hit the asphalt.

That's when I cried, my body racking from sobs. I finally opened my eyes, looking around through blurred vision, and that's when I saw it. A car. The horn blew loud, trying to get me out of the road in time, but I was stuck to the ground. In an instant, my world that was so full of color and life turned pitch black.