Maya's POV
The wedding dress doesn't fit anymore.
I stare at my reflection in the cracked bathroom mirror at Giovanni's Restaurant, pulling the white fabric tighter around my waist. I made this dress myself, stitching every seam by hand during my lunch breaks. But after working three jobs for six years, I've lost so much weight that the dress hangs loose on my body.
Tomorrow, I marry Derek Walsh. Tomorrow, everything changes.
"Maya! Table seven needs water!" Tony, my manager, pounds on the bathroom door.
I shove the dress back into my bag and rush out. My feet ache in these cheap shoes. I've been standing for fourteen hours straight—coffee shop from six to noon, alterations shop from one to five, and now the dinner shift at Giovanni's until midnight.
But it's worth it. Derek is worth it.
My phone buzzes in my apron pocket. I shouldn't check it during my shift, but maybe it's Derek calling to say goodnight. We barely talk anymore since he started working late at his father's law firm.
The text makes my stomach drop.
Derek: We need to talk. Come to my apartment now.
Those words. I hate those words. "We need to talk" never means anything good. It means something is wrong. It means something bad is coming.
My hands shake as I pour water for table seven. The glass slips and crashes on the floor. Water spreads across the tiles like a warning.
"Maya!" Tony storms over. "What's wrong with you tonight?"
"I'm sorry. I'll clean it up."
"Forget it. Just go home. You're distracted and you're making mistakes."
I don't argue. I grab my bag from the employee room and run outside. The cold night air hits my face. I should take the bus to Derek's apartment, but I can't wait that long. I use my last twenty dollars for a taxi.
Please let everything be okay. Please let him just want to discuss last-minute wedding details. Please don't let this be what I think it is.
The taxi crawls through traffic. Every red light feels like torture. I check my phone again. No new messages. Derek always messages me back immediately. The silence scares me more than his text did.
Finally, the taxi stops outside Derek's apartment building. The one I helped pay rent for even though I don't live here. The one where I spent countless nights cooking him dinner while he studied for law school exams.
I pay the driver and step onto the sidewalk. That's when I see it.
A red sports car parked right in front of the building entrance.
Vanessa's car.
My stepsister's expensive car that her mother bought her for her birthday. The car she loves to show off. The car she drives past my work sometimes, honking and laughing.
What is Vanessa doing at Derek's apartment the night before my wedding?
My heart pounds so hard it hurts. There must be a good explanation. Maybe she came to drop off a wedding gift. Maybe she came to apologize for being cruel to me our whole lives. Maybe—
I'm lying to myself. I know it. But I keep lying because the truth is too terrible to accept.
I walk to the building entrance on shaking legs. The security guard recognizes me and waves me through. I've been here hundreds of times. I'm Derek's fiancée. Tomorrow, I'll be his wife.
The elevator ride to the fifth floor takes forever. I watch the numbers light up. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
The doors open.
I walk down the hallway to apartment 5C. Derek's apartment. Our apartment, really, since I paid half the rent for three years.
I raise my hand to knock, but I hear voices inside. Derek's voice. And Vanessa's voice. They're talking, but I can't hear the words through the door.
I should knock. I should announce myself. But something stops me.
Instead, I press my ear against the door.
"—can't do this to her," Derek is saying. "Maya doesn't deserve—"
"Maya doesn't deserve you," Vanessa interrupts. Her voice is sharp and mean, the way it always is when she talks about me. "She's been holding you back for six years. You could have been so much more without her."
"That's not fair."
"Isn't it? Look at you, Derek. You're about to marry a girl who waits tables and sews clothes. My mother is right—you're wasting your potential."
My chest tightens. I can't breathe properly. This is worse than I imagined.
"Your mother offered my father a business deal," Derek says quietly. "If I marry you instead of Maya, our families combine their law practices. My father says it's the opportunity of a lifetime."
The world stops spinning.
Did I hear that correctly? Did Derek just say "marry you instead of Maya"?
"It's not just about business," Vanessa says, and her voice turns soft and fake-sweet. "I love you, Derek. I've always loved you. And with my condition, I don't have much time left. The doctors said—"
"I know what the doctors said." Derek sounds tired. Sad. But not angry. Not refusing. "Six months, maybe less."
"Don't you want to make me happy before I die?" Vanessa asks. "Just give me this one thing. After I'm gone, you can go back to Maya. She'll wait for you. She's always waited for you."
Silence.
Long, terrible silence.
I wait for Derek to tell Vanessa no. I wait for him to defend me. I wait for him to say that he loves me and nothing will change his mind.
But the silence stretches on and on.
"Okay," Derek finally whispers. "I'll do it."
The hallway tilts sideways. I grab the wall to keep from falling. This can't be real. This is a nightmare. I'll wake up any second.
"I'll call Maya right now," Derek continues. "I'll explain everything. She'll understand. She always understands."
I hear footsteps coming toward the door. He's walking over here. In three seconds, he'll open this door and see me standing here, listening to him destroy my entire life.
I run.
I run down the hallway, past the elevator, into the stairwell. I run down five flights of stairs so fast I almost trip and break my neck. I burst out of the building into the cold night air.
My phone rings. Derek's name flashes on the screen.
I stare at it, my whole body shaking. Six years. Six years of loving him. Six years of sacrificing everything for him. Six years of believing we were building a future together.
And he's throwing me away like I'm nothing.
The phone keeps ringing. I should answer it. I should scream at him. I should make him explain himself.
Instead, I let it ring until it goes to voicemail. Then it starts ringing again immediately.
This time, it's not Derek calling.
It's my father.
I answer with a shaking voice. "Dad?"
"Maya." His voice sounds strange. Cold. "Come home. Right now."
"What? Why? What's wrong?"
"Just come home. We need to talk. Your stepmother and I have something important to tell you."
Those words again. "We need to talk." Twice in one night.
Whatever is happening, it's bigger than just Derek. It's my whole family. Something terrible is coming from every direction.
"I'm on my way," I whisper.
I hang up and look back at Derek's building. The light is still on in his apartment. He's probably practicing what he'll say to me. How he'll explain that he's marrying my stepsister tomorrow instead of me.
Tomorrow was supposed to be my wedding day.
Now I don't know what tomorrow will bring. But I know one thing—my life just ended, and I don't know how to survive what comes next