I read the caption once.
Then again.
Then a third time.
My hands began to shake.
Bride-to-be?
I enlarged the photograph, hoping I had misunderstood something. Perhaps it was an old picture. Perhaps the woman was a relative. Perhaps someone had written the wrong name.
Then another message arrived.
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I thought you knew.”
I replied immediately.
“Knew what?”
The person introduced herself as a woman who had attended the same business events as Daniel. She explained that Daniel had been dating the woman in the photograph for several months.
Her name was Vanessa.
Vanessa came from a wealthy family. Her father owned several businesses, and her family had already begun arranging the wedding.
I felt as though the ground had opened beneath my feet.
Several months.
While Daniel was asking me to lend him money, he had been dating someone else.
