My sister wore bridal white to my wedding because she wanted everyone looking at her and HUMILITIATE ME. “Surprise,” she whispered, waiting for me to fall apart. I smiled back. She had no idea I had bought that dress and sent it anonymously to her hotel. Then the pastor stepped forward with a sealed envelope. “Your mother left something for you.” Our mother had died eight months earlier—and left instructions for exactly this moment.

I bought the dress myself.

I had it altered to Paige’s measurements and delivered anonymously to her hotel room before the wedding. There was no card explaining who had sent it, only a single note tucked inside the box.

Wear this if you need everyone to look at you.

Paige accepted the invitation.

Now she was walking down my aisle in the exact dress I had chosen for her, pretending not to notice the whispers following her through the chapel. She carried herself with the confidence of someone who believed she had already won.

Ethan leaned closer as Paige approached.

“Are you okay?”

I looked at the man I was minutes away from marrying. There was no anger in his expression and no desire to create a scene; he was only worried about me, which was one of the reasons I loved him.

“I’m okay.”

Paige finally reached the front and stopped beside me. Her smile widened as she glanced at my dress, clearly waiting for anger, humiliation, or some other reaction that would confirm she had successfully disrupted my wedding.

“Surprise,” she whispered.

I smiled back.

“Yes. It is.”

For the first time, uncertainty flickered across her face.