Chapter 1: The Note Behind the Chapel
Ten minutes before my wedding, I found my seven-year-old daughter crying behind the chapel.
Emily was wearing the white dress she had chosen herself, but the flowers in her hair were coming loose and her small hands would not stop shaking.
I dropped to one knee.
"What happened?"
She pressed a crumpled note into my hand.
Then she whispered:
"Rebecca said after you say 'I do,' I have to leave forever."
For several seconds, I could not breathe.
Rebecca was the woman I was about to marry.
For two years, she had smiled through family dinners, helped Emily with homework, and promised she would never try to replace her mother.
But the note was written in Rebecca's handwriting.
*After the wedding, you will live somewhere better suited for children like you.
Do not upset your father.
He has already agreed.*
My daughter looked at me with terrified eyes.
"Did you agree, Daddy?"
"No."
The answer came out harder than I intended.
I folded the note and placed it inside my jacket.
Then the chapel doors opened.
Rebecca appeared in her lace wedding gown, smiling as nearly two hundred guests turned toward her.
She saw me holding Emily and kept walking.
"Darling," she said softly, "the priest is waiting.
Give her to the nanny."
Emily gripped my collar.
Rebecca's smile stayed perfect.
But her eyes moved toward the note in my hand.
And for the first time that day, she looked afraid.
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What will happen when Rebecca realizes Emily already gave her father the note?
Comment **"NEXT"** if you want Part 2 — it's in the comments below.
