Chapter 3 - Enter the Ghost of Christmas Past
🚨 VIRAL HOOK: "The mother found the canceled wedding invitation. But before Nolan could lie, the doorbell rang... and the real bride walked in.""Who is Dana Harrington?" Meena asked, her voice dangerously quiet.
She held the invitation between two fingers like it was a piece of toxic waste. She had found it. I had forgotten that Dana had kept a spare box of invitations in the guest bathroom vanity.
Priya’s face drained of color. She looked at me, her eyes wide with terror.
I stood up slowly, my mind racing through a thousand risk-probability trees.
Option A: Tell the truth. Nani gets heartbroken. Meena wins. Option B: Lie. But what lie fits a fully printed wedding invitation with my name and another woman's name on it?
"That," I said, clearing my throat, "is a very painful subject, Meena."
"I am sure it is," Meena said, stepping into the living room. "Especially for a man who is supposed to have been married to my daughter for eight months. The date on this invitation is for... next weekend."
Nani looked confused. "Nolan? Priya? What is this?"
"Mom, please," Priya said, her voice shaking. "It's not what you think."
"Then tell me what it is, Priya!" Meena snapped. "Because from where I am standing, it looks like your 'husband' was planning to marry another woman next Saturday."
"He was," Priya said suddenly.
I stared at her. What was she doing?
"Dana is... she was Nolan's fiancée," Priya said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She looked at me, and the pain in her eyes was so raw it felt real. "Before we met. They were engaged. But Nolan found out she was cheating on him. The wedding was canceled. But... Nolan's family had already paid for the invitations, and they were delivered to his old address. He kept one... as a reminder."
"A reminder of what?" Meena asked, her brow furrowed.
"Of the risk of trusting the wrong person," I said, stepping in to support Priya's play. "I kept it to remind myself of how close I came to making the biggest mistake of my life. And to remind myself of how lucky I am that I found Priya afterward."
Meena stared at me, her eyes drilling into my soul. She was trying to find the lie, but my pain was real. The heartbreak of Dana leaving me was a fresh, open wound, and Meena could smell the blood.
Slowly, Meena lowered the invitation. "A very... modern way of healing, I suppose."
"Nolan," Nani whispered, reaching for my hand. "My poor boy. To be betrayed like that. But God has a plan. He took away the wrong one to give you my Priya."
I felt a massive wave of guilt wash over me. This sweet, dying woman was pouring her heart out to a fraud.
Before I could answer, a loud, heavy knock rattled the front door.
Not the doorbell. A knock. Sharp, familiar, and impatient.
Priya and I exchanged a glance of pure panic.
"Are you expecting someone, Nolan?" Meena asked, her suspicion immediately flaring up again.
"No," I said, walking toward the door. "Probably a package."
I opened the door.
Standing on the threshold, wearing a chic beige trench coat, her blonde hair perfectly blown out, was Dana.
She had a key in her hand, but she had knocked out of some weird sense of courtesy.
"Nolan," Dana said, her voice smooth and confident, the exact voice that had told me I was 'too safe' eight days ago. "I know I should have called, but I left my passport and my grandmother's pearl earrings in the master closet. I need them for—"
She stopped.
She looked past me into the apartment.
May you like
She saw Priya, standing in her deep blue dress. She saw Meena, holding the silver-foil wedding invitation. And she saw Nani, sitting in her wheelchair in the middle of the living room we had chosen together.
"Nolan?" Dana whispered, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Priya. "Who is this? And why is she wearing a dress that looks like my bridesmaids' color?"
