The night before my wedding, I accidentally called Rick Graves—the 38-year-old Rick Graves.

I asked him, breathless, “So we've been married for years already? Do we have kids? Are we happy?”

Because tomorrow, we were getting married.

But the line went quiet for a moment, and then he told me.

“Don't go through with the wedding.”

“On our wedding night, I cheated on you with your best friend. I never cut things off with her. Not for the next five years.”

“Eventually she and I had a child together. You developed depression, but you refused to divorce me no matter what, and you ended up in a psychiatric facility.”

“Agatha Henson, I don't want to watch you end up like that. So don't marry me.”

“Is that so?”

I stood frozen in place for a long time, the pain in my chest beyond anything I could name.

“Then I'll break up with him……”

The words had barely left my mouth when howling laughter exploded from the other end of the line.

“Oh my god, she actually believed you were 38-year-old Rick Graves! She was really going to break up with you! This is priceless!”

“What a stupid, gullible little puppy. It was that obvious, and she still didn't figure out this was just a bet between us!”

I went numb. Rick laughed again from the other end—that doting, indulgent laugh—

but it was directed at my best friend.

“So I win. Lois Sullivan—marry me?”

……

Twist after twist, blow after blow. I stood there like I'd been struck by lightning.

I couldn't move. I couldn't think.

“You're not the 38-year-old Rick Graves?”

I sounded like an idiot asking it, and the laughter on the other end only got louder.

Rick's voice dripped with mockery.

“What, you think you're in a novel?”

“A phone call to the future? There's no '38-year-old me.' That was just an excuse I made up to trick you.”

“And only someone as dumb as you would actually fall for it.”

So even this phone call had been a scheme they'd planned together.

A bet they'd cooked up for fun.

I gripped my phone so hard my knuckles ached, and looked down at the wedding ring on my left hand. All I felt was the bitter absurdity of it.

The mocking laughter kept going, and my first instinct was to hang up.

But then Lois's voice cut through.

“Fine. I'll give you one chance to put a ring on my finger. Tomorrow, in front of everyone. I want the whole world to see you propose to me.”

Rick agreed without a second's hesitation.

“If Miss Sullivan wants it, Miss Sullivan gets it.”

I was left on the line like an afterthought, blood cooling inch by inch.

The call still hadn't ended. I was starting to wonder if even that was deliberate—another piece of Rick's game.

I drew a slow breath. “Rick. Where are you right now?”

“The apartment.”

I grabbed my bag and rushed downstairs, hailing a car to the wedding apartment.

It was in an upscale complex, a place Rick and I had spent half a year choosing together. Perfect location, perfect layout.

I'd paid half the down payment. I'd managed every detail of the renovation myself.

Rick had gone along with me every time I filmed the progress, both of us counting down to the day we'd finally move in as husband and wife.

We had already put so much into this.

I refused to believe he really treated all of it as nothing more than a game.

I pushed open the apartment door and went rigid where I stood.

The place was trashed. Beer bottles and sunflower-seed shells everywhere, like a bomb had gone off.

On the table sat a bottle of red wine and a few small dishes, as though someone had been celebrating.

And Rick—he had a grape between his lips, leaning in to press it into Lois's mouth.

I shoved the door open and the grape slipped from between them—Loss of balance, Loss of pretense, their lips landing square on each other.

Cheers erupted around the room.

Lois swatted his chest with a coy little pout. “You're awful, stealing a kiss like that!”

“Way to kill the mood.”

Rick raised an eyebrow as though he'd expected me, and pulled Lois closer by the waist.

“If Agatha hadn't shown up uninvited, I'd have won that round.”

Lois bounced over and looped her arm through mine.

“Agatha, perfect timing! Come play with us!”

I shrugged her off without a word and fixed my eyes on Rick. “No. I'm here to confirm one thing.”

I forced the tremor out of my voice. “What you said on the phone……was that real?”

“You told me you were Rick Graves at thirty-eight. You said you cheated with Lois on our wedding night. You said I ended up with depression……”

My voice came out heavy and broken. The room went quiet.

Lois slid her arm through mine again. “Agatha, it was just a joke. You've never been the type who can't take one. Why so serious all of a sudden?”

She pointed at the wedding dress crumpled on the floor. “Look, the dress is all ready. We were going to bring it over later so you'd be the prettiest bride tomorrow……”

I glanced at the stains smeared across the hem and let out a bitter laugh.

“Is there even a point anymore?”

My eyes burned red. “Rick, you don't think you owe me an explanation?”

His voice came back flat and cold.

“There's nothing to explain.”

“You heard everything just now, Agatha.”

“The marriage, that phone call to the future you made. All of it was fake.”

“Five years together. We've done everything there is to do. Marrying you? I couldn't feel less about it.”

“So yes, agreeing to marry you was just going through the motions. I never planned to show up at the wedding.”

His words landed like a bat to the back of my head. The room spun.

A week ago, Rick had proposed. I'd been so happy I couldn't sleep for days.

Five years of dating, and I thought we'd finally made it through the hard part.

Back when he didn't have a cent, he'd scrape by on nothing, saving half a month's living expenses to buy me a cake that cost more than either of us could afford.

All so I could post it and not lose face to anyone in my feed.

Every time my family pressed us about when we'd get married, he'd look at me with reddened eyes and swear it.

“Agatha, I swear, the day I have money, I'll give you a wedding so grand everyone will see me bring you home with pride.”

That day was never going to come.

He watched me stand there in silence, eyes swollen and red.

Then he stepped closer and twisted the knife.

“While you were buzzing around planning our wedding, I was checking into hotels with your best friend.”

“You were going on and on about something or other, and all I could see was how ripe Lois's lips looked. All I could think about was biting them.”

“I didn't hear a single word you said.”

My nails bit into my palms and the cold flooded through me all at once, bone-deep.

“Rick, we've been together five years. We finally……”

“Agatha.”

He cut me off, impatient. “Weren't you listening? I'm proposing to Lois tomorrow.”

“I'll admit you were the only woman I ever loved. And when I loved you most, I really did want to marry you.”

“Every time I made you get an abortion, I was on my knees in the hospital corridor slapping myself in the face.”

“But love doesn't owe anyone a reason.”

“Now that I've found Lois, I finally understand. She's the one I love.”

My face was draining of color, and he could see it.

Lois stepped forward and cut him off. “Enough, Rick! Can't you see how awful she looks? Stop talking……”

She turned to me, all worry and warmth. “Aggie, don't listen to him. He's just messing with you. Tomorrow's your wedding……”

I lifted my eyes and stared at the woman in front of me through swollen, reddened lids.

My best friend. Or so I'd believed.

When she had nothing left and nowhere to go, I'd wired her every last cent I had so she could make rent.

Her first job was one I'd found for her.

When a mugger came at her with a knife, I threw myself in front of it without thinking.

I was covered in blood, and she held me and cried and swore we'd be best friends for life.

This best friend.

She stole my boyfriend and drove the knife in when I was at my weakest.

“Lois, what wedding are you even talking about?”

“Didn't you hear him? The person he wants to marry is you.”

“Drop the act. It's sickening.”

Lois's eyes brimmed with tears. “Aggie, I……”

“Who are you calling sickening? Don't push your luck, Agatha.”

Rick's expression shifted first. He pulled Lois behind him.

“I'm the one who doesn't want to marry you. If you want to hate someone, hate me. Leave her out of it.”

I shook my head with a bitter half-laugh.

Then I looked down, slid the wedding ring off my finger, and held it out to Lois.

“This belongs on your hand anyway.”

Lois frowned slightly and glanced back at Rick.

“Your castoffs? Why would you give those to her—she's not here to pick up your trash.”

Rick scoffed, snatched the ring, and stuffed it back into my pocket.

“If there's nothing else, you should go. We have a party to get back to.”

Telling me to leave. Not even pretending otherwise.

I let my gaze travel around the room. Every pair of eyes was on me.

Some pitying. Some mocking. Some just there for the show.

I gave a dry, self-mocking smile and left them with one last thing.

“Rick, I put two hundred and thirty thousand into renovating this apartment. Four hundred thousand toward the down payment. I want it back.”

Rick laughed like I'd told the funniest joke he'd ever heard.

“You're seriously keeping score with me, Agatha?”

“Why wouldn't I? You're the CEO of Northstar Group. Don't tell me you can't even come up with that.”

The moment the words left my mouth, his expression turned ugly.

“Watch what you say.”

He grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the door. “These are all people from the same circles, Agatha. You spread lies like that, how am I supposed to show my face here?”

“Whether it's a lie or the truth, you know better than anyone.”

I raised my voice on purpose. “Go ahead, Rick. Add it up yourself. Five years together—how much of your money did I spend, and how much of mine did you spend?”

“Can you even do the math?”

“If there's no wedding, fine. Then let's settle every last cent.”

I dropped those words, ignored the look on his face, and walked out.

I didn't sleep that night.

By the time the sky turned gray with dawn, I was sitting up with dark circles under my eyes, dialing a number.

“Dad. I'll do it. I'll come home and get married.”

My father was quiet for a long time after hearing that. When he finally spoke, it came out as a sigh.

“Agatha. You've finally come to your senses. Though I wish it hadn't cost you five years to figure it out.”

“A girl like you, raised with everything, sheltered your whole life. You've never really suffered.”

“You and a man like Rick Graves, someone who clawed his way up from nothing. You were never the same.”