"Madisyn… I can't marry you."
Just five simple words, but that was all it took to turn the happiest day of Madisyn's life into the worst day.
She felt like a fool standing before the church in a wedding dress that fitted so perfectly it was like Cinderella's fairy godmother had tailored and sewn it just for her.
Those words cut through her heart like the sharpest of blades. She looked around, hoping it was some kind of sick joke. Where were the cameras? This couldn't be happening to her.
A tightness gripped her chest, making it hard to breathe.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her sister's anxious expression. Liza must have known that this was going to happen.
No, it couldn't be.
Her vision darkened, and her knees felt like they were about to give out.
"What?" She must have heard him wrong. This couldn't be possible. She had given her whole heart to him so easily. She didn't deserve this—not after everything they had been through together.
"I cannot marry you," he repeated, more slowly this time to ensure she understood.
Hearing it a second time hurt even more.
Madisyn felt her legs trembling. Everything she had ever dreamed of—the future she had planned—was gone just like that.
She had come so close to happiness, and just as she was about to grasp it, it vanished like snowflakes in the sun.
How foolish had she been to think she could have that, that she deserved it. That for once in her life she could get what she wanted.
Before she could stop them, tears filled her eyes. She wiped them away furiously. "You can marry me. You're just scared. So now, please, come to the church and marry me." She could hear the desperation in her own voice as she begged him.
It was pathetic.
"Madisyn, I don't love you. I can't marry a woman I don't love."
She wished he had shot her with a gun instead—it would have hurt less than those words.
"I'm sorry," he repeats, "I will not marry you."
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. She was sure that her make-up—which had been so immaculately applied—was ruined now. She felt even more like a fool.
But she was a fool in love.
She couldn't help but cry and cry until she could cry no more. Her tears blurred her vision, turning the once grand view of the church into a smudgy mess of colors.
Liza rushed to her side, wrapping her in a tight hug as tears filled her own eyes. They both sobbed.
"I'm so sorry, Madi. I couldn't tell you. I tried to reach you, but the signal at the church was particularly bad…" Liza held her tightly, hoping to absorb some of her pain, but it was futile.
In her grief, Madisyn could scarcely speak. All she could do was cry and gasp for air—an unpleasant yet familiar experience.
She was having a panic attack—something she thought she had conquered after years of therapy. All that work, and for what? Right now she was a spot of white silk on a carpet of red petals, crying her eyes out.
In that moment, a part of her heart died forever. Right then and there, on the floor with aching knees and ruined makeup, she swore to herself that she would never love again. She would never give any man the power to make her feel that weak and unworthy again. From that moment on, she would close the doors of her heart to everyone.
She would never love again.
Cross her heart.