Stained Bridal Whites Chapter 2

On the drive back, I pulled the briefs from my pocket and tossed them at Andrew.

He stammered out an explanation. "It's not what you think. She's Rick's sister. I was drunk, nothing happened..."

I tore open an antiseptic wipe and meticulously cleaned my hands. "You can drop me off here. I'm meeting Zoe for a game of poker."

Andrew's throat worked. He softened his voice. "I can pick you up when you're done?"

"No need," I said, pushing the car door open. "You do you."

I didn't want to know what those briefs had been through. I was just worried they might have picked up something... unclean.

At Zoe's place, I took a long, hot shower and changed into a fresh set of clothes she'd laid out for me. Only then did the tight, suffocating feeling in my chest finally begin to fade.

Zoe watched Andrew's car drive away, then raised an eyebrow at me. "So, what's the damage? How many did you take down? Why didn't you call for backup?"

I sank into her sofa. "There was no fight. Scaring off a man is one thing, but scaring off the money? Not an option."

That New Year's, the Knight estate had been a warzone. Several of the elders had been so upset they'd ended up in the hospital. I had been left lying on the cold, hard floor until Zoe finally arrived and bundled my mud-caked self into her sports car.

As she turned the key in the ignition, she couldn't resist a jab. "Living out your childhood dream at the Knight estate? Making mud pies?"

The moment I opened my mouth, tears spilled out. "Zoe, how did it get like this?"

She panicked, fumbling to wipe my tears away, but she had no answers.

No one could have predicted that Andrew and I would end up in such a toxic mess. We were childhood sweethearts, after all, friends since we were in diapers. I’d worked myself to the bone, getting up before the sun and studying late into the night, just to get into the same university as him. The day my acceptance letter came, my mother marveled, "If I'd known you'd kill yourself studying for Andrew, I wouldn't have wasted all that money on tutors."

Everyone assumed that Anya and Andrew Knight were meant to be.

But just as we finally grew up, just as we no longer had to share a single hot dog from a street cart, he let go of my hand.

He hated his family for controlling his future, for forcing him to give up his dream of being a musician to inherit the family business. That hatred reached its peak when I agreed to our engagement.

Back then, I was too blinded by my own happiness, too thrilled at the thought of finally marrying the man I loved, to notice that the love had vanished from his eyes.

After the engagement, he was never home. I’d wake up to a phone full of "concerned" messages from well-meaning friends. Andrew had dropped a fortune on some model. Andrew was on a yacht, draped in women. Andrew had thrown himself a mock wedding somewhere exotic...

The messages were like a persistent mold, growing in the damp corners of my life, impossible to scrub away.

I'd had my share of hysterical confrontations, of screaming matches that became public spectacles. All it ever earned me was more of Andrew's contempt.

"Can't you have some damn boundaries? You don't like it? Fine, go tell my mother to call off the engagement!"

Zoe had put it perfectly: our relationship was less like a marriage and more like a rebellious son and his desperate mother. One trying desperately to escape, the other clinging on for dear life.

I thought I would be tangled up with him forever. But then, one day, in the middle of a fight, I just got tired.

Zoe and I didn't need words. One look was enough.

Seeing my unusual calm, she asked softly, "So, what's the plan?"

I took the warm glass of water she offered me. "The London project... both our families have invested a lot. I'm going to oversee it myself."

"For how long?"

"Three years, for now."

She wrapped her arms around my neck, not wanting to let go. "Before you go, we're going to have the time of our lives. My treat."

"Don't worry," I said, leaning my head on her shoulder with a smile. "I'll hold you to that."