Chapter 1He Fell For My Soul And Married Her Lies

Ten years after graduation, I was suddenly added to a new high school alumni group chat.

The notifications were relentless. Everyone was buzzing about a tribute video they were piecing together—a wedding gift for Miles and Ivy.

Someone noticed I’d joined and immediately tagged me with an assignment:

“Oh, Nora! I heard you’re still back in our hometown. You should film the segments at the old high school campus!

“It’ll be perfect for the montage. We need to relive the glory days of the school’s ultimate power couple.”

I didn’t reply. Instead, I stared at the ring on my finger, a cold weight settling in my stomach.

Miles and Ivy were getting married?

Then who the hell was the man I was supposed to marry next month?

* * *

I stared at that message until the screen went dark.

Because I didn’t respond immediately, the tags kept coming. I was the final piece of their puzzle, the "closer" for their grand romantic gesture.

It was almost comical.

From high school through college, I had been the silent stagehand in their sweeping epic. I thought I had finally stepped into the lead role of my own life, only to realize I was still just an uncredited extra.

The group count showed fifty people. Our graduating class had fifty-two.

The two missing people were the stars themselves.

The former class president was practically vibrating with excitement in the chat: “Once we have everyone’s clips, we’ll have Miles and Ivy record their own vows. That makes fifty-two videos—one for every member of the class. It’s perfect. Remember, everyone, the clips have to be exactly fifty-two seconds long. We need that symmetry.”

“God, that’s so romantic,” someone chimed in. “Makes me want to find a high school sweetheart of my own. Anyone looking for a second-chance romance?”

“Shut up, Dave. You don’t have Miles’s looks or his brain. The man is a literal neuroscientist now. Go look in a mirror.”

“True. They really were the King and Queen. The Golden Couple.”

Someone finally asked the question I was screaming internally: “How do we even know they’re getting married? I haven’t seen a formal announcement.”

“My wife told me,” the class president replied. “She was Ivy’s roommate when they were doing their post-grads abroad. Ivy talked about her and Miles all the time. Word is, Ivy just flew back into the States today, and Miles was the one who picked her up at the airport.”

“My wife saw the invitation in Miles’s car. He went to pick up his first love with the wedding invites already printed. Can you imagine the romance of that?”

“You wandered the world, but I stayed here, waiting to welcome you home.”

Another message popped up: “Airport? Yeah, that was today. Look at Ivy’s Instagram.”

He posted a screenshot.

It was a photo of a glass of vintage red wine against a backdrop of city lights. The caption read: Coming home is easy when you’re the one waiting on the other side of the table.

I felt a wave of nausea. I hit the "Mute Notifications" button and set my phone face down on the coffee table.