A young woman is at the altar about to marry a man she doesn’t love when she sees her dead fiancé among the guests.
Sarah looked in the mirror and tucked her favorite gold chain out of sight. This was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but she felt like crying.
“Now, don’t you cry!” the makeup artist said quickly, putting powder under Sarah’s eyes. “You’ll ruin my work!”
Across the room, Sarah’s mother smiled weakly. “Tears of joy,” she said, but she knew they were tears of sadness.
What should have been Sarah’s dream wedding had turned into a nightmare. Sarah adjusted her wedding dress and felt the weight of her engagement ring against her chest. It was a delicate ring with a tiny diamond, very different from the large ring now on her left hand.
“This is your choice,” Sarah told herself softly. “Now that David is gone, it doesn’t really matter who you marry.” The man she was marrying was nice, but he was chosen by her father.
Frank Melville was the son of Sarah’s father’s business partner. Their marriage would strengthen a business deal that had made both men very rich.
Sarah’s true love, David O’Reilly, had died three years ago in a terrible car accident. David was her driver when Sarah was a young celebrity, always chased by paparazzi.
It should have been the happiest day of Sarah’s life, but all she could think about was David.
Sarah remembered how she sometimes caught David watching her in the car’s mirror. She would look away. Then one night, she drank too much at a club, or maybe someone slipped her something.
Feeling sick and helpless, she called David. He came right away and helped her out of the club when she couldn’t stand.
To her embarrassment, she vomited, and David held her hair back and rubbed her back, saying comforting words. He helped her clean up and took care of her.
From that moment on, Sarah started watching David. Eventually, she convinced him to go on a date with her. They fell in love, and one day David gave her a delicate ring with a tiny diamond.
Sarah had been living the wild life of a party girl until she met David.
She happily said yes, thinking her parents would also be happy about her marrying a driver who had no money.
“But Daddy,” Sarah cried, “you always said what mattered was that I was happy!”
“You can be just as happy with a rich man,” her father replied. “Forget O’Reilly; he’s a loser.” But Sarah loved David and fought for their love. She believed her parents would eventually accept him.
That happy day never came. Instead, Sarah got a phone call while she was with her family. She saw her father go pale.
“Sarah, be brave, my love,” he said gently. “It’s David; there was an accident, a terrible accident…”
Sarah screamed and her father held her tightly while her mother sat nearby, twisting her hands and biting her lips.
That was the last day of her old life, the life where she believed in lasting love and happy endings. Two months later, Sarah told her parents she was pregnant.
They wanted her to end the pregnancy, but she refused. “This is all I have of David, and I’m having this baby!”
They had to give in to her strong will, especially with her grandmother on her side. Gran had real power in the family. Sarah’s father reluctantly accepted the pregnancy, and they spread the rumor that the father was a billionaire.
Sarah’s little girl was born, and for once, the family didn’t make a big deal out of it. Little Rachel’s existence was a secret. Soon after Rachel was born, Sarah’s father began pushing her toward Frank Melville.
Sarah sighed and lowered her delicate lace veil. “I’m ready,” she said. She picked up her bouquet and allowed her mother and bridesmaids to lead her downstairs to the waiting limousine.
A man in a wheelchair arrived at the church first. He wore a dark suit and had a bunch of wildflowers in his lap. When the usher asked him who he was with, he said, “The bride.”
He hadn’t seen Sarah in almost two years, but he turned on the TV yesterday and saw her. “Socialite Sarah Farmin, who has been away from the city’s social scene, is about to get married!”
“Not if I can help it!” David cried, turning off the TV. He remembered waking up in a hospital two years ago with his legs useless.
His mother, who had breathing problems, had been crying at his bedside. Then Sarah’s father, the powerful Greg Farmin, walked in. “You’re crippled,” he said bluntly. “What kind of life is that for Sarah? You know she’ll marry you, but you’ll be half a man.”
“What do you want?” David asked.
“I want you to stay away from Sarah. Let her believe you are dead so she can live a happy life,” Farmin said. “In return, you and your mother will get the best care money can buy.”
So David agreed, and Farmin kept his promise. David slowly got better, but his mother eventually died.
“I can’t let her do this,” David thought. “I have to tell her I’m alive.” So, when Sarah walked down the aisle with her father, David waited for his moment.
When Sarah reached Frank and the best man, her father gently lifted her veil and kissed her forehead. Just as he was about to give her away, a voice interrupted.
“Sarah,” it said. “Please don’t do this.”
Sarah turned and saw David in his wheelchair, wildflowers in his lap.
“David?” she whispered, shocked. “Oh my God, David? I must be dreaming…” Was he a ghost or a hallucination?
“It’s me,” David said, wheeling toward her. “I’m alive, but I thought you’d be better off without me.”
“Without you?” Sarah gasped. “I’ve been DEAD without you! The only thing that kept me alive was our baby, our little Rachel.”
“Baby?” David asked, shocked. “You had a baby?” He turned to Greg Farmin. “You never told me about the baby!”
“Daddy!” Sarah cried. “You knew David was alive and didn’t tell me?”
“I wanted to protect you,” Greg said defensively. He turned to David. “You gave me your word and took my money.”
“You paid him to stay away?” Sarah yelled. “You broke my heart!” Turning to Frank, she said with a sad smile, “I’m sorry, but I can’t marry you. I’m going to marry the father of my child.”
Sarah walked back toward David and hugged him. “You marry that man, and you’ll end up with nothing,” Greg shouted. “You won’t get a cent!”
Sarah’s grandmother stood up, looking at her son coldly. “Shut up, Greg. It’s not your money to give away. It’s mine, and I think Sarah and David deserve it all!”
Sarah and David got married and lived with little Rachel in a small house they bought with their own money, even though Gran wanted to buy them a luxury apartment. They knew they didn’t need luxury now that they had each other.
I overheard my husband asking our 4-year-old son not to tell me what he saw – Days later, I uncovered the shocking truth myself
After four miscarriages and plenty of plain to overcome, Paige and her husband, Victor, finally welcomed a child in their life.
The two were a great couple who knew what worked for them and what didn’t. After every miscarriage, Victor assured Paige that everything would be all right eventually, and that if they couldn’t have a baby of their own, they could always consider other options. His words were always comforting.
When baby Mason was welcomed into the world, it felt like all those shattered dreams had finally pieced themselves together. He became the center of his parents’ lives and they put him above everything else, including their careers.
Being a chief executive with a clothing brand, Paige needed to travel a lot because she was involved in every step of the product designs.
This didn’t bother her much because she knew Victor was a wonderful father who took great care of their child whenever she was away from home.
When Mason turned four, Paige knew he was about to enter pre-school soon so she decided to limit her work trips in order to be able to spend more time with him.
One time, Paige was away from home for three days, and once her work was done, she was eager to get home to her family and give her son a hug. Little did she know that this time would be different.
As she entered, the house was strangely quiet, with faint shuffling noises coming from upstairs.
Victor’s voice was hushed but urgent — the same urgency that Mason associated with misbehavior and bedtime.
“Buddy, you’ve got to promise me one thing, okay?” Victor said.
“Okay,” Mason muttered innocently. “What is it?”
“You’ve got to promise me that you won’t tell Mom what you saw.”
“But I don’t like secrets,” Mason said. “Why can’t I tell Mommy?”
Victor let out a deep sigh — its echo seemed to ripple through the house, as if carried by the air.
“It’s not a secret, Mason,” he said. “But if we tell Mommy, it’s going to make her sad. Do you want Mommy to be sad, buddy?”
“No, I don’t,” Mason answered.
At that moment, pretending she didn’t hear a thing, Paige yelled, “Mason! Victor! Mom’s home!”
“What’s going on?” she asked, as Mason leaped into her arms.
“Nothing, honey,” Victor said, winking. “Just a boys’ chat. Welcome home.”
Since Victor was the perfect husband and father, Paige tried to convince herself that the conversation she overheard was truly nothing important. She thought to herself that Victor probably gave Mason too many sweets or let him eat junk food, and that’s what they tried to hide from her.
However, letting it go seemed harder that she thought.
The week that followed and the trip she had to take were both a blessing and a curse for Paige. As much as she loved her job, the thought of leaving Mason saddened her profoundly. She only found solace in the photos Victor sent her, and one of those photos brought more questions than answers.
In one of the photos showing Mason playing with his toys, Paige spotted blue shows she had never seen before. They weren’t hers, yet they were there in her living room.
Paige decided to scroll through each of the photos Victor has ever sent her, and she did find more evidence of someone being in their home while she was away. Was it a nanny he hired to take care of their son? If yes, she had a very expensive taste.
This time, Paige decided to return home without telling Victor. She wanted to surprise him.
Once home from her trip, she entered straight to Mason’s room who had just woken up and was rubbing his eyes.
“Dad’s not downstairs?” she asked, as she could hear noises coming from the bedroom. “Mommy, don’t go in there. You’ll be sad,” Mason warned her.
In the bedroom, Victor was in bed with another woman. “Paige!” he exclaimed, sitting up in bed. “It’s not what you think!”
“Do I look that stupid?”
The woman took her clothes and entered the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
The ensuing confrontation was a whirlwind of tears, accusations, and heartbreak. Victor attempted to deny everything, relying on his charm. Paige knew that if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she might have fallen for his lies.
“I have nothing else to say to you,” Paige said.
“What did you expect, Paige?” Victor asked.
The woman fled the house and Paige was left to confront the man she no longer knew.
“You’re never here,” he lashed out. “You’re never around. And when you’re home, you spend all your time on Mason or working. What about me?”
He tried to portray himself as a victim. “I need human contact, too,” he said. “And I don’t know what you get up to when you’re flying all over the country. I bet you’ve got stories, too.”
“No, Victor,” she said. “I’m not you. My vows meant something to me.”
Eventually, Paige asked Victor to move out and filed for divorce. Reflecting on that conversation between him and Mason that she had overheard, Paige realized the signs were always there, but she tried to ignore them because she only saw the good in her soon to be ex-husband.
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