The man standing at the altar was not my fiancé.
I knew it the moment he looked at me.
Everyone else in the church was smiling.
My mother was crying.
The orchestra was playing the song I had chosen months ago.
Hundreds of white roses surrounded the altar, and my wedding dress cost more than my first car.
Everything was perfect.
Except for the groom.
I stopped walking.
The church fell strangely quiet.
The man waiting for me wore the exact black tuxedo my fiancé had chosen.
The same silver watch.
The same boutonnière.
Even the same wedding ring.
But his face—
His face was not Daniel's.
For one terrible second, I wondered if I had somehow entered the wrong church.
Then the stranger smiled.
Not nervously.
Not apologetically.
Almost as though he had been expecting me.
“Mia,” he whispered.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Only Daniel called me that.
I looked toward the front row.
My mother stood up.
Her face had gone white.
“Stop the wedding,” I said.
The music stopped.
The stranger's expression changed.
“Mia, wait.”
“Where is Daniel?”
Nobody answered.
I turned toward Daniel's parents.
His mother was staring at the floor.
His father wouldn't meet my eyes.
Then I saw something that made my blood run cold.
Daniel's younger brother, Lucas, was standing at the back of the church.
He was smiling.
I hadn't seen him in years.
And he looked exactly like the man at the altar.
The same eyes.
The same dark hair.
The same sharp jaw.
My lips parted.
“No…”
Lucas slowly walked toward me.
“Mia,” he said quietly.
I stepped backward.
“You're Lucas.”
“Yes.”
“Then who is he?”
Lucas looked at the man beside him.
Neither spoke.
The stranger finally removed the wedding ring from his finger.
He placed it in my palm.
“Because,” he whispered, “Daniel was never supposed to marry you.”
The church erupted in whispers.
My mother rushed toward me.
“Mia, please.”
I pulled away.
“Where is Daniel?”
She started crying.
Lucas answered instead.
“We don't know.”
“What do you mean you don't know?”
“He disappeared last night.”
My knees nearly gave way.
“Then why did you let this man stand at the altar?”
Lucas looked at me.
“Because if we didn't…”
He glanced toward the church doors.
“…someone else would have died.”
The doors suddenly slammed shut.
Everyone turned.
A man in a dark suit stood outside.
He was holding a gun.
And he was looking directly at me.