The Vows We Fake

Chapter 6: The Ghost of What Was

It wasn’t just the compromising position we were in that made my heart pound. It was the voice of his fiancé. My heart slammed against my ribs. “I know that voice,” I whispered.

I stood, clenching the armrest for balance, ignoring the throb in my ankle. A storm swelled inside me, pressing against my ribs, tightening my lungs.

The door opened, and there she was. Time stopped even more. I thought I had seen it all. What could be worse than meeting your ex-fiancé in the most strangest, difficult of circumstances. But this? Finally seeing the person who Zane was engaged to? It was a whole other level of what the hell?!

Zane’s fiancée walked in with radiant skin, shiny black pumps and auburn hair and those same cat-like eyes I’d known all my life and… oh my God. It all made sense.

She was cool and poised in all white. Her auburn hair was styled in a flawless bob. Her shoes worth more than my rent. I knew she was Sera Voss, Zane’s fiancée, despite not seeing any pictures of her beforehand. Some presences are not hard to decipher. And also… I knew her. A change of name didn’t change the fact that I knew her. My legs felt like jelly. Another reunion five years in the making. My belly turned. I felt like throwing up.

“It’s you,” I said, barely loud enough for others to hear.

Rosa heard me. She grinned and said, “You must be the wedding planner. I’m Sera.”

The name slapped me across the face harder than any slap ever could. She actually went by Sera now? I couldn’t breathe.

Zane moved to her side and kissed her cheek. “You found us,” he said with that smooth voice of his.

Her eyes locked on mine, and in them, I saw everything I needed to know. She knew. She remembered. And she didn’t care. She smiled. The air in the room shifted. My chest felt tight. She looked right at me. “Oh, I didn’t know we hired outside help.”

The audacity.

“Amara Ibe,” I responded with as much cool I could muster. “Wedding planner.”

She smiled wider. Innocent. I won’t fall for that. “Brilliant. I believe we would work together perfectly,” Rosa—Sera—said sweetly. “Heard you had a little clumsy fall.”

It all made sense – why Zane said the bride insisted on hiring me, why I was the wedding planner after all. Revenge. A power play. Rosa couldn’t get him five years ago, so she’s gonna get him now.

Zane watched us both, his face blank. “Do you both know each other?”

“We’ve met in the past, yeah,” Sera replied casually.

My hands curled into fists. But I smiled because there was no other weapon left in that moment. “Yes,” I said softly, never breaking her gaze. “A long, long time ago.”

My head was about to burst, but I tried not to let my emotions show. My face was a perfect mask, but my fists clenching by my side betrayed me. Soon, my body began to tremble, and I tried so hard to keep still. Best to not let Sera see how much this revelation affected me.

This wasn’t just an accident or a coincidence. Sera, no Rosa, my ex-best friend, was getting married to my ex-fiancé. The couple seemed picture perfect. Handsome groom, sexy bride. Complementary complexions and skin tones. Both inheritors of large hand-me-down fortunes from their parents. Both extremely wealthy and influential with thriving businesses. This was to be the wedding of the century. And I was to be the wedding planner.

I felt like throwing up.

##

I stumbled out of the room, partly because of my sore ankle, and partly because I couldn’t walk well.

Rosa was marrying Zane?

My ex-best friend was marrying my ex-fiancé?

Zane never liked her back in uni. He always said there was something suspicious about her. I never believed him then, but I should’ve. I knew she had a tiny crush on Zane, but a lot of other girls did. Now she stole my lover away from me.

I couldn’t sleep much that night. I was thinking back to the times we spent in uni. The betrayal shook me to the core.

We were friends, me and Sera, best of friends even from middle school. Went to college and met Zane. I hit off immediately with Zane, and we started dating soon after. And that’s when Sera changed for the worst. She started sabotaging my relationship with Zane, trying to have deep conversations with him in the ruse of doing it for my best interests. Our friendship took a turn for the worst when Sera tried to seduce him on a night when I had traveled back home.

And now? She’s stolen him from me. Taking advantage of his memory loss, perhaps rewriting the past so that she becomes the saint who had always loved him and cared for him, and worse yet, writing me off from Zane’s life completely.

And then she hires me so I can watch in close range how she gets the guy in the end.

Such a terrible person. I can’t believe that I once called her my best friend..

##

The sun had barely risen when I arrived at the glass garden again. The staff were already up and about, although that’s usual for the working class. I could’ve been in my hotel room, getting an hour or two of extra sleep to even out my eye bag, but here I was in a knee-length blue gown with flat sandals housing a bad ankle, deliberately early to avoid Zane and Sera. Anything to avoid Zane and Sera.

“Good morning Ms. Ibe,” an assistant said. She was a timid girl with ginger hair and wide eyes. “Uh… are you working with Mr. Blackwood today?”

“Yes I am. Why?”

She glanced around and lowered her eyes. “Just… be patient with him. He’s not been the same after the accident.”

“What accident?” I asked, despite knowing what she meant.

She leaned close. “It was a road accident five years ago. They said it affected his head and memory in turn. His memory has been all over the place. He even calls his assistant by the wrong name at times.”

“Hmm. Okay. Thank you.”

I smiled politely and walked away, but my chest was buzzing. So the memory loss was real. Damn. If he doesn’t remember anything about our past, he doesn’t know about the strained relationship I had with Sera due to him.

So did she manipulate him into marrying her? What was Sera’s plan? Did Zane know how terrible she was? What exactly happened after things ended between me and Zane? My fingers tightened around my clipboard as my resolve grew deeper. Forget the wedding planning. I had to find answers.