THE LADY IN MY WEDDING PICTURE

CHAPTER1

CHAPTER ONE

THE WOMAN BESIDE MY HUSBAND

The photograph wouldn’t stop staring at me.

I had placed it on the kitchen island almost an hour ago, but I still hadn’t found the courage to look away.

There was something wrong with it.

Something I couldn’t explain.

Adrian stood in the center of the picture, younger but unmistakably himself. He wore a black tuxedo, one hand resting casually at his side, the other holding the hand of a woman standing beside him.

A bride.

His bride.

I swallowed hard.

The woman was beautiful. Dark hair swept into an elegant bun. Delicate features. A smile that looked effortless.

And around her neck was a thin gold necklace.

My necklace.

I touched my throat instinctively.

The necklace I was wearing tonight was identical.

Adrian had given it to me on our first Christmas together. He’d told me he’d chosen it because the tiny pendant reminded him of me.

I’d loved it.

I’d never taken it off.

Until tonight.

I pulled the chain from my neck and stared at the pendant.

Then back at the photograph.

My hands began to shake.

“Who are you?”

The woman obviously couldn’t answer.

So I looked at the date written on the back of the photograph again.

October 14, 2021.

Three years before Adrian and I met.

Three years before our first date.

Three years before the night he told me I was the first woman he’d ever wanted to build a life with.

I had believed him.

God, I’d believed everything.

The sound of footsteps made me quickly turn the photograph facedown.

Adrian entered the kitchen, loosening the top button of his white shirt.

His eyes immediately found me.

“You’re still awake?”

“It’s our anniversary.”

He smiled.

“I know.”

He walked toward me and leaned down to kiss my forehead.

Normally, I would have wrapped my arms around him.

Tonight, I couldn’t move.

His gaze dropped to the necklace lying on the counter.

“Why did you take it off?”

I picked up the photograph.

“Because I found something.”

His expression changed.

Only slightly.

But I saw it.

Adrian was a master at controlling his emotions. He could sit across from a room full of hostile investors and make them believe he wasn’t even slightly nervous.

But right now, his eyes betrayed him.

“What did you find?”

I turned the photograph around.

His face went completely still.

For several seconds, the kitchen was silent.

Then he reached for it.

I pulled it away.

“Don’t.”

“Elena.”

“Who is she?”

He looked at the photograph.

Then at me.

“Where did you get this?”

“In your drawer.”

His jaw tightened.

“Which drawer?”

“Your bedside drawer.”

He said nothing.

I laughed bitterly.

“That’s interesting.”

“What is?”

“That you didn’t ask what photograph I was talking about.”

Silence.

My chest tightened.

“You knew.”

Adrian rubbed a hand over his face.

“Elena, this isn’t what you think.”

“Then tell me what it is.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Try me.”

He looked away.

That hurt more than I expected.

I’d spent two years believing my husband could tell me anything.

Now he couldn’t even look at me.

I picked up the photograph again.

“Who is she?”

He exhaled slowly.

“Her name is Evelyn.”

“Evelyn what?”

“Just Evelyn.”

“Was she your girlfriend?”

He didn’t answer.

My stomach twisted.

“Your fiancée?”

Still nothing.

I stared at him.

“Your wife?”

His eyes finally met mine.

And that was all the answer I needed.

I stepped backward.

“No.”

“Elena—”

“You were married?”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Before me?”

“Yes.”

“You told me you’d never been married.”

“I know what I told you.”

“Then you lied.”

He came closer.

I stepped away.

“How long were you married?”

“Not long.”

“What happened to her?”

Adrian’s face hardened.

“That’s not a conversation we’re having tonight.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“You’re telling me I find a photograph of you marrying another woman on our anniversary, and you don’t think we should talk about it?”

“I’m telling you that there are things you don’t understand.”

“Then help me understand!”

My voice cracked.

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then his eyes fell to the necklace on the counter.

“You need to forget about the photograph.”

A chill ran through me.

“Why?”

“Because it has nothing to do with our marriage.”

“Then why are you afraid of it?”

He went silent.

I picked up the photograph and held it between us.

“Who was Evelyn?”

His expression changed.

Not anger.

Not guilt.

Fear.

And suddenly, I understood something.

Whatever this woman meant to Adrian, she wasn’t simply an ex-wife.

There was something else.

Something he desperately didn’t want me to know.

I turned the photograph over one more time.

My eyes landed on the date.

October 14, 2021.

Then something strange happened.

A sharp pain shot through my head.

I grabbed the edge of the counter.

Adrian immediately reached for me.

“Elena?”

I heard a woman’s voice.

Faint.

Broken.

Almost like a memory buried somewhere deep inside me.

“You promised me.”

I froze.

Adrian froze too.

“What did you say?” I whispered.

He stared at me.

“I didn’t say anything.”

But he was lying.

I could see it in his eyes.

And somehow, the most frightening part wasn’t the photograph.

It wasn’t Evelyn.

It wasn’t even the fact that my husband had once been married.

It was the sudden certainty that I had seen that woman before.

I just couldn’t remember where.

Or when.

Or why her voice was inside my head.

I looked at Adrian.

“Have I met Evelyn?”

He didn’t answer.

And that silence told me everything.

I had.