TWISTS OF FATE

CHAPTER ONE

I walked inside the café, waiting for my fiancé, Oliver, to arrive. He asked for my hand last month on a private dinner with our loved ones. I couldn’t deny that I felt the happiest on that day. Oliver and I have been together for 7 years and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with the man I love the most.

I don’t know, but Oliver seems so perfect to me. We have never had a big fight ever since we became a couple. We got along just fine and his family loved me too. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I couldn’t help but smile. Thinking about the day he proposed to me, it was still fresh in my mind.

I ordered a cappuccino and a pain Au chocolate while waiting for him. We decided to go see a venue for the reception for our wedding. I was already waiting for almost 15 minutes, but I think maybe he was stuck in the traffic, so I kept waiting. Until it was almost an hour, I tried calling him, but he didn’t pick up his phone. I messaged a couple of times but still no response. I decided to leave the café, and continue calling him in my car.

I was a little disappointed, but maybe he had an emergency meeting at work, right? I tried not to think too much. I started my car and decided to go back to work, but a message popped up on my phone. Finally, Oliver messaged me.

“I’m so sorry there’s an emergency meeting,” he said, and I smiled at myself, thinking I was right. I quickly typed a message that it was fine and that we could schedule it for another time.

Instead of going back to the company, I decided to go to their company to surprise visit him. I was quite excited to see him, but as soon as I was about to get out of my car, I saw him enter his car and drive off. He didn’t tell me where he was going, so I decided to follow him. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I never suspected my fiancé of anything, but my heart was beating so fast wondering where he was heading right now. I kept my distance from his car, so he wouldn’t notice my car following him. Until his car stopped at a familiar store. At a flower shop, I smiled to myself, thinking he was going to surprise me and give me a flower to make-up for me, since he couldn’t go to our meet-up place to check the reception for our wedding.

I thought he'd drive to our company to give me the bouquet of red roses, so I hurriedly started my car and drove to arrive at the company earlier than him. As I stepped out of the car, I went inside the restroom to check how I looked. I always wanted to look presentable in front of him.

I was excited, and went inside the office as calm as I could be so when he arrived, he wouldn’t be suspicious that I knew he had bought flowers for me. I continued the work that I did earlier. I got so busy that I didn’t realize that it'd been an hour. What took Oliver so long? I checked my phone for any message from him, but there was none. I was about to call him, until I saw him walking towards my office, but… with no flowers with him.

I was confused. So, I asked him where he had been?

“I was at the office all day, there were a lot of meetings to attend,” he said, and kissed me on the cheeks. “Are you okay?” he asked me.

Is he lying to me now? I was disappointed, and this is the first time I felt uncomfortable with him.

I smiled weakly and nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay,” I replied, even though I wasn’t sure if that was true anymore. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, but I kept them to myself. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but the gnawing feeling in my chest wouldn’t go away.

He sat in the chair across from me and started talking about the upcoming meetings and how swamped he'd been. I nodded and pretended to listen, but my mind was still stuck in the flower shop. If he really was in meetings all day… then why did I see him there? Who were the flowers for?

I excused myself and went to the restroom again, this time not to check my reflection, but to catch my breath. I splashed water on my face and stared at myself in the mirror.

What if I just imagined it? Maybe it was someone else’s car? Maybe he was just picking up flowers for his mom or a colleague’s birthday… right?

I tried convincing myself of all the harmless possibilities, but deep down, I knew something didn’t sit right.

When I returned to the office, Oliver was gone. He left a note on my desk:

“Had to step into another meeting. Talk later. I love you.”

I stared at the note. Simple. Sweet. But now, I was reading between the lines.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I kept tossing and turning, clutching the pillow as my heart wrestled with my thoughts. I didn’t want to doubt him—I never had reason to—but today changed something in me. I felt it.

The next morning, I decided to do something I never thought I’d do: I called Zoe, one of Oliver’s colleagues who’d become a good friend of mine over the years.

“Hey, Zoe,” I said, trying to sound casual, “Quick question… do you know if Oliver was in the office all day yesterday? He told me he had back-to-back meetings.”

There was a short pause at the other end.

“Oh… um, he said he was going out for some errands before lunch,” Zoe replied, sounding unsure.

My throat tightened. “Oh. Alright, thanks. Just curious. Maybe I misheard him.”

We hung up, and I sat there frozen. Errands. So he wasn’t in the office all day. He lied.