My Wedding Was Stolen I Left For Good

Elena's POV: My best friend, Mariel Gray, held a face mask out to me. When I just sat there frozen, she didn't even bother waiting for me to take it. She just reached over and slipped it over my face herself. She sounded like she actually thought she was doing me a favor as she lectured me, "If you show your face right now, everyone's just gonna laugh at you. We're only doing this for your own good." Just then, a commotion broke out near the church entrance. "The groom is here!" Valerie turned toward the entrance, then hurried back to my side. The wedding ceremony was about to begin. Sebastian Parker had arrived with his groomsmen and was waiting near the altar, while the bridesmaids and guests gathered inside the church. Before the ceremony started, we'd arranged a playful Q&A challenge for Sebastian to test how well he knew his bride. Valerie was the one in charge of organizing the challenge. When we'd been choosing someone for the job, she'd volunteered without a second thought. She'd smacked her chest and sworn, "We're best friends, remember? I'll put him to the test properly for you. If he gets even one question wrong, there's no way I'm letting him get away with it!" Back then, I'd been so touched by her words. Now, the sight of her standing there was like a hot needle stabbing at my eyes. Valerie stepped forward to conduct the challenge. Sebastian and his groomsmen came over from the altar area, and he stopped in front of her with complete confidence. He looked at Valerie and said, "Ask me whatever you want. I won't get a single one wrong." When Valerie first showed me the list of questions she'd made, I'd stared at that seemingly endless list of questions, and I'd sweated bullets worrying about Sebastian. In the end, I couldn't bear to see him struggle, so I'd leaked all the questions to him ahead of time. To make sure he didn't forget them, I'd even quizzed him on them randomly every now and then. But just during the time we spent together practicing, he'd already gotten the answers wrong three times. He said he'd been swamped with work lately, that his brain was too tired to keep track of little details. I'd believed him. Deep down, I was desperate to find out if he'd actually get the answers right today. Valerie asked, "What's the bride's favorite dish?" I'd quizzed him on this exact question before, and he'd answered braised pork ribs back then. I'd told him he was wrong, that my favorite dish was tomato omelet. It was the first thing he'd ever cooked for me, after all. The second Valerie finished speaking, Sebastian answered immediately, "Braised pork ribs." My heart gave a hard, sickening thud and dropped straight into my stomach. He'd forgotten again. But just as I waited for Valerie to call him out for getting the answer wrong, she grinned and said, "That's the right answer!" I froze for a second. Before I could process that weird twist, Valerie fired off her second question. "Where did the two of you go for your first date?" 'The beach,' I answered silently in my head. But Sebastian said, "The children's park." "That's the right answer!" My eyes locked onto Sebastian's confident, self-assured face. My heart plummeted straight into my stomach. It hit me all at once. Sebastian wasn't answering questions about his history with me. He was recalling his memories with Valerie! For a whole month, I'd drilled the answers into him over and over, terrified he'd mess up on our wedding day. And even with all that practice, he still kept forgetting half the time. But when it came to every little memory he shared with Valerie? He could rattle them off without even stopping to think. My chest clenched hard, a sharp, throbbing ache stealing the air right out of my lungs. Twenty questions total. Sebastian got every single one right. The bridesmaids and other wedding guests started teasing and cheering: "This groom must be so head-over-heels for his bride to get every answer perfectly!" "I've been to so many weddings, and this is the first time I've ever seen someone get every single question right!" Sebastian smiled. Valerie smiled. My mom, standing off to the side, smiled too. It felt like a red-hot branding iron was wedged in my throat. I couldn't get a single sound out no matter how hard I tried.