My Bridesmaid and My Groom

Emily's POV: I was supposed to marry Adrian Cole the next day. Late that night, my best friend showed up at my door again, saying she had fought with her boyfriend. When I woke after midnight, she was gone from my side. Out of habit, I opened an account where a woman documented her relationship, one I had been following for months. It wasn't popular, but the posts captured such sweet moments between her and her boyfriend that I had even sent screenshots to Adrian and told him to learn how to be romantic. The account had been updated 2 hours earlier. My best friend is getting married tomorrow. While she's asleep, I'm going to have one last wild night with her boyfriend. After tonight, I'll give him back to her. I wish them a lifetime of happiness. The attached photo showed part of a dress and a man's hand. The dress was hanging in my bedroom at that very moment. My best friend had arrived wearing it earlier that day. The scar on the man's hand belonged to Adrian. ***** It had started a few hours earlier. Vanessa Reed had stood outside my door with a bottle of red wine. Her eyes were swollen and red. She choked out, "We fought again." Adrian calmly invited her in. "It's your last night as a single woman. You two should have a proper girls' night." I pulled Vanessa in. She drank glass after glass, yet she was unusually quiet. She had been with her mysterious boyfriend for 10 years, but she had never once brought him around to meet me. Halfway through the bottle, she suddenly hurled her glass to the floor. Her voice cracked. "How could he do this to me? He promised we'd be together forever, and now he's marrying someone else!" Vanessa looked at me through her tears and gave a broken laugh. "Em, he doesn't want me anymore." I hurried to hug her. "A man like that isn't worth your tears. Tell me who he is. After the wedding tomorrow, I'll have Adrian deal with him." At the sound of Adrian's name, Vanessa turned toward him, her eyes burning with a strange intensity. Adrian poured a cup of warm water and set it beside me. "No one outside a relationship can solve its problems." Vanessa stared at him. "Then tell me this: if you were him, who would you choose?" Adrian met her eyes, and a flicker of hesitation crossed his face. "I'd choose the right person." For some reason, the answer sounded forced. Vanessa watched him for a long moment before bursting into tears. I assumed she was still grieving over her boyfriend. I stopped her from reaching for another drink. "That's enough. You have to get up early for the wedding tomorrow." Vanessa leaned over and hugged me, her words slurred. "Em, congratulations in advance. After tonight, he'll be completely yours. This will be the last time. I promise." She kept drinking, and I thought she was talking nonsense. Adrian pulled me back from her and replaced the water with a cup of hot tea with honey. "Don't let her drink so much. Doesn't your best friend have a low tolerance?" The comment puzzled me. 'He's never drunk with Vanessa. How does he know she has a low tolerance?' At the time, I assumed he had made up an excuse because he didn't want her to disrupt our wedding. I hadn't noticed anything wrong. The memory snapped me fully awake. My fingers trembled as I enlarged the photo. The man's hand gripped the woman's body. The jagged scar across the back of his hand was impossible to miss. Adrian had gotten that burn from a stove while protecting me during our third year of college. He had called the scar proof of our love. Now that proof was pressed against another woman's body.