Chapter 28

Amanda stared at me with wide, surprised eyes as she sat in the makeup chair. It was my wedding day, and yet she was the one being pampered and made beautiful.

Maybe it was the stress of the morning or the embarrassment from my foolish phone call to Alexander, but I felt myself losing control of my anger.

I had tried so hard these past weeks since my second chance began to act as though nothing had changed in my affection and friendship with Amanda. But I wasn’t sure I could handle pretending much longer.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice sharp.

Amanda glanced around, as if trying to figure out who I was talking to. Her attempt to play innocent only fueled my anger further.

"I asked you a question. What are you doing?" I repeated, more forcefully this time.

"I'm just getting ready," she replied, looking at the hairdresser with an expression of disbelief, as if to say I was being ridiculous.

"I asked you to come early to help me," I continued, my voice growing more heated. "You were supposed to put your things away and come back downstairs, and yet here you are, getting pampered and spoiled on my wedding day. You seem to think you're the bride today."

I could see a flicker of anger cross Amanda's face. She scoffed, shaking her head.

"I'm just getting ready," she said defensively. "Doesn't it make more sense for me to get ready first, so that if I run out of time while setting up—"

"No, it doesn't," I snapped. "I asked you to put your things upstairs and come help me. That was over an hour ago. All this time, I thought you had come back and started helping, but instead, you were up here the whole time... relaxing."

"I've had a very rough morning," she retorted, her tone icy.

"So have I," I shot back, my voice rising in frustration.

"You've acted like a spoiled little princess about this entire thing," Amanda said angrily. "You think that the wedding has to be perfect, that you have to look perfect. It's ridiculous, and it's embarrassing." She stood up from the chair and stepped towards me, her eyes blazing with anger.

"It does have to be perfect," I retorted. "After all of the embarrassment that you and David have caused, if the wedding isn't perfect, it's only going to cause more rumors to spread and hurt both of our packs. And I suppose you think that's my fault too. I suppose you think it's my fault that you lost control of your wolf in the restaurant and that David insulted me in front of reporters at the banquet."

My hands were shaking as I clenched them into fists at my sides. I never wanted things to get this far.

I had hoped that I would be able to stop the wedding from going forward and get out of my engagement with David before it came to this, but David and Amanda had managed to weasel their way out of everything, and now here she was once again insulting me, trying to make me feel sorry for her as if she were the victim here.

But the reality was she's the one who is planning my murder.

Amanda's facial expression changed as she took in my words. The anger melted into concern, maybe even fear, as she realized that I was right.

"And besides all of that," I added, taking a few deep breaths, "the Alpha King is on his way. The wedding has to be perfect so that we are not embarrassed in front of him."

"What are you talking about?" she said in disbelief. I could feel the makeup artist and the hairdresser turn to look at me in shock. "The king doesn't come to weddings like this," Amanda said.

"His people called ahead to make sure we're prepared for him," I informed her. "Everyone downstairs is scrambling to make sure that everything is in place and ready for his arrival, yet here you are playing dress-up and ignoring the fact that I asked you for help."

Amanda's mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but no words came out. She turned and looked in the mirror at her half-finished hair and makeup, then she glanced back at me. "I can't go out like this," she said weakly.

I pointed at the mirror and turned my eyes to the hairdresser.

"Get her ready, and do it quickly, please," I said with a shaky voice. "We have a lot of work to do, and you were only hired to do my hair, no one else's, so I don't know why you even started."

"We were told that the plan had changed," the hairdresser responded weakly.

"You might as well finish it now that you’ve started. I'll be back in 10 minutes," Isaid before walking out the door.

I needed a moment to regain my composure. If I wasn't careful, I would reveal too much. My anger at Amanda would seem like an overreaction, and while some people would forgive that, seeing as the wedding day is extremely stressful, it would look bad to others.

I needed to make sure my reputation didn't take any damage. I knew what I had to do. After taking a few moments to calm myself, I walked back into the room.

It looked like Amanda's hair was finished, straightened, and twisted into a complex braid. Her makeup looked exceptionally beautiful with bright, eye-catching tones. She looked at me when I entered.

"We’ve just finished," she said.

"You look good," I said meekly. "I'm really sorry that I lost my temper. It’s just, this morning has been so stressful, and I’m so scared."

Amanda looked at me suspiciously, but she must have noticed the pitying looks the other women were giving me as I wrapped my arms firmly around myself.

"What do you mean, scared?" she asked.

"I’m afraid that if things go wrong again, like they have been lately, that I’ll embarrass David in front of the king and ruin everything. Today is so important. We have to make such a good impression, and I’m just so scared of messing something up. That’s why I asked you to come early today. I really needed your support, and instead of helping me..." I let my words trail off.

"I wasn’t deliberately trying to upset you," Amanda said uncertainly.

"Then why," I asked, motioning to her dress, "are you wearing a white gown almost identical to mine?"

She looked down at the dress, which was partially hidden under a black hair cape.

"It’s not white," she said. "It’s silver-blue."

"It’s close enough," I replied. "Why are you wearing that instead of the dress we agreed on?"

"I can’t afford the dress you picked," she snapped. "I asked for help paying for it from my family, but my mother wouldn’t agree. She said that if she spent so much money on a luxury item for me, she’d have to do it for all of my siblings, and that simply wasn’t possible. This was the only thing I could get. I had to borrow it from my sister."

"Why didn’t you just tell me?" I asked. "I could have helped you pay for the dress, or we could have picked out a different one together."

"I didn’t know how to tell you," she said.

"Aren’t we friends?" I asked.

Amanda looked at me, and I could see conflict in her eyes.

For a moment, I wanted to believe that it was possible to change what had happened between us, just like I had been able to change other things in this new timeline. But after the hatred I had seen on her face in my original life and after what she had done to me, I knew I couldn’t allow myself to trust her, no matter how much I might want to.

"The guests will be arriving soon. Why don’t you go downstairs and help greet people?" I said, looking away from her.

Amanda left the room without another word, leaving me standing alone with my conflicting emotions warring within me.

I sighed and sat in the makeup chair.

“It will take us a moment to get ready to start,” the hairstylist said.

“That’s fine,” I replied.

I pulled my phone out and started to scroll as I waited. My heart dropped as I saw a post Amanda had made just moments ago.

It was a selfie of her with her hair and makeup completed, wearing her dress. She must have taken it in the hallway after she left the room.

There were dozens of likes already, and people were leaving comments complimenting her.

“You look gorgeous!”

“Are you a movie star?”

“You’re going to steal the spotlight!”

I glared at the screen. There was no denying it now, Amanda’s goal was to upstage me at my own wedding. I couldn’t let her get away with it.