Chapter 1

- ZOEY ASHFORD -

I had imagined this moment a hundred times.

The pale steps of the courthouse beneath my shoes.

The silence that would fall the second he walked in.

The sharp catch in my breath when our eyes would finally meet - for the first time.

But reality didn't feel like a dream. It felt like standing still in a hot July sun, dress creased from nerves, mouth too dry to speak and fingers playing with the hem of a veil I never thought I'd wear to a government building.

I stared at the courthouse doors like they were supposed to open on cue. They didn't.

"Still nothing?" Mariah asked softly beside me.

I shook my head, too afraid to look at my phone. "I was told he'd come straight here."

And yet, the minutes kept dragging by like stubborn shadows on concrete.

I should've known better than to build someone in my head. But how could I not?

I'd been his fiancée since I was sixteen. Promised by family, kept connected by distance, and fed crumbs of affection in the form of gifts. He never wrote or called, but the boxes always came on my birthday, on holiday or sometimes just because...

A necklace with my birthstone. A signed first edition of my favorite book. A silk scarf from somewhere I'd never been. Thoughtful things. Personal things. They made him real to me.

And maybe, deep down, I wanted to believe the mystery meant magic and I was going to play Cinderella.

"I can't believe I'm about to finally meet him,"I whispered, almost to myself.

Mariah leaned closer, looping her arm with mine.

"You're not just about to meet, you're about to marry him."

The words made me lightheaded. Marry. Him. Today.

"What if he doesn't show up?"

"He's your childhood crush, Zoey," she went on, smiling. "You've loved him longer than you've loved anything. Why wouldn't he show up?"

That made me smile. A small, fragile thing on trembling lips. "Yeah," I said, grounding myself in her belief. "You're right. We've come this far."

But then my phone buzzed.

I knew.

Before I even reached into the tiny clutch at my side, before I even saw the number. I just...knew.

The message came from an unsaved number which struck me harder than I expected. After all these years, this was the first time he'd ever texted me.

My hands didn't shake until after I read it.

"The wedding won't hold. You can keep the ring or throw it out, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry."

That was it. No name. No explanation. Just a hollow message from someone who had once been everything I waited for.

I blinked. Once. Twice.

And just like that, the world tilted.

The courthouse. The breeze. The promise. All of it collapsed in one gray, silent moment.

Mariah saw my face and reached for my arm. "Zoey? What is it?"

I handed her the phone. I didn't trust my voice. How could I?

She read it, eyes narrowing. "Are you kidding me? What does that even mean? He's not showing up? Now?"

I didn't answer.

Because there weren't any words that could catch the weight pressing down on my chest.

All those years..of waiting, wondering, dreaming.

I wasn't anyone's bride.

I wasn't anyone's fiancée.

I never was.

I was just a girl who waited too long for someone who never planned to arrive.

Mariah was still talking, saying something about calling someone, maybe even him , but it all bled into the background, a muffled blur behind the rush in my ears.

I just stood there, frozen on the steps of a courthouse I would never walk into as a bride.

It didn’t matter that he hadn’t meant to humiliate me publicly. It didn’t matter that no guests were invited, no vows were printed, no flowers were ordered. It still felt like I had been left at the altar.

Because emotionally, I had been.

Mariah gently touched my elbow. “Zoey… do you want me to drive you home?”

Home?

Where my dress hung on the back of my bedroom door.

Where the little white shoes I’d debated over for days still sat in their box.

Where I’d stared into the mirror just this morning, whispering to myself, You’re finally going to meet him.

“No,” I murmured, surprising us both. “I can’t go home yet.”

Mariah hesitated. “Then where—?”

“I don’t know,” I said, my voice tight. “Anywhere but home.”

She didn’t press. She just nodded, quietly understanding, and slipped my car keys into my hand.

I didn’t even think as I drove. My body moved, my mind didn’t. I took turns without remembering where they led, passed street signs I didn’t register.

Eventually, I parked outside a quiet bar tucked between a florist and a laundromat.

I’d never been there before. That made it perfect.

I stepped inside, still in the cream-toned dress I’d chosen for my courthouse wedding. Not quite bridal, not quite casual. It looked ridiculous now, like a promise that had been broken in fabric form.

The place was dim and cool. A few people sat scattered across booths and bar stools, lost in their own stories.

I took a seat at the far end of the bar and set my phone face-down on the counter.

The bartender gave me a once-over, clearly curious but too polite to ask. “What can I get you?”

“Something strong,” I said. “And quiet.”

He nodded and walked away.

I stared at the rows of bottles behind the bar, wondering which ones had helped people forget.

I didn’t want to forget. I just wanted to feel something other than this heavy, aching numbness.

He didn’t even save my number.

He didn’t even say my name.

I was a stranger to the man I was supposed to marry.

Yet, I had loved this stranger for so long.

And that… that cut deeper than anything else.

The glass in front of me clinked gently as the bartender set it down. Amber liquid. No garnish. No sugar rim. Just raw, unsoftened fire in a glass.

Perfect.

I took a sip. It burned all the way down, and for a second, I was grateful for the sting. It grounded me in a way nothing else had all day.

A stool scraped nearby.

I didn’t look. Didn’t care. People came and went. I was invisible here, and for the first time in hours, that felt like a blessing.

“Rough day?”

The voice was deep, masculine, but not intrusive. Smooth in the way of someone who knew how to talk without demanding to be heard.

I turned my head slowly.

He was… handsome. The kind that made your eyes linger without meaning to. Rolled-up sleeves, wristwatch that looked expensive without screaming it, five o’clock shadow that somehow worked.

God, this was not the time.

I gave him a half-smile. “You could say that.”

“Want to talk about it?”

I hesitated. “Not really.”

He nodded like he understood. “Then I won’t ask. Just figured I’d offer company, if you didn’t want to drink alone.”

I looked at the empty seat beside me. Then at him.

There was something disarming in his face. Kind eyes. Not pushy. Not flirty in the typical way.

I gestured to the stool. “Go ahead.”

He sat down, not too close, not too far.

“What are we drinking to?” he asked lightly.

I raised my glass. “Cancelled expectations.”

He chuckled softly. “Oof. That sounds personal.”

I glanced at him again. “You said no questions.”

“Right,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “No questions.”

We drank in silence for a moment. The kind that wasn’t awkward, surprisingly. He didn’t stare. Didn’t try to make me laugh or impress me with something clever.

He just sat there. Like a quiet space I hadn’t realized I needed.

Eventually, I said, “You ever make a plan for so long that it becomes part of who you are?”

He glanced at me. “Yeah.”

“And then it just… stops. Without warning. Like a door slammed shut that you didn’t even see coming.”

“Yeah,” he said again, his voice softer this time.

“That’s what happened to me today.”

He didn’t say sorry. Didn’t offer platitudes. Just nodded.

And for some reason, that made tears rush to the back of my eyes harder than anything else had.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“For what?”

“For not pretending to know what to say.”

He offered a small smile. “Anytime.”

I looked at him again, studied the lines of his face, the steadiness of his presence.

There was something familiar about him. Not his face. But the feeling. Like I was supposed to know him.

I brushed it off.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

He hesitated. Just a beat. Then, “Call me Wes.”

Wes.

I nodded. “Zoey.”

We clinked glasses.