I collapsed on our kitchen floor and sobbed until Emma woke up and cried too.
They wouldn’t even let me see her grave. She was cut out of my life as if she never existed.
I plunged headlong into work and raising Emma. I graduated and started designing houses, not just building them. People noticed my talent.
Three years later, I had my own firm. Emma grew into a smart, happy girl who looked like her mother.
Five years passed. Life went on, and the pain dulled to occasional bouts.
Then came the invitation.
Stefan, my best friend from a few years ago, was getting married. We’d barely kept in touch since he’d left for the army, but now he wanted to see me at his wedding.
“What do you think, Em? Should we go and see Uncle Stefan’s wedding?” I asked my daughter as she coloured in.
‘Is there going to be cake?’ – She asked seriously.
I laughed. “There will definitely be a cake. A big, fancy one.”
‘Then we should go,’ she decided, turning back to her masterpiece.
The wedding was at a seaside resort, all white flowers and ocean breeze. Stefan gave me a big hug when we arrived.
“Dude, look at you! So mature and successful,” he said as he lightly tapped me on the arm. ‘And this beautiful girl must be Emma.’
Emma smiled shyly.
The ceremony was beautiful.
The guests filled the white chairs on the beach. Emma sat next to me, swinging her legs and playing with the flower I stuck in her hair.
The music started and everyone stood up.
The bride walked down the aisle with her face covered.
And then the moment came.
Stefan glowed as she approached. As she approached him, he gently lifted her veil.
I stopped breathing. Tears streamed down my face before I realised I was crying.
Emma looked up, embarrassed. ‘Daddy, why are you crying?’
I froze, staring at the ghost of my dead ex-wife in her white wedding dress.
Natalie turned to smile at the guests, but her eyes widened in shock when she saw me standing there with our daughter.
Then she rushed out running.
Stefan called after her in bewilderment, but she was already gone. I stood up, my legs trembling.
‘Stay with Aunt Linda,’ I told Emma and directed her to Stefan’s sister, then followed Natalie.
I found her in the corridor, shivering, pale, clutching at her wedding dress.
‘You’re dead,’ I whispered, my voice trailing off. ‘They told me you were dead.’
She stuttered, ‘I…I didn’t know they told you that.’
I laughed. “I begged them to let me see your grave. I spent years mourning you, Natalie.”
Tears glistened in her eyes. “I just wanted to find a way out…a fresh start. My father arranged everything.”
Rage rose up in me.
“You let me mourn you. I should have told our daughter that her mother was dead! It’s one thing to give up your parental rights, but something like this? What the hell?”
Natalie shuddered. ‘I thought she’d be better off without me.’
Stefan appeared, looking tense and confused. “What’s going on? Why did my fiancée run away from our wedding? And why are you two fighting?”
I turned to him. “Because five years ago she left me and our daughter. And then her family told me she was dead.”
‘What?’ Stefan’s face lost colour.
“Her father and his lawyers cut all ties. Then they told me she died in a car accident. I mourned for her. Now I see her at the altar marrying my best friend.”
Stefan challenged Natalie. ‘Tell me you didn’t fake your death.’
She couldn’t deny it.
‘Oh God, Natalie,’ Stefan whispered, broken.
Stefan walked away, his face pale, his fists clenched. The wedding was cancelled. Natalie’s parents came out of nowhere and took her away.
They didn’t say a word to me. But I didn’t follow them. Not this time.
Two weeks later, Stefan and I met up for a drink.
‘She fooled everyone,’ he said bitterly, looking into his glass. “Her parents introduced us at some charity event last year. She never mentioned being married before or having a child.”
I nodded, but strangely I felt peaceful. ‘You couldn’t have known.’
‘Are you okay?’ asked Stefan.
I pondered the question. “Yeah, I think I am. For years I wondered what I did wrong and why she left. Now I know it wasn’t about me at all.”
I realised I was no longer broken. I now had a daughter and a successful career.
I had built my life despite the ruins she had left behind. And for the first time in five years, I felt truly, completely free.