#Chapter 5: Wedding Surprise

On the day of the wedding, I got dressed up and arrived at the church where the ceremony was held.

 

Really, I was wearing a cheap dress with the tags still on it so I could return it after the wedding. Even though my aunt left me the villa, I still didn’t have much money to my name after being evicted from my pack for a decade, and so I didn’t exactly have the luxury of buying fancy new dresses for nice occasions.

 

For this very reason, I felt as though I was sticking out like a sore thumb as I walked up the front steps to the church.

 

Inside, I immediately realized that the church was full of people who I knew from my childhood. A lot of my childhood friends from grade school were in attendance. While many of them looked in my direction, no one said anything to me.

 

In fact, I felt like an outcast; and that was only solidified when Nathan’s father, Colin, turned around in his seat and shot me a dirty glare.

 

Colin was the previous Alpha of the pack. After he joined forces with the pack elders, he was the one who evicted me and my father. I was still haunted by his dark and grim face on the day that he banished me and my dad and heartlessly threw us out on the street.

 

I was still haunted by the fact that Nathan stood by and did nothing when that happened, but at least Nathan seemed to be trying to make a difference now. His father, on the other hand, still seemed to have an abiding hatred for me even though it was ten years since I left and I didn’t have the courage to confront him about it.

 

I instantly felt uncomfortable beneath the gaze of Colin and my estranged childhood friends, and so before I even took my seat, I quickly scurried off to find the bathroom to gather my thoughts. I passed through a set of double doors off to the right of the pews, and headed down a narrow hallway to look for the bathroom.

 

Along the way, I passed by a few different rooms in the church.

 

“The dress really is so lovely… Where is my veil?” I heard a light, melodic female voice say. I passed by the room where I heard the voice coming from, and caught a glimpse of the bride for the first time as she was surrounded by her bridesmaids; she was just as beautiful as I imagined.

 

Although she was thin, pale, and surprisingly looked quite frail for an Alpha female, she was gorgeous nonetheless. Her long blonde hair cascaded down her back in perfect curls, and she had long eyelashes with a cute nose that turned up a little at the end. She had round, pouty lips and a slender neck, which was accentuated by the delicate lace of the demure bridal gown that she was wearing.

 

She was utterly stunning… But as I passed, I couldn’t help but notice a certain subtle sadness about her. Maybe it was just the nerves of a bride on her wedding day.

 

Before anyone saw me, I passed by the door and continued my search for the bathroom. But along the way, I came across another open door. This room was quiet, but there was a certain negative energy emanating from it in an odd way. I paused as I quietly peered in to see Nathan sitting on a couch with his head down.

 

He was clutching his phone so tightly in one hand that his knuckles were white, and his other hand was supporting his head, running his fingers through his blonde hair repeatedly. He seemed nervous at first, but when he suddenly jerked his head up to look at me, I realized that he didn’t seem nervous; he seemed distraught.

 

There was a long silence between us. I wasn’t sure if I should go in there and try to talk to him, or if I should just leave him alone with his thoughts. It seemed, however, that the groom-to-be made that decision for me.

 

“Do you need something, Olivia?” he asked curtly.

 

I swallowed and took a step back. “U-Um… Where is the bathroom?” I asked. Nathan silently pointed down the hall.

 

Without another word said between the two of us, I scurried away with the image of his distressed face burned into my mind. On a day that was supposed to make Nathan the happiest person alive, why did he look so upset?

 

…

 

“Nathan Ford,” the priest said as the bride and groom stood at the pulpit. “Do you take Layla to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

 

Around me, the church was full of smiling people. Older women dabbed at their tears with handkerchiefs while younger women looked up at Nathan and Layla with smiles that secretly showed hints of jealousy.

 

At the pulpit, Layla looked even more stunning in her gown with her veil attached to her head, and she held a bouquet of white lilies in her hands. I even caught myself sniffling a few times; it was a really beautiful wedding.

 

But for some reason, Nathan hesitated just before he was supposed to say “I do”.

 

The longer he waited, the more the crowd began to murmur in confusion. I felt my eyes widen as I looked up at him and took note of the way that he kept opening and closing his mouth, as though he wanted to say the words but couldn’t get them out.

 

Was he just nervous, or was he having cold feet? I thought back to the way that he looked in the room in the back of the church and wondered if he had been having second thoughts the entire time…

 

“Nathan?” the priest said.

 

Suddenly, Nathan shook his head and turned away from the bride, toward the crowd, resulting in a chorus of gasps.

 

“I’m in love with someone else,” he announced. His eyes scanned the crowd, and then landed on…

 

Me.

 

While my heart raced in my chest, Nathan ran down the aisle. Before I or anyone else could stop him, he suddenly grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. And then he did something even more strange.

 

“Olivia, I promise that I will take care of you… And our baby,” he said. He then placed his hand on my belly and smiled up at me.

 

My eyes were wide. I felt my blood run cold. Why was he doing this? I wasn’t in a relationship with him, and I certainly wasn’t pregnant with anyone’s baby, let alone his.

 

This had to be some sort of mental breakdown he was having— maybe he was too stressed from the wedding and was having some sort of delusion.

 

But before I could say anything, the wedding goers were already talking in raised voices. At the front, I saw Colin stand up angrily, his glaring eyes fixed on me. I felt as though I was nailed to a pillar of shame, as the rest of the people in this church saw me as a homewrecker who was pregnant with an illegitimate child.

 

Right now, I hated Nathan with a burning passion in my heart. How could he suddenly accuse me of something like this after not seeing me for a decade?