Chapter 2: The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
My hands trembled as I stared at the photograph.
It was my father.
The same father I had buried three years ago. The same man whose coffin I had watched disappear into the ground. The same man whose death had nearly destroyed me.
Yet there he was, standing beside Sophia, smiling as if nothing had happened.
“Your father never died, Grace.”
Sophia's message kept repeating in my mind.
I called her immediately.
She answered on the first ring.
“Where is he?” I demanded. “Where is my father?”
Sophia laughed softly. “That's not how you greet the woman who's about to become your husband's wife.”
“Stop playing games with me!”
“Come to the wedding tomorrow,” she replied. “You'll get all your answers there.”
Then she hung up.
I wanted to call Daniel, but what would I say? How could I ask my husband why he was marrying another woman when he had invited me to the wedding himself?
I looked at the invitation again.
Daniel's name was printed beside Sophia's.
My husband was about to marry another woman, and somehow, my dead father was involved.
That night, I barely slept.
At exactly 6:15 the next morning, someone knocked on my door.
I opened it and froze.
An elderly woman stood outside, holding a brown envelope.
“Are you Grace?” she asked.
“Yes. Who are you?”
“My name is Margaret. I worked for your father many years ago.”
My heart began to race.
“My father is dead.”
She looked directly into my eyes.
“No, child. Your father is alive. And if you want to know why your husband is marrying Sophia, you must read this before the ceremony begins.”
She placed the envelope in my hands and hurried away.
Inside was a photograph of Daniel and my father standing together outside a hospital.
On the back, someone had written a date.
It was the day my father supposedly died.
Beneath the photograph was a short letter.
Grace, if you're reading this, it means Daniel has broken his promise. Do not trust your husband. He knows the truth about your birth, and Sophia is not the woman you think she is.
I read the final sentence twice.
The truth about my birth?
Before I could process it, my phone rang.
It was Daniel.
“Grace,” he said urgently, “listen to me. Whatever happens today, do not come to the wedding.”
I tightened my grip on the letter.
“Why? What are you hiding from me, Daniel?”
Silence.
Then he whispered something that made my entire body go cold.
“Because the woman I'm marrying tomorrow is your sister.”
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