My fiancé canceled our wedding via text message. I replied, “My condolences.” Then I forwarded his message to his parents, who had paid for everything. An hour later, his father called me in a panic to say the money had disappeared…

“What on earth happened?” Bridget asked with a worried expression as I showed her the screen, leaving her completely speechless.

“This cannot be real,” she whispered, but it was as real as the dress and the deep shame that was already starting to creep up my neck.

I took a deep breath and carefully removed the gown as if it no longer belonged to me before putting on my street clothes and sitting by the window as the raindrops tapped the glass.

I felt a dangerous calm and an almost cruel clarity, so I wrote the only thing that came to mind and sent it without thinking twice: “My condolences.”

Bridget looked at me as if she didn’t know whether to hug me or applaud my restraint, but I wasn’t finished dealing with the situation yet.

I looked for the group chat with his parents, Mr. Howard and Melinda Sterling, who had boasted for months that this wedding would be the perfect start to their son’s new chapter.

They had paid for almost everything, including the venue and the music, because Melinda insisted that Bradley’s future wife should enter the family in true style.