Page 12 of I Do, You Don't
Her voice drops, low and soft, and something inside me shifts. Panic claws up my throat, but I choke it back.
Not yet.
She exhales slowly and pulls out her phone. I know what’s coming before she even presses it into my hand.
My breath quickens. My chest tightens. No. Not this. Not now.
“Look,” she says, her voice too calm, like she’s been rehearsing it. She turns the phone toward me.
A photo. Blurry, dim—but clear enough.
Lara. In her bridal robe. On a hotel bed. Leaning too close to someone whose face is half-shadowed. His shirt gone. Her hand gripping his thigh.
The man is Calvin.
What the hell is this?
My throat closes. The world tilts, photo and memory bleeding together. The seat of the car digs into my back as the air around me thickens.
“No. This can’t be real.”
Confusion crashes over me. This isn’t the woman I’m about to marry. She was in our bed last night. Not some hotel room.
The image sears into my mind, but I shake my head. No. It’s a mistake. A misunderstanding.
But it isn’t.
I lock onto the photo—Lara’s face. I try to convince myself it’s some twisted illusion. It can’t be true. Not Lara. Not the woman I love. I can’t make it fit.
“I’m sorry, Gideon. I know this hurts.”
She pauses, letting the words land.
“I wasn’t going to show you. But you deserve to know before you walk in there and promise forever to someone who only just said goodbye to another man.”
The words crash into me. My brain can’t process them.
“This isn’t what this is,” I whisper, voice tight. “She, Lara, she wouldn’t.”
She interrupts softly, her hand on my arm. Her fingers feather-light, brushing my skin. Her warmth jolts through me. She lingers just a beat too long, her thumb tracing the fabric of my sleeve.
“That was last night. While you were at your bachelor party.”
How would you know? You were with me last night.
I want to scream. To hurl the phone. To demand answers.
I try to breathe, but the car feels smaller.
“I got it this morning,” she says, too calm. “Someone at the hotel saw something. Sent it to me. I didn’t want to believe it either.”
I stare at the screen. My mind spins.
It’s wrong. It has to be.
Except…
Lara had been distant. Withdrawn. Like she was holding something back. Last week, I asked what was wrong. She said she was tired. Just tired.
