Chapter 1
The sound of my mother crying was the first thing I heard when I opened the bridal suite door.
Not music.
Not laughter.
Not the excited voices I had imagined hearing on my wedding day.
Crying.
Then I saw her.
My mother, Evelyn, sat frozen in front of a beautiful gold-framed mirror. Her elegant champagne dress was covered with dark strands of hair.
Huge, uneven sections had been cut from her head.
The hairstyle she had spent months growing her hair for was destroyed.
And standing behind her was Vanessa.
My wedding hairstylist.
She held a pair of silver scissors in one hand and a thick piece of my mother's hair in the other.
For one terrible second, I couldn't breathe.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MOM?!"
My scream filled the entire room.
Vanessa barely flinched.
She looked at me through the mirror, then slowly lowered the scissors.
"Don't be dramatic, Nia."
I hurried toward my mother.
"Mom? What happened?"
She tried to answer, but her lips trembled.
I touched the jagged pieces of hair around her face.
Some sections barely reached her ears. Others hung almost to her shoulders.
Whoever had done this hadn't been trying to create a hairstyle.
They had been trying to hurt her.
"She said she was fixing it," my mother whispered. "I told her to stop."
My stomach twisted.
"You told her to stop?"
Mom nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks.
"And she kept cutting."
I turned toward Vanessa.
"She told you to stop?"
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
"Your mother moved while I was cutting. It was an accident."
Before I could respond, the door opened.
Marcus walked in wearing his black wedding tuxedo.
My fiancé.
The man I was supposed to marry in less than two hours.
He took one look at my mother's hair.
Then he looked at Vanessa.
And instead of asking whether my mother was okay, he moved beside Vanessa.
"Nia, calm down. It was an accident."
Something inside me went cold.
"How do you know?"
Marcus frowned.
"What?"
"How do you know it was an accident? You weren't here."
He glanced at Vanessa.
It lasted barely a second.
But I saw it.
"I trust her," he said.
I stared at him.
"You trust her?"
"Nia, we have two hundred guests downstairs. This isn't the time."
My mother lowered her face into her hands.
"I just wanted to look beautiful for your wedding," she whispered.
Those words broke something inside me.
My father had died eleven years earlier.
Mom had worked double shifts at a hospital, sold her jewelry to help pay for my education, and spent countless nights pretending she wasn't exhausted.
She had given me everything.
And on the one day I wanted her to feel like a queen, someone had humiliated her.
Vanessa crossed her arms.
"Oh, please. Hair grows back."
My mother began crying harder.
Vanessa smiled.
Not an embarrassed smile.
Not an apologetic smile.
A satisfied one.
I suddenly remembered how many times Vanessa had made little remarks about my mother.
How she'd called her old-fashioned.
How she'd laughed at her hairstyle during the rehearsal.
How Marcus had always defended her.
I had dismissed those moments.
Now they came rushing back.
"Apologize to my mother," I said.
Vanessa raised an eyebrow.
"For what?"
"For cutting her hair after she told you to stop."
"I don't take orders from your family."
Marcus stepped between us.
"Enough, Nia."
I looked at him.
"Move."
"You're embarrassing yourself."
I almost laughed.
My mother was sitting there with half her hair on the floor.
And I was embarrassing myself?
Vanessa lifted her long, sleek ponytail over one shoulder.
"Maybe your mother should learn to sit still next time."
That was the moment I stopped shaking.
My tears disappeared.
My breathing slowed.
I noticed the silver scissors Vanessa had placed on the vanity.
I reached for them.
"Nia," Marcus warned.
But I had already picked them up.
Vanessa stepped forward.
"What are you doing?"
I grabbed her long ponytail.
She gasped.
Then I closed the scissors.
SNIP.
The severed ponytail fell into my hand.
Vanessa screamed.
She reached behind her head, feeling the uneven hair where her beautiful ponytail had been.
"MY HAIR!"
I dropped it onto the vanity.
"Hair grows back."
Vanessa stared at me in disbelief.
Marcus grabbed my wrist.
"ARE YOU INSANE?!"
I pulled away.
"Don't touch me."
"You attacked her!"
I pointed toward my mother.
"And what did she do to my mother?"
Marcus opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
I waited.
Just once, I wanted him to choose what was right instead of protecting Vanessa.
Instead, he turned toward her.
"Are you okay?"
I felt my heart break.
Not slowly.
Not painfully over weeks.
It broke right there.
I looked at the diamond engagement ring on my finger.
Two years earlier, Marcus had placed it there while promising he would always protect me and the people I loved.
I had believed every word.
Now those promises meant nothing.
I removed the ring.
"Nia," he said quietly.
I pressed it into his palm.
"You defended her after she humiliated my mother?"
His expression changed.
"Don't do this."
"Wedding canceled."
The words seemed to knock the air out of him.
"What?"
"You heard me."
He stared at the ring.
"Nia, we can talk about this."
"No. We should have talked about this a long time ago."
Vanessa stood behind him, still clutching the back of her head.
For the first time, she looked frightened.
I turned toward my mother.
"Come on, Mom."
She looked up at me.
"But your wedding..."
I knelt beside her chair.
"You're more important than any wedding."
Her face crumpled.
I helped her stand.
Marcus moved toward the door.
"Nia, stop. Think about what you're throwing away."
I looked at the man I had loved for four years.
Then I looked at the woman standing behind him.
Something about the way they stood together made my skin crawl.
I couldn't explain it.
Not yet.
But my instincts were screaming.
I took my mother's hand and walked toward the door.
Then I stopped.
I turned around.
"And Marcus..."
He lifted his head.
"Canceling the wedding is only the beginning."
His face went pale.
Vanessa stopped touching her hair.
For one long second, neither of them moved.
Then my phone vibrated inside the small white bridal purse hanging from my wrist.
A message from an unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Until I read the first sentence.
"Nia, don't leave the hotel until you see what your fiancé did last night."
Below the message was a photograph.
Marcus.
May you like
Vanessa.
And the two of them kissing inside my mother's house.
