1 The day I caught Nathan Miller in bed with another woman, she didn’t scream or try to hide. Instead, she took a jagged shard from a broken bedside lamp and sliced it deep across her own cheek. Nathan didn’t even look at me. He just lunged for her, pinning her hands down, shielding her mangled face with his own body as if she were a precious, wounded animal. “Nathan, let me see her!” I screamed, my voice a raw, hysterical mess. “Let me see who she is!” He turned his head just enough for me to see his eyes. They were bloodshot, rimmed with a desperate, suffocating guilt. “It’s my fault,” he choked out. “Everything is my fault. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Please, Ginger… just don’t look. Don’t force her into this.” After that night, Nathan became a ghost, haunting the edges of our life with a terrifying, subservient devotion. He surrendered his phone every night. He installed cameras in his own car. Even when a female patient sent him a professional text, he’d bring it to me, begging for a cross-examination. He did everything I asked—and everything I didn’t—just to be allowed back into my grace. I thought I was finally healing. Until three days before our wedding. I went to the bridal boutique to pick up my dress. The clerk looked at me, her expression a mask of confusion. “Ms. Hall? You already picked up your gown this morning. I actually just saw the video of your ceremony on Instagram.” She tapped her phone and turned the screen toward me. In the video, Derek and the rest of Nathan’s inner circle—men who had spent the last year calling me “big sister”—were laughing as they handed over the rings. Our mutual friends were all there, cheering. Nathan stood at the altar, his face glowing with a tenderness I hadn’t seen in years. He leaned down, whispering to the bride, his voice a honeyed caress. “Cassidy,” he murmured. The name hit me like a physical blow. But it was the bride’s face—a face identical to my own—that turned my blood to ice. My ears began to ring with a deafening, high-pitched whine. My vision blurred as I stared at the bride’s shoulder. There, peeking out from the lace of the dress I was supposed to be wearing, was a tattoo of a wild hibiscus. I knew that tattoo. My best friend, Cassidy Beckett, had gotten it years ago after a devastating breakup. I had begged her not to do it, but she had been inconsolable. She never told me who the man was—the one who made her feel so small. “I just need to hold onto something,” she had sobbed back then. “Ginger, you have everything. You don’t know what it’s like to love someone you can never have.” Now, I knew. The man she couldn’t have was my fiancé. My knees gave out, and I hit the floor of the boutique. For the last three years, whenever I had a mental breakdown, Cassidy had been there via text, replying within seconds. But she never saw me in person. She always claimed her job kept her traveling, kept her too busy to visit. I never imagined she was the woman from three years ago. The woman who would rather mutilate her own face than let me see who she was. Ignoring the worried calls of the shop girls, I scrambled out of the store and drove like a madwoman to the venue. When I arrived, the reception was in full swing at a secluded estate. I stepped out of the car and immediately heard Derek’s voice coming from a side terrace. “Are you really not worried about Ginger finding out?” There was a long silence. Then, Nathan’s voice, low and heavy. “Ginger took everything from Cassidy. Her face was ruined because of Ginger’s reaction that night. This wedding… it’s the only way I can pay her back. It’s what she deserves.” “Just keep her in the dark a little longer,” Nathan added. Derek patted his shoulder. “Of course, man. I mean, if Ginger hadn’t been so hysterical back then, Cassidy wouldn’t have felt pushed to do that to herself. Ginger really went over the edge.” Riley, a med student I had personally mentored and sponsored, chimed in without a hint of hesitation. “Don’t worry, Dr. Miller. We’ve got your back. You just enjoy the honeymoon with the real Mrs. Miller. I’ll handle Ginger.” As she spoke, my phone vibrated. A text from Riley: [Hey Ginger! Dr. Miller is going to be stuck at the hospital for clinical training for the next few days. I’ll keep an eye on him for you!] Tears splashed onto the screen. I scrolled up. Five hundred messages. Five hundred reports on Nathan’s movements over the years. Every single one was a lie. They had spent three years treating me like a fool to be managed. On the terrace, Derek suddenly tensed. “Wait, what if Ginger sees a video on social media? I should go deal with that.” He started to get up, but Cassidy—wearing my face and my dress—stopped him. “Don’t worry,” she said softly. “Ginger has seen ‘glimpses’ of us before. But every time she checked the security footage, she only saw this face. She looks in the mirror and sees me. After a while, she started to think she was just losing her mind.” The world tilted. I remembered the nights I spent questioning my own sanity. Nathan would just look at me with those tired, patient eyes. He would let me strip him down to check for marks. He would swear he was alone, that I was just imagining things. He made me believe I was sick. He used my own face as a shield for his mistress. A wave of nausea hit me so hard I doubled over, vomiting into the grass. Riley’s voice drifted over again. She was hugging Cassidy. “You’ve sacrificed so much for him. Why can’t he just tell Ginger the truth and leave her?” Nathan sighed. I could almost picture the pained, noble look on his face. “Ginger… she saved my life once. Taking care of her is my responsibility for the rest of my life.” Responsibility. I thought back to the boy I had found years ago. Nathan had been a stray. His parents had remarried and abandoned him; he was just a teenager shivering under my porch during a brutal winter. I brought him a bowl of soup, and he asked me what I wanted in return. I didn’t want a debt. I wanted a friend. From age eight to eighteen, he was my shadow. But Cassidy used to pretend to hate him. She said he wasn’t good enough for me. They fought constantly. I tried to mediate, thinking they both just loved me too much to share me. Then came the night Cassidy got cornered by a group of thugs in an alley. Nathan, usually so calm, had bolted out the door the second he heard. By the time I caught up, he was fighting like a demon, blood on his face, eyes wild with a protective rage I’d never seen. I had rushed in to pull him away. In the chaos, I was pushed into the street. A car hit me. I spent months in a wheelchair; I nearly lost my legs. Nathan had knelt before my parents, swearing that if he ever betrayed me, God could strike him dead. Cassidy had cried until her eyes were swollen shut, promising she’d stay by my side until I could walk again. When I finally put on my prosthetics, they both wept. I thought they were crying for my pain. Now I realized they were crying for their love—the love that had to be buried in the dark because of me. Cassidy’s voice pulled me back. “Nathan, do you think we’re being too cruel to Ginger?” The group surrounded her, offering comfort. “It’s not your fault. Ginger is the one dragging you both down. If she wasn’t so fragile, we wouldn’t have to hide like this.” Nathan didn’t answer. He just pulled her into his arms. My heart felt like it was being crushed. My breath came in ragged gasps. With trembling hands, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to a number I hadn’t touched in years. [You once said that if the future version of you ever betrayed me, you’d give me a final gift. Does that still stand?] The reply came instantly. [Yes.] I wiped my eyes, stood up, and walked out into the reception. “Then tell me,” I said, my voice a hollow rasp. “Whose fault is it, exactly?” Nathan froze. His face went ghostly pale. He took a reflexive step toward me, his lips moving, but no sound came out. I turned my gaze to Cassidy. “Or maybe you think it’s my fault?” Cassidy’s hand flew to the skirt of the wedding dress—my dress. She looked like she wanted to disappear. “Ginger, I’m so sorry, I just…” “You just what?” I snapped. “You just couldn’t help being a pathetic backstabber? You just had to have my life?” The bitterness boiled over. Before I knew it, my hand connected with her face. The slap echoed across the terrace. Nathan lunged forward, putting himself between us. “Ginger! Stop it! You don’t know what you’re saying!” Cassidy pushed him back, her voice trembling. “Don’t be mean to her! Ginger, it’s my fault. Hit me again if it makes you feel better.” When her fingers brushed my arm, the revulsion was electric. I swung again, harder this time. “Don’t you touch me!” The force of the movement sent Cassidy stumbling back. She tripped on the hem of the dress and fell hard onto the stone floor. She clutched her stomach, a look of genuine agony crossing her face. Before I could react, Nathan shoved me aside with a violence that sent me sprawling. “Ginger, are you insane?! Just because you can’t have a child doesn’t mean you can kill hers! She ruined her face to protect your feelings, and you still treat her like trash?” He didn’t look at me with guilt anymore. It was pure, unadulterated loathing. He scooped Cassidy up and walked away without looking back. Derek glared at me. “Do you have any idea? Cassidy is pregnant. If anything happens to that baby, Nathan will never forgive you.” Riley looked at me with deep disappointment. “You went too far, Ginger.” I sat on the cold stone, watching them chase after him. I felt hollow. They seemed to have forgotten. Five years ago, Nathan and I had a child. To help Cassidy’s firm get off the ground, I had worked myself to the bone, drinking cold gin at every business dinner to close deals for her. I lost the baby before I even knew I was pregnant. Nathan had been hysterical with grief back then. He had pinned Cassidy against a wall, screaming at her. I was the one who pulled him off. I was the one who begged him not to blame her. Now, as I watched his retreating back, I felt a chill that settled into my very marrow. I collapsed, the world going black. I woke up in a hospital bed. Nathan was sitting there. When he saw my eyes open, he hesitated. “The doctor says you need rest.” He handed me a cup of water and some pills. I stared at him, then flicked my wrist. The scalding water splashed over his hand. He winced but didn’t move. He only grabbed my wrist when I tried to get out of bed. “Ginger, you can scream at me later. But right now, you aren’t leaving.” His grip was frantic, as if he were terrified I’d find something out. Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the hallway downstairs, followed by a familiar, angry roar. My heart plummeted. I broke free and ran to the stairs. The scene in the living room made my blood run cold. Cassidy was there, wearing a silk robe, standing amidst shattered porcelain. And standing across from her were my parents. Nathan rushed past me, grabbing Cassidy. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” My parents stared at them, their faces contorted. They hadn’t even had time to process why this woman looked like me before they saw Nathan’s hands all over her. “Nathan,” my father said, his voice shaking. “What is the meaning of this?” Nathan tightened his grip on Cassidy’s hand. “It’s exactly what it looks like.” My father’s chest heaved. “You’re insane. After everything Ginger did for you? After everything we did for you?” My mother held onto him, her eyes burning with rage. Cassidy suddenly dropped to her knees. “Mr. and Mrs. Hall, it’s my fault… I’m so sorry. But please, let us be together.” Nathan pulled her up, his voice cold. “I know I owe Ginger. I’ll come to your house and apologize properly another day. But Cassidy is in her first trimester and needs peace. Please. Leave my house.” He had knelt before these people once. He had promised to cherish me. My father has a weak heart; I had never told him about Nathan’s past infidelities because I was afraid the shock would kill him. Now, he was finding out that the boy he raised like a son was sleeping with a woman who had surgically altered herself to look like his daughter. “How… how could you do this to her?” my father gasped. His eyes rolled back, and he hit the floor with a sickening thud. “Dad!” I screamed, pushing past Cassidy. “Get away from him!” Nathan’s face was like stone. He shielded Cassidy. “Ginger! Stop being so bitter!” I didn’t care what he said. I got my father to the hospital, but the ER was slammed. I remembered that as a doctor’s spouse, I could request the use of a reserved surgical suite. I ran to the nurse’s station. The nurse looked at me with pure disdain. “Dr. Miller’s wife is in the VIP wing right now with a pregnancy complication. Who are you? If you want a room, wait in line like everyone else.” I froze. My father’s breathing was getting shallower. My mother was a wreck, sobbing. I sprinted to the VIP wing and burst into the room where Nathan was sitting. Before I could even speak, Cassidy started crying. “Ginger, I know you hate me, but my baby is in danger. Isn’t that enough of a punishment?” Nathan’s hesitation vanished. He gripped her hand. “Go back to the ER, Ginger. When Cassidy is stable, I’ll go check on your dad.” I looked at him as if he were a stranger. He flinched under my gaze. “Don’t look at me like that,” he snapped. “If you hadn’t provoked her at the house, she wouldn’t be in this position.” The world went quiet. I dropped to my knees. My forehead hit the linoleum floor. “Is this enough?” I whispered. “Is this enough for you to go save him?” I slammed my head against the floor again. And again. I felt the warm blood start to trickle down my face, stinging my eyes. My phone buzzed. A text from the nurse downstairs: [Your father didn’t make it. Your mother… she couldn’t take it. She jumped from the waiting room window. I’m so sorry.] The string in my brain snapped. I didn’t feel the blood on my face. I ran downstairs, stumbling, until I saw her. My mother’s body. Broken. “Mom… wake up,” I whispered, shaking her cold hand. I stood up, my soul torn into jagged pieces. I started walking, swaying like a drunkard. “Dad, Mom… let’s go home.” When Nathan finally got the news and rushed out of the hospital, he saw me walking straight into the path of a speeding truck. “GINGER!” he screamed.
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “553688”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel
Leave a Reply