Seven days before our wedding, my fiancé vanished into thin air. His car was found abandoned by the river, his wallet, phone, and wedding band left sitting on the driver’s seat. I didn’t sleep a wink for three days and three nights. My future mother-in-law fainted twice from grief, and my best friend walked the streets with me, plastering missing person fliers on every lamp post in the city. Until my best friend went to take a shower, and her phone lit up with a notification from a group chat named “Operation Dream Come True.” I unlocked her phone. The latest message was from my missing fiancé. Is she still searching by the river? My best friend’s reply was right below it: Don’t worry, she can barely stand up right now. She’d never guess you’re watching the sunrise on the mountain with your first love. 1 Seven days before the wedding, Jonah disappeared. At two in the morning, the police called to tell me his car had been found along Coastal Highway. The driver’s side door was wide open. His wallet, phone, and platinum wedding band were resting neatly on the driver’s seat. Near the guardrail by the riverbank, a set of chaotic footprints trailed off into the mud. By the time I rushed to the scene, yellow police tape had already been strung up around the perimeter. It was pouring rain. The black river churned in the dark, roaring like a gaping maw ready to swallow everything whole. Jonah’s younger brother, Seth, hurried over to catch me as I stumbled. “Mindy, don’t panic! My brother probably just got stressed out and stepped down to catch some fresh air.” I stared at the wedding band resting on the leather seat, my legs giving out beneath me. Just seven hours ago, Jonah had called me on the phone, asking whether I wanted white roses or champagne roses for the bridal bouquet. I had teased him for asking so many little details and told him to pick whatever he liked. He had laughed softly. “Then I’ll go with white roses. Mindy, I’m going to make sure you’re the most beautiful bride in the world.” Those were the last words he ever spoke to me. The officers asked if Jonah had been acting unusually before his disappearance. I shook my head violently. We had been together for six years. We were getting married in seven days. Lately, he had been busy handing out invitations, refining the reception schedule, and practicing his wedding vows in secret. Just last night, he had warmed up a glass of milk for me before stepping out. How could a man like that suddenly abandon his phone and his wedding ring beside a dark river? When Jonah’s mother arrived, she was so distraught she had put her shoes on backward. The moment she saw her son’s car, she collapsed onto the muddy ground. “Jonah! My boy!” I forced myself to pull her into my arms. She clutched my arm with hysterical strength, her fingernails digging deep into my skin. “Mindy, you have to find him! He loves you more than anything, he would never abandon you!” My throat felt choked with ash, but I nodded repeatedly to reassure her. “We’ll find him, Mom. He’ll be back in time for the wedding, I know he will.” She shook violently against me, weeping tears of agony. My best friend, Tori, pulled off her raincoat and draped it over my shivering shoulders, giving me a tight squeeze. “Mindy, go sit in the car for a minute. We’re all here. You can’t break down first.” I shook my head. Jonah was missing. How could I possibly sit still? 2 The search and rescue team dragged their nets along the riverbanks. Seth and a few mutual friends split up to search the nearby pine woods, abandoned industrial lots, and surrounding countryside. Tori stayed glued to my side. As dawn began to break, a text notification lit up her screen. Her face turned pale in an instant. I grabbed her wrist immediately. “Is there news about Jonah?” She reflexively slammed her screen off before forcing a strained, reassuring smile. “Someone said they saw a guy who looked just like him near the East Pier. I already sent Mark over to check it out.” I turned to go there right away, but Tori pulled me back. “You haven’t eaten a bite all night, Mindy. Going there in this state will just slow things down. Mark knows Jonah well, he’ll call us the second he confirms it.” I refused to sit around waiting. In the end, Tori had no choice but to drive me to East Pier herself. We searched the docks for three excruciating hours. The so-called eyewitness was long gone, and the security footage nearby only picked up a grainy figure in a black jacket walking away from the camera. You couldn’t make out his face at all. I stood in the security room, staring at the blurry screen, playing the clip over and over. The gait was wrong. The height was off by an inch or two. It wasn’t Jonah. Tori let out a heavy, sympathetic sigh and guided me out by the arm. “Don’t lose heart, Mindy. At least it proves someone fitting his description is out there. Maybe Jonah really is safe.” I gave a numb nod. By the time we returned to the riverbank, my future mother-in-law had woken up from her dizzy spell. With bloodshot eyes, she handed me a thermos cup of warm water. “Mindy, Jonah is so blessed to have you. Don’t you worry, when he gets back, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind for putting you through this.” I took the warm cup, and tears spilled over my eyelashes without warning. 3 By the second day of Jonah’s disappearance, the rain showed no signs of stopping. The river swelled, forcing the rescue team to expand their search radius downstream. The police pulled traffic camera footage from the highway. At one-seventeen in the morning, Jonah’s car had entered Coastal Highway alone. However, the spot where he parked was right next to a construction barrier, where a dirt path led down toward an abandoned freight dock. That path had been decommissioned years ago and had zero security cameras. The footage showed his car pulling in, but nobody ever saw how or where he left the vehicle. Later that afternoon, the search team pulled a wet black leather shoe out of the muddy water downstream. The moment Jonah’s mother caught a glimpse of it, she wailed and threw herself toward it, crying that it belonged to Jonah. I held that soaked, heavy shoe, my heart practically stopping in my chest. Jonah had bought a brand-new pair of formal shoes just like this for our wedding. I tried to break through the crowd to reach the water’s edge, but Tori and Seth held me back in a vice grip. “Mindy, calm down!” Tori yelled over the wind. “The shoe hasn’t even been identified yet! What good does rushing into the mud do?” I struggled until my arms throbbed with pain. “Let go of me! I have to look for him! He’s terrified of deep water! If he fell in, he’s scared out of his mind right now!” Seth shouted at me with red, angry eyes, “Mindy, stop making a scene! The rescue crew is doing everything they can, going down there just gives them one more person to save!” All the strength drained out of my limbs. I collapsed into the mud, sobbing until I couldn’t catch my breath. Tori dropped to her knees and pulled me into a tight embrace. “Mindy, look at me. Jonah promised to marry you, he wouldn’t just leave you behind.” I clutched at her jacket, asking her over and over, “Why did he take off his wedding ring? Did he regret marrying me?” Tori denied it fiercely. “How could he? Everyone knows how much he adores you! Maybe the ring just slipped off his finger when he opened the door.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the ring hadn’t slipped off. It had been placed upright, perfectly aligned right next to his phone. It didn’t look like an accident. It looked like a goodbye. Over the past forty-eight hours, moments from the night before Jonah vanished kept flashing through my mind. Before he left the house, he had hugged me for a very long time. He had asked me, Mindy, if something unexpected happens on our wedding day, will you wait for me? I had been buried in guest lists at the time, answering casually, Depends on what kind of unexpected thing. Jonah had fallen silent for a moment, then leaned down to press a soft kiss against my hair. You’ll wait. I know you will. Thinking back on it now, those words felt like a jagged needle thrust into my chest, leaving me icy cold. By evening, the shoe was officially confirmed not to belong to Jonah. Everyone let out a collective breath of relief. However, the emotional roller coaster proved too much for my future mother-in-law, and she fainted once again. I had to leave the riverbank to accompany her to the hospital. The doctor informed us it was severe physical and emotional exhaustion and advised plenty of rest. Sitting by her hospital bed, she gripped my hand tightly. “Mindy, if anything terrible really happened to Jonah… I don’t think I could go on living.” My nose stung with tears. “Mom, don’t say that. You still have Seth.” She blinked, surprised for a second, before bursting into even heavier tears. “How could Seth be the same? Jonah has always been the most dutiful, caring son. You two were about to start a life together, how could fate be so cruel to us?” I leaned down to tuck her blanket in securely. “Get some rest, Mom. I’ll step out to buy you some warm soup.” Just as I pulled the door shut behind me, a loud text chime echoed from inside the room. Her weeping stopped dead instantly. Through the thin door panel, I caught her low, hushed voice saying something softly. I couldn’t hear the full sentence, but I distinctly caught a single name: Serena. 4 I pushed the door open and stepped back inside. She frantically shoved her phone beneath her pillow, her face instantly morphing back into a mask of pure tragedy. “Why are you back so soon, dear?” “I forgot to ask what kind of soup you wanted.” Her eyes darted around nervously. “Anything is fine. Mindy, go on ahead, I just want to be alone for a bit.” I stood by the door, watching her for a few silent seconds. A strange, inexplicable knot tightened in my gut. A second later, fresh tears spilled from her eyes once more. “Do you think… do you think Jonah is already…” “No.” I cut her off sharply, burying the flicker of suspicion deep down. She was a mother sick with worry over her missing son. How could I entertain dark doubts over a misheard name? Leaving the hospital, I received a pin location from Seth. He claimed someone had spotted a man matching Jonah’s description along the North Outskirts highway. I couldn’t hail a cab in the downpour. I ran through two flooded streets in the freezing rain before Tori managed to pick me up in her car. Throughout the drive, her phone rang repeatedly. Every time I glanced over, she immediately tapped the decline button. “Who keeps calling?” “The wedding coordinator,” she explained under her breath. “They were asking if they should halt the preparations. I told them to keep everything moving according to plan.” My heart squeezed with dull pain. In just five days, our wedding was supposed to take place. Was Jonah still alive? Would he come back to me? Was there any chance our wedding would still happen? I had no answers. But I didn’t dare cancel it. I was terrified that canceling the venue would mean admitting he was never coming home. When we arrived at the North Outskirts, we found a blood-stained jacket inside an abandoned gas station. It was Jonah’s. I recognized it instantly. On the left pocket was a tiny, custom cross-stitch I had sewn by hand to fix a snag. The blood on the sleeve was dried and crusty, mixed with dark mud. I clutched the jacket to my chest, the world spinning black around me. Seth rushed deep into the abandoned station, shouting his brother’s name. Tori held me up, her voice trembling with tears. “Mindy, stay strong! Jonah might be injured, he’s waiting for us to find him!” I nodded, holding his coat tight as I sprinted toward the overgrown hill behind the gas station. The muddy trail was slick. I fell three times, scraping my knees and palms raw against sharp rocks. Blood mingled with rainwater, dripping down my hands. Tori ran behind me, calling my name, but I couldn’t hear a word. Only one thought consumed my mind: Jonah was hurt. He was bleeding out in some dark corner, waiting for me. By nightfall, the rescue team had combed every inch of the hill. Still nothing. The officers examined the jacket and informed me that the blood spatter was minimal, suggesting a minor surface wound rather than a fatal injury. That meant Jonah was likely still alive. I hugged that jacket tightly, refusing to let go of it all night. I didn’t find out until much later. Before setting off, Jonah had personally sliced his own forearm with a razor, smearing his blood onto the sleeve. He had even pressed it against the fabric several times, terrified it wouldn’t look convincing enough. Then he had handed the jacket to his brother, Seth, instructing him to plant it at the abandoned gas station the following day. That very night, Serena dropped a digital cash gift into their private group chat. Her memo read: Thank you, everyone. Jonah says thanks for keeping her occupied for another day. The person who claimed the highest amount in that cash transfer was my best friend, Tori, who had spent ten hours standing beside me in the pouring rain. 5 By the morning of the third day, I ran a burning fever of a hundred and two degrees. Tori practically dragged me back to her apartment. She fetched fever reducers, sat by my bedside, and patiently fed me porridge spoonful by spoonful. My throat was so swollen and raw I couldn’t speak. She gently touched my burning forehead, her eyes bloodshot. “If you keep destroying yourself like this, Jonah will be heartbroken when he comes back.” I stared at her, my voice raspy. “Do you really think he’s coming back?” Tori’s hand holding the spoon paused for a fraction of a second. “Of course he is. You two love each other so much, how could he bear not to?” I closed my eyes. Ever since Jonah went missing, every single person had been repeating the exact same script to me. He loves you. He can’t bear to lose you. He will definitely come back to marry you. Yet for three whole days, search and rescue hadn’t found a single trace of him. His phone GPS, transit records, and bank transactions were completely frozen on the night he vanished. It was as if he had evaporated into thin air. I forced myself to sit up against the headboard. “I need to go back to the river.” Tori pressed me down by the shoulders. “You have a fever of a hundred and two! Will you please stop pushing yourself? The search team hasn’t stopped, you waiting at home makes no difference!” “It makes all the difference,” I rasped, shoving her hands away. “That was the last place he was seen. If he comes back and doesn’t see me there, what will he do?” Tori stared at me, her lips parting slightly. In that fleeting second, a deeply complex emotion flickered across her eyes. It looked like guilt, mixed with a trace of pity. Ultimately, she helped me lie back down. “Mindy, take a quick nap first. I’ll take you there in two hours, okay?” Overpowered by the medicine, I drifted into a heavy, fitful sleep. When I woke up, the sky outside the window had turned dark. Tori was in the bathroom, the sound of the shower running echoing through the apartment. Her phone sat on the nightstand. The screen suddenly lit up. I hadn’t intended to pry. But the pop-up notification displayed my name clearly. How is Mindy holding up today? The sender contact was saved as Aunt Jennings. I froze. Mrs. Jennings was supposed to be lying in a hospital bed, claiming she didn’t even have the strength to touch her phone. I reached out and picked up Tori’s phone. On instinct, I typed in the four-digit passcode she had used for twelve years, the date we signed the lease on our first shared apartment. The device unlocked instantly. The message had come from an active group chat. The group name was: Operation Dream Come True. There were eleven members in total. Seth, Mrs. Jennings, Tori, Serena, and all of our mutual closest friends. At the very top of the list was a profile picture I knew by heart, Jonah’s secondary account. And the administrator at the top of the member list was a woman I recognized instantly. Serena. Jonah’s first love, the woman he had dated for four years before me. 6 The most recent update had been posted three minutes ago: a photo sent by Jonah. A sprawling, majestic snow-capped mountain peak was bathed in the golden light of the morning sun. Serena, wearing a bright red wool scarf, was leaning her head gently against Jonah’s shoulder, her eyes shimmering with faint tears. Tied to the fringe of that red scarf was a delicate, hand-woven red silk cord. It looked hauntingly familiar, but before I could process where I had seen it, my eyes moved down to the text. Jonah was looking down at her in the photo with an expression of tender devotion, a look I had once believed belonged exclusively to me. Below the photo, Serena had sent a message first. Jonah, maybe we should head back early. Mindy has been looking for you for three days, she must be going out of her mind. Jonah’s reply came swiftly: We’re already at the summit. We leave after watching the sunrise. Serena sent a crying emoji. But I feel so guilty inside. She’s about to become your wife. I don’t want her to get hurt because of me. A few seconds later, she added: I just wanted to say a proper goodbye to the man I loved most before I get married abroad. Once the sun rises, I’ll give you back to her. The group chat went quiet for a moment. Mrs. Jennings was the first to chime in with words of comfort. Silly child, you’re just fulfilling a final wish. Don’t go blaming yourself for everything. Seth chimed in right after: My future sister-in-law has a gentle temper. Once my brother gets back and sweet-talks her a bit, she’ll be fine. Serena didn’t refuse their comfort. She posted another photo of herself snuggled deep into Jonah’s chest. Thank you, everyone. Without you, I would have carried this regret for the rest of my life. Right after that, Jonah typed: Is Mindy still searching by the river? Tori replied: Don’t worry, she came down with a heavy fever, she can barely stand. I locked her up at home. She won’t interrupt your sunrise view. Seth dropped a laughing emoji. She’s so dense. She literally cried all night holding that bloody jacket. Bro, you better sweet-talk her real good when you get back. Jonah replied: She’s easygoing. A few sweet words and it’ll blow over. Serena leaves tomorrow, I can’t leave her with regrets at the end. I sat on the edge of the mattress, my hands shaking so violently I could barely hold the phone. The chat kept scrolling with incoming messages. Mrs. Jennings typed: My head aches from pretending to faint all day! You guys better wrap it up. If the search party keeps dragging the river, this is going to turn into a massive public scene. A mutual friend added: Tomorrow, according to plan, Jonah will magically show up at the abandoned cabin on Shadow Ridge. Tear his shirt up a bit, smear some blood on his forehead, and say he fell down a slope and passed out. Seth asked: Will Mindy buy it? Tori replied: She lost her damn mind these past three days. As long as Jonah walks back alive, she’ll believe whatever comes out of his mouth. Tears flooded my eyes, blurring the harsh white text on the screen. I scrolled up through the chat history. Three days ago, Serena had dropped a long voice message into the group. Her voice had been trembling with soft, fragile restraint. Jonah, I’m moving abroad to get married next week. All these years, I keep dreaming about that snow mountain trail we never got to finish. But you’re getting married soon, I shouldn’t disrupt your life. Forget it, pretend I never mentioned it. Directly beneath that voice note, Jonah had typed: I’ll take you. Serena took a long time to reply: What about Mindy? Jonah said: She won’t agree, so she can’t know. What followed was a step-by-step masterclass in deception, as everyone in that chat helped them engineer the perfect lie. Mrs. Jennings was the first to give her blessing. Go ahead. Mindy is sensible, she won’t break up with you over a small thing like this. Seth had asked: What about Mindy though? You two are getting married in seven days. Jonah replied: As long as she thinks I met with an accident, she won’t have the time or energy to track my whereabouts. Tori had paused for a long time before sending her message: Isn’t this a bit too cruel? My heart squeezed tight in my chest. I stared at the screen, a pathetic, foolish spark of hope still lingering in my soul. A second later, Tori added another line: Mindy is hyper-perceptive. A simple disappearance won’t trick her. You have to park the car by the riverbank. Leave the phone, wallet, and wedding ring behind to make it look real. Serena had immediately chimed in: Won’t that terrify Mindy? Jonah, maybe we shouldn’t go. I’m not worth putting her through all this. Right after typing those words, she had posted a picture of herself sitting in a hospital corridor, looking pale with an IV band on her wrist. The doctor says my anxiety has been acting up again. But don’t worry, I’ll pull through on my own. The group chat exploded with concern. Everyone scrambled to comfort her. Not a single person mentioned whether I would be driven out of my mind with terror. The eyewitness at East Pier was arranged by Tori. The bloody jacket in the North Outskirts was planted by Seth. Mrs. Jennings was tasked with using fainting spells and hysterics to tie me down. Our closest friends took turns driving me to dead-end locations to keep me running in circles. Even the wet leather shoe dragged out of the river had been purchased in advance by them and tossed downstream on purpose. They had outlined every single detail in cold, meticulous prose. And they had taken my complete mental breakdown as proof that their “Operation Dream Come True” was proceeding with wild success. In the group media gallery, there was a short video clip. In the video, Serena stood beneath the snow-capped peak, asking softly, “Jonah, lying to Mindy like this… is it really okay?” Jonah adjusted her red scarf, pulling it snug around her neck. “She won’t find out. Everyone is on our side.” Serena lowered her eyes, a single tear falling right on cue. “I still envy her. No matter what you do, she’s the one you’re going to marry in the end.” Jonah stayed silent for a few seconds before wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close. “Don’t bring her up today.” Leaning against his chest, a subtle, triumphant smile flickered across the corner of Serena’s lips. The video cut off. The shower in the bathroom shut off with a metallic click. I swiftly forwarded the chat logs, photos, and video files to my own phone, cleared the transfer history, and placed Tori’s device back onto the nightstand. The bathroom door swung open. Tori walked out drying her wet hair with a towel. Seeing me sitting upright on the edge of the mattress, she froze. “When did you wake up, Mindy?” 7 I raised my head and looked at her. This woman had been my best friend for twelve years. When her stepfather used to beat her, I was the one who snuck her out of her house in the middle of the night. When her mother needed emergency surgery, I lent her the money I had saved for my housing down payment without a second thought. During the darkest six months of her unemployment, she lived under my roof, eating my food and wearing my clothes, without paying a dime. When Jonah vanished, she had held me while I cried, walked the freezing streets pasting fliers, and wiped the blood off my scraped palms. Yet she was also the very first person to suggest leaving Jonah’s car by the river. She knew precisely how to break me because she knew me better than anyone alive. Tori shuffled uncomfortably under my gaze. “Mindy, what’s wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?” I shook my head slowly. “Nothing.” She walked over and pressed her palm against my forehead. “Your fever dropped a bit. Seth just texted saying there might be a new lead near Shadow Ridge. Get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll head over tomorrow morning.” Looking at her face, which was painted with such convincing concern, I suddenly wanted to ask her a question. Tori, during those three days, when you held me in your arms, did you feel even a single second of disgust at yourself? In the end, I asked nothing. I pulled the blanket back over myself and closed my eyes. “Okay. Tomorrow, we’ll go together and bring Jonah home.” Tori let out a quiet sigh of relief. She had no idea. When I said “bring him home,” I meant bringing him back to watch this sickening play crash down around his ears.
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