The Bride Wore My Nightmares Chapter 04
It wasn’t until dinnertime that Ethan came home.
He walked straight up to me, apology written in his eyes.
I could already guess what he was going to say.
Sure enough, Ethan hesitated for a long moment, then spoke. “Maddie, I know you hate those people from high school.”
I cut in. “You’re right. But the one I hate most is Vanessa Whitaker.”
Ethan’s face changed. He was at a loss for how to continue.
After a few seconds, he pressed on: “Vanessa told me everything. She was forced into it too. She never actually laid a hand on anyone.”
“So she was forced when she led everyone in locking me in the locker room, stripping me, and having them take photos? Forced when she pinned me down and made me lick her shoe? Forced when, in front of the entire cafeteria, she dumped a Diet Coke over my head — all of that was forced too?” I shot up out of my chair, meeting his eyes head-on.
“Maddie…” Ethan paused, biting his lip. “All of this happened so long ago. How can you be sure you remember it clearly?”
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
Ethan kept going. “I know what happened back then hurt you badly, but it hurt Vanessa just as much. She took me to that alley behind your high school and told me that’s where they threatened her. You’re — you’re both victims.”
“And you?” I asked softly. “You believe her?”
Ethan lowered his head and took a deep breath. A second later, he lifted his eyes again. “I do.”
I closed my eyes and refused to say another word.
A long time passed before I said his name — my voice thick with tears and a heavy nose.
“Ethan.”
“You are Ethan.”
His eyes darted away, and finally he bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”
Mom and Dad had already been listening at the door and couldn’t stand another word. They dragged Ethan straight back to his own room and locked it from the outside.
I sat there, unmoving. My chest felt like the whole Pacific was churning inside it, and the small, faint hope I’d carried was being ground into dust, inch by inch.
All those years of grief, all those years of nightmares — to Ethan, they were nothing more than “misremembered.”
How could I have misremembered?
Vanessa Whitaker was the one who led the pack that isolated me, the one who slathered super glue all over my chair so I’d humiliate myself in front of everyone, the one who had them hold me down in the locker room while she snapped photos of me at my most degraded, the one who — while I cried and begged her — laughed and locked me inside the gymnasium for an entire night, the one who threw the pillow and blanket I’d brought to a dorm-style sleepover out the window into the parking lot below…
How could I possibly have misremembered that demon!
Mom helped me back to my room, tears rolling down her cheeks one after another.
“Maddie, that woman has bewitched Ethan. Your father and I would beat him within an inch of his life — just say the word, okay? Mom’s just so scared you’ll get worse again…”
It was like every ounce of strength had been drained out of me. For a while I didn’t know what to say.
Should I insist I hadn’t misremembered? That the ringleader really was Vanessa Whitaker?
Mom would believe me. But Ethan?
“Mom, go on. Let me think for a bit,” I said softly.
Mom pulled me into her arms, her voice trembling. “Maddie, please, please don’t do anything foolish.”
I nodded.
Anything foolish? The girl who tormented me was about to marry into this family. If I did anything foolish now, I’d be handing her exactly what she wanted.
“Mom, you and Dad don’t need to worry. I just want to be alone for a little while.”
The door closed softly behind her. I turned to the mirror and looked at myself — rims of my eyes bright red, my complexion frightening. I was right back where I’d been two years ago, at my very worst.
“Why can’t I marry her!”
Ethan’s voice tore through the closed door.
I swept every book off my desk in one violent motion. There was a huge crash, and the world outside went silent.
I laughed at myself, bitterly.
For as long as I could remember, Ethan had barely ever lost his temper. The angriest I could recall him being was the day he found out I was being bullied at school.
If I hadn’t been such a coward back then — so afraid they’d keep coming after me that I chose to transfer schools and run — Ethan would’ve come face to face with Vanessa Whitaker long ago.
The Ethan of then would’ve confronted her right to her face, would’ve stood up for me — instead of standing by now, watching this demon step through our front door one calculated step at a time!
I drew a deep breath and glared hard at the girl in the mirror.
Madison Callahan.
If you let this one slide too, then your life really is over.
She has to pay a thousand — no, ten thousand times over!
I stared at my reflection, and in the glass I could almost see myself again, cornered in that bathroom by Vanessa Whitaker.
I didn’t look away. I met that memory straight on and smiled coldly.
Curtain up. Showtime.