I spent eleven months making my own wedding dress.
But on the night of the Whitmore centennial show, the woman who walked up the grand staircase wearing it was my adopted sister, Sabine.
She stood in the spotlight, one hand resting on a stomach that wasn’t yet showing, the other looped through my fiancé Adrian’s arm. The reporters’ flashes bleached the world white. He didn’t let go of her. He simply stood by as his PR team announced that the baby was his, and that they would be getting married as soon as possible.
Backstage, the size card I had written for myself still hung from the garment rack.
I reached inside the gown and found the hand-sewn label hidden at the waist seam, in the most discreet place I could manage—
Clara Whitmore, Bride.
With my dressmaker’s shears, I sliced it from the seam, broke off the engagement, and flew to Paris that same night.
Over the next six years, Adrian sent me more than three hundred emails.
I never replied to a single one.
I didn’t set foot in New York again until my mother’s kidneys began to fail, and the donor lined up for her paired exchange suddenly backed out.
I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 30 Julien took me to a twenty-four-hour diner downtown. I ate half a plate of eggs and roasted potatoes before the feeling returned to my hands. “When did you figure out I eat salty things when I’m nervous?” I asked. “The first atelier negotiation you
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 29 “Do you still love him?” Sabine demanded. The corridor went still. Adrian stood behind her, his breathing quiet. “I loved him,” I said. “From the time I was twelve until I was twenty-three. I measured every formal jacket he owned. I know his left
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 28 Then Sabine looked at me. “You win,” she said. “You didn’t even have to do anything. All you had to do was come back, and Mom, Adrian, Grandfather—even the old dressmakers—everyone remembered you again.” “I came back for Mom.” “Then why did you stay
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 27 “You never loved me, did you?” she asked Adrian. He didn’t turn around. She came closer and grabbed his sleeve. “Five years. You celebrated Leo’s birthdays with him. You went to every show with me. In front of reporters, you put your coat over
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 26 “This ends here,” I said. “Whose child he is, that’s for the courts and the two of you to handle. You and I ended six years ago.” “I didn’t end.” Adrian lifted a hand, then stopped before he could touch me. “I married her
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 25 “I’ve done three paternity tests over the years,” Adrian said. “The first two came back contaminated. Sabine refused to allow a formal sample to be taken from Leo. Under New York’s presumption of paternity, I was his legal father the entire time we were
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 24 “After the centennial party six years ago, I went back to the hotel drunk,” Adrian said, his voice rough. “When I woke up the next morning, Sabine was in bed beside me. A few weeks later, she came to me with a pregnancy test
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 23 Julien moved to the window to make the call. In Paris, he had always been like this. The more difficult the problem, the lower his voice became, as if any chaos in his hands could be broken down into clean, precise pattern pieces. Once,
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 22 “Paolo Bellini,” I said. Julien didn’t ask for an explanation. Fifteen years ago, Whitmore still had an old sample factory in New Jersey. One weekend, I snuck inside to practice on a sewing machine. A short in the wiring set a stack of interfacing
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I Made His Wife’s Dress Now I’ll Marry Another Chapter 21 Julien’s phone buzzed. After reading the message, his expression grew sharp. “There’s an opening in the paired exchange chain you asked me to re-check.” “A new donor?” “More precisely, a chain initiated by one non-directed donor, with two incompatible donor-recipient pairs participating. The donor
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