My Fiancé Left Me for His First Love, So I Married His Brother

Three hundred guests stared at me in deafening silence.

I stood alone at the altar.

My fingers gripped my phone, pressing it to my ear beneath the lace edge of my veil. The line rang four times. Five times.

"Miss Whitmore," the priest whispered, leaning closer. "Should we wait another ten minutes?"

"No," I said.

Finally, the call connected. A click echoed through the speaker.

"Damon, where are you?" I demanded.

"Aria? Oh, thank god." Sienna Blake’s voice trembled, punctuated by a wet sniffle.

My grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles turned white. Sienna. Damon's first love.

"Why do you have my fiancé's phone?" I asked.

"He left it on the bedside table." She let out a jagged sob. "He's with me. At St. Jude's Hospital. I got so sick, Aria. My heart... I was gasping for air. He wouldn't leave my side."

"Put him on the phone."

"He's talking to the nurses. Please don't be mad at him. It's my fault."

I ended the call.

"Aria," my mother whispered from the front row, stepping forward. "What are you doing?"

"I'm finding my groom," I said.

I hiked up my heavy silk skirt and marched down the aisle. Whispers erupted from the pews, but I ignored them. I pushed open the heavy oak doors of the church and stepped out into the bright afternoon sun.

I didn't wait for change.

The hospital doors slammed open. Nurses gaped at my white gown, but I shoved past them, scanning the room numbers on the fourth floor.

Room 412.

I pushed the door wide.

Damon sat on the edge of the hospital bed. He wore his tuxedo pants and a crisp white shirt, the bowtie completely undone. He was holding both of Sienna's hands.

"Damon," I said.

He snapped his head up. His jaw tightened, but guilt never crossed his features. Annoyance flashed in his dark eyes instead.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. He dropped Sienna's hands and stood up.

"What am I doing here?" I stepped further into the room. The heavy silk of my dress dragged across the linoleum. "Our guests are waiting at the church. The priest is waiting. I am waiting."

Sienna shrank back against her pillows. She clutched the thin hospital blanket to her chest. "Damon, I told you to go. I told you this would happen. I didn't mean to ruin your wedding."

"Stop it, Sienna. You didn't ruin anything." Damon turned his glare on me. "She had a heart attack, Aria."

"A heart attack?" I repeated.

"She couldn't breathe. She collapsed in front of me." His voice hardened. "What was I supposed to do? Leave her on the floor so I could make it to the ceremony on time?"

"You could have called me."

"I had more important things to worry about."

The words landed harder than I expected.

More important than me.More important than our wedding.

I looked at the man I had loved for three years and felt something inside me crack.

Damon glanced toward Sienna."A wedding can be rescheduled, Aria. A life can't."

Sienna's eyes filled with tears. "Please don't fight because of me."

I almost laughed.

Instead, I looked at the monitor beside her bed.Steady heartbeat.Normal oxygen saturation.

No oxygen mask. No IV medication. Nothing that looked remotely like the emergency Damon had described.

"Which doctor diagnosed the heart attack?" I asked.

Damon frowned. "What?"

"Her doctor. I want to speak to them."

A nurse appeared less than a minute later. I looked directly at her.

"Could you ask Ms. Blake's attending physician to come in?"

Sienna went pale.

That was the first thing that made me suspicious.

A few minutes later, a gray-haired doctor entered with a tablet in his hand.

"Dr. Harris," Damon said. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Ms. Blake is stable."I folded my arms.

"Did she have a heart attack?"

The room went silent.

Dr. Harris glanced at Sienna, then shook his head.

"No. Her ECG and cardiac enzymes were normal. She experienced palpitations and shortness of breath, but there is currently no evidence of an acute cardiac event."

Damon froze.

I turned to Sienna."So you didn't have a heart attack."

Her face drained of color."I—I never said I definitely had one."

"You told me you were gasping for air."

"I was!"

"And you let Damon abandon our wedding because of it."

Her lips trembled. "I was scared."

"Scared?"

"That's enough."The voice came from behind me.

Deep. Cold. Unfamiliar enough to make me turn.A tall man stood in the doorway in a charcoal suit, one hand still wrapped around the handle of a suitcase.

Julian Cross.

Damon's older brother.

I'd only met him twice in three years. He spent most of his time in Europe and had flown back specifically for the wedding.

His eyes moved from my wedding dress to Damon, then to Sienna.

"So this is why there was no groom at the church."

Damon's expression darkened.

"This doesn't concern you."

"I flew eight hours for your wedding. I'd say it concerns me."

"Julian—"

"She didn't have a heart attack." Julian glanced at the doctor. "Correct?"

Dr. Harris nodded. "Correct."

Julian looked back at his brother.

"And instead of calling your bride, you left her standing alone in front of three hundred people."

Sienna suddenly started crying harder."I didn't know it wasn't serious! My parents are dead. I was alone, and I thought I was dying. I panicked."

Damon immediately moved toward her."Sienna, calm down."

Sienna wiped her tears. "I'm sorry, Aria. I really am. If you hate me, I understand."

Damon's jaw tightened."She apologized. What else do you want?"

I stared at him."What?"

"Look at her. She's already terrified, and you're interrogating her like a criminal."

"She lied about having a heart attack."

"She was scared."

"And I was standing alone at our wedding."

"You weren't dying!"His voice cracked through the room.

Silence followed.I stared at him.

Damon exhaled sharply, as if I were the one exhausting him.

"Just apologize to Sienna so we can end this."

Something inside me went very still.

"Apologize?"I reached up and pulled the veil from my hair.Then I slipped the diamond ring from my finger.

I tossed the ring at him.

"You abandoned me at the altar," I said. "You lied to me. You humiliated me in front of everyone I know. And now you want me to apologize to her?"

"Don't be dramatic.I'm not apologizing."

"Aria—"

Julian stepped between us.

"Don't."

Damon stared at him. "Move."

Julian didn't.His voice remained calm.

"The person with the least right to ask her to be reasonable today is you."

For the first time, Damon had nothing to say.I turned away before either of them could see my eyes burn.

I made it three steps into the hallway.

The lights suddenly blurred.

My stomach twisted.

I reached for the wall, but my fingers caught nothing.

I forced my eyes open just enough to see Damon coming out of the room.

Then Sienna grabbed his wrist."Damon..."She pressed a hand to her chest."I can't breathe again."

He stopped.

Julian looked at his brother, then down at me.His expression turned ice-cold.

"Stay with her."

He lifted me into his arms."I've got Aria."

Then everything went black.

---

When I opened my eyes again, the ceiling above me was white.

Someone was speaking outside the curtain.

Julian.

The doctor's voice lowered.

"Ms. Whitmore fainted from exhaustion and acute emotional stress. We'll run a few more tests, but there's something else you should know."

A pause.

"She's pregnant."

Silence.

"How far along?"

"Approximately six weeks."

My fingers curled beneath the blanket.

Six weeks.

Damon and I were going to have a baby.And less than an hour ago, he'd left me lying in another woman's shadow on our wedding day.

Outside the curtain, Julian spoke again.

"Does Damon know?"

"No."