Tears of joy blurred my vision as I stared at the sparkling diamond on my finger. The candlelit dinner, the heartfelt proposal—everything had been perfect. I had dreamed of this moment for so long, and now, Alex and I were finally engaged.
As I lay in bed that night, clutching my phone and scrolling through messages from friends congratulating me, my phone suddenly rang. It was past midnight. Frowning, I glanced at the screen—Emma. My best friend.
Confused, I answered, “Emma? What’s wrong?”
Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Don’t trust him, Claire.”
A chill ran down my spine. “What? Emma, what are you talking about?”
“Alex. You can’t marry him. Please, listen to me.” Her voice was shaky, desperate.
I sat up, my heart hammering. “Emma, you’re scaring me. What do you mean?”
She hesitated before whispering, “I can’t say over the phone. Please, meet me tomorrow. I need to tell you something.”
My hands trembled as I ended the call. Emma had never been the type to be overdramatic. If she was saying this, it had to be serious. But how could I believe her? Alex had been nothing but loving and kind to me.
The next morning, I met Emma at our usual café. Her face was pale, her hands clenched around her coffee cup. “Claire, there’s something you don’t know about Alex,” she said, eyes darting around nervously.
“Emma, just tell me,” I urged, my stomach twisting in knots.
She took a deep breath. “He was engaged before. To my cousin, Melissa.”
My blood ran cold. “What?”
“They were together for three years. He proposed to her. But a month before the wedding, she disappeared. Gone without a trace. Her car was found abandoned near a lake, but they never found her body.” Emma swallowed hard. “Alex was the last person seen with her. He told the police she left him, but my family never believed it.”
I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. “You think he—” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“I don’t know, Claire. But I couldn’t let you go through with this without telling you.” Emma’s eyes were pleading. “Please, just be careful. Look into his past. Don’t take his word for everything.”
Doubt gnawed at me. I wanted to defend Alex, to say it wasn’t possible. But how well did I really know him? My hands shook as I reached for my phone.
That night, while Alex was in the shower, I did something I never thought I would—I searched his name online along with Melissa’s.
The articles flooded in. The unsolved disappearance. The suspicion that had surrounded Alex but never stuck. I scrolled, my heart pounding, until I found something that made my breath catch—a photo of Alex and Melissa.
She was wearing the exact same ring that now sat on my finger.
I dropped my phone, the room spinning around me. My best friend had just saved my life.
