Cold Feet: Secrets Before the Wedding

Olivia Zhang is three weeks from marrying Ethan Zhou, and her happiness spills over like bubbles from a soda bottle. Returning to the city a day early to surprise him, she pauses outside a private room and hears the man she is about to wed answer a friend's question about the women he has truly loved. One, he says — a woman now married, a woman he once nearly cut ties with his parents for, a woman he gave money to and spent three days in a hotel with last year, when Olivia was sick with worry. Ethan calls Olivia pretty, obedient and from a good family, but dull and uninteresting: the most suitable person to be Mrs. Zhou. The best man, Lucas, mocks the engagement, and the men laugh it off as pre-wedding talk. Olivia does not push the door open. Confrontation would change nothing; both families would brand her the villain. She rides the elevator down, her dimples gone, and lets Ethan hold her hand at dinner as if nothing has happened.