Part 1The Perfect Substitute

At our wedding, Damian’s "one that got away" crashed the ceremony in a bridal gown.

"Damian, if you still love me, leave with me right now."

Damian didn't hesitate. He took her hand.

He left me standing there alone, facing a sea of pity and ridicule.

Everyone thought I would be devastated, that my world would end.

Little did they know...

My "one that got away" had just come back, too.

Damian was just a cheap knockoff. I didn't need him anymore.

* * *

I was with Damian for seven years.

But nobody thought we’d actually make it down the aisle.

It was an open secret in our social circle: Damian was only with me because I was a dead ringer for his first love, Heather.

When we first started dating, he would stare at me, lost in a trance. When he got drunk, he’d whisper while looking at my face, "Heather, I love you."

But Heather had gone to Europe and married someone else.

I am Sierra.

So, the person he loved wasn't me.

But I didn't care.

When he called out the wrong name, I corrected him, patiently, over and over again.

He loved rare scotch, so I traveled the world to fill his cellar.

He liked the look of black hair and white dresses, so I stopped dyeing my hair and filled my closet with pale silk and chiffon.

Everyone said I was obsessed with Damian.

My friends tried to warn me. "Don't waste your youth on him, Sierra."

Heather had once saved his life. First love, married away, life-saver. She had the "tragic heroine" buff stacked to the max.

"Back then, Damian loved her loud and proud. When Heather got married, Damian practically flatlined in the hospital from the stress."

"Sierra, to be blunt, he’s just using your face to mourn her."

"You guys have no future. Cut your losses."

I ignored them all.

For seven years, I played the perfect partner.

And eventually, Damian seemed moved by it.

On my twenty-seventh birthday, he proposed.

Under the soft glow of the chandelier, in a white tuxedo, he knelt on one knee. He looked devastatingly handsome.

"Sierra, will you marry me?"

His eyes were swimming with tenderness.

It looked like love.

My gaze lingered on the corner of his eye as I smiled gently.

"Yes."

That night, he held me tight, whispering that he loved me.

I thought it was real.

But three days before the wedding, Heather got divorced.

And Damian didn't come home all night.