2. Elise
— ? —
Elise
The Day of the Renewal
I wake up to champagne and roses.
Maya, my sister, bursts into the hotel suite at 8 a.m. with a bottle of Dom Pérignon and a garment bag slung over her shoulder, her grin wide enough to split her face.
“Rise and shine, Mrs. Reid!” She throws open the curtains, flooding the room with aggressive morning sunlight. “Today’s the day you marry the same man twice for some reason!”
“It’s a vow renewal,” I groan, pulling a pillow over my face. “It’s romantic.”
“It’s excessive, is what it is.” She bounces onto the bed beside me, shoving a mimosa into my hands before I can protest. “Two hundred guests? A full catering team? You had a smaller turnout at the actual wedding.”
“Connor wanted to go big.”
“Connor wanted to show off.” Maya’s voice is light, but there’s something sharper underneath.
She’s never liked Connor, not really. She smiles at family dinners and sends polite birthday cards, but I’ve seen the way she watches him when she thinks I’m not looking.
Like she’s waiting for him to prove her right about something.
“Be nice,” I say. “This is supposed to be a happy day.”
“I’m always nice.” She clinks her glass against mine. “To happy days. And to my sister, who deserves every single one of them.”
I drink the mimosa too fast, hoping the bubbles will settle the nerves twisting in my stomach.
Today is going to be perfect. Today is the first day of the rest of my marriage.
I’ve been repeating it like a mantra for two weeks. Maybe if I say it enough, I’ll start to believe it.
***
The hair stylist arrives at ten. The makeup artist at eleven. By noon, I’m sitting in front of a mirror surrounded by hot tools and brushes while Maya supervises from the couch with her third mimosa.
“You look beautiful,” she says, and for once, there’s no sarcasm in her voice. “Seriously, Elise. You’re glowing.”
I study my reflection. The soft waves cascading over my shoulders. The subtle makeup that makes my eyes look wider, my cheekbones sharper. The simple diamond earrings Connor gave me for our fifth anniversary.
I look like a bride.
I look like someone who has her life together, who made all the right choices, who is loved and cherished and chosen.
So why do I feel like I’m playing dress-up?
“Hey.” Maya appears behind me in the mirror, her hands on my shoulders. “You okay? You look like you’re about to cry.”
“Happy tears,” I lie.
“Elise.”
“I’m fine. Really.” I force a smile. “Just nervous.”
She doesn’t look convinced, but she lets it go. That’s the thing about Maya. She knows when to push and when to pull back. She’s been doing it our whole lives.
“Well,” she says, squeezing my shoulders, “if you change your mind, my car is in the parking garage. We can be in Mexico by morning.”
I laugh despite myself. “I’m not running away from my vow renewal.”
“Offer stands.” She winks. “Now let’s get you into that dress.”
***
The ceremony is scheduled for sunset.
By five o’clock, I’m standing in the bridal suite on the rooftop of the Monarch Hotel, watching the sky turn gold through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The city sprawls beneath me, glittering and alive, and I can hear the string quartet warming up somewhere below.
The guests are taking their seats right now. My parents. Connor’s parents. Friends from college, colleagues from his company, distant relatives I haven’t seen since the wedding.
Everyone I know is about to watch me recommit to my husband.
This is what you wanted, I remind myself. This is Connor choosing you. Publicly. Permanently.
There’s a knock at the door.
“Come in!”
It’s Julie, the event coordinator, clipboard in hand as always. Her smile is bright, but there’s something in her eyes, a flicker of something I can’t name.
“Five minutes, Mrs. Reid. Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Perfect.” She hesitates at the door. “You look beautiful, by the way. Connor is a lucky man.”
Lucky.
That word again.
“Thanks, Julie.”
She disappears, and I turn back to the mirror for one last look.
The dress is simple - ivory silk, a low back, a small train that whispers against the floor when I walk. I look elegant. Bridal. Happy.
I practice my smile until it looks real.
Then I open the door and walk toward my future.
***
The rooftop is a dream.
Fairy lights strung between pillars. White flowers everywhere - roses, peonies, gardenias - their scent heavy in the warm evening air. Rows of faces turned toward the aisle, smiling, waiting.
And at the end of it all, Connor.
He’s standing at the altar in a charcoal suit, his hair perfectly styled, his jaw clean-shaven. He looks like he did on our wedding day six years ago - polished, handsome, confident.
When he sees me, his smile widens.
He loves me, I think as I start down the aisle. Look at that smile. He loves me.
The string quartet plays our song. Etta James, “At Last.” The same song from our wedding, the one that made me cry the first time I walked toward him.
I’m not crying now.
I’m just... numb.
That’s just nerves, I tell myself. Once we say the vows, once he looks into my eyes and promises forever, everything will be fine.
I reach the altar. Connor takes my hands. His palms are warm, slightly damp - nervous, maybe, or excited.
“You look incredible,” he murmurs.
“So do you.”
The officiant begins: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the continued union of Connor and Elise Reid...”
I focus on breathing. On smiling. On looking like the happy bride everyone expects me to be.
“...a testament to their enduring love and commitment...”
Connor squeezes my hands. I squeeze back.
This is real. This is happening. He chose me.
“...and so, if anyone has reason why these two should not-”
The doors at the back of the rooftop slam open.
Every head turns.
And my entire world falls apart.
***
She’s beautiful.
That’s my first thought, which is insane, but there it is. Megan is standing in the doorway in a tight red dress that hugs every curve, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, her face pale but determined.
And she’s pregnant.
Very pregnant.
Five months along, maybe more. A round, unmistakable bump pressing against the fabric of her dress.
The rooftop goes silent. The whole crowd holding its breath.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.” Her voice carries across the space, clear as a bell despite the tremor running through it. “But I can’t let this happen.”
Connor drops my hands.
“Megan.” His voice is strange - strangled, almost. “What are you - this isn’t-”
“You promised me, Connor.” She’s walking down the aisle now, one hand on her belly, her eyes locked on him. “You said after the vow renewal, you’d tell her. You said we’d finally be together. A real family.”
The words don’t make sense. They’re just sounds, syllables, noise-
“You promised me,” Megan says again, and now she’s crying, tears streaming down her face even as her voice stays steady. “I’m carrying your baby. I’m done being your secret. I’m done waiting.”
Someone gasps. Phones come out. I can see the screens lighting up, recording everything.
This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.
“Connor.” My voice comes out as a whisper. “Tell me she’s lying.”
He won’t look at me.
“Tell me she’s lying.”
“Elise...” He finally meets my eyes, and I see it. The guilt. The panic. Everything I spent two weeks telling myself I was imagining.
“It’s not - I can explain - it’s complicated-”
“Complicated?” Megan laughs, a sharp, broken sound. “There’s nothing complicated about it. We’ve been together for over a year. Since Austin. He loves me.”
Austin.
The conference. The photo on her desk. His arm around her shoulders, her head against his chest.
A year.
“I can give him what you won’t,” Megan continues, her hand stroking her belly. “A family. A future. Everything he’s been begging you for-”
“That’s enough.” Connor’s voice is sharp now, desperate. “Megan, we talked about this. This isn’t how-”
“This isn’t how what?” I hear myself ask. “This isn’t how you wanted to tell me? Were you going to wait until after I renewed my vows to a lie?”
“Elise, please-”
“A YEAR, Connor?” I’m screaming now, and I don’t care.
I don’t care that everyone is watching, that phones are recording, that this moment is going to follow me for the rest of my life.
“Every night you said you were working late? Every time you said you weren’t ready for a baby? You were with her?”
He doesn’t deny it.
He doesn’t say anything at all.
“I loved you,” I whisper. “I gave up everything for you.”
“Elise-”
I slap him.
The sound echoes across the rooftop - sharp, satisfying, final.
“Six years.” I’m shaking, trembling with rage and humiliation and something deeper, something that feels like grief. “I gave you six years of my life. I gave up my career for you. And this is what I get?”
I rip the ring off my finger. The diamond Connor presented to me on a beach in Maui, the one I’ve worn every day for six years, the symbol of everything I thought we were building together.
I throw it at his chest.
“Keep it. Give it to her.” My voice is ice. “You deserve each other.”
I turn and walk back down the aisle.
The guests part for me like the Red Sea. I see my mother’s horrified face, my father’s clenched jaw, Maya already on her feet and moving toward me-
“Elise, wait-” Connor calls after me.
I don’t look back.
***
Maya finds me in the parking garage, sitting on the concrete floor in my ten-thousand-dollar wedding dress, mascara streaming down my face.
She doesn’t say anything. She just sits down beside me, wraps her arm around my shoulders, and holds me while I fall apart.
“I knew,” I choke out between sobs. “Part of me knew. The photo, the late nights, the way he looked at her - I knew, Maya, and I ignored it because I wanted it to be okay. I wanted him to love me.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
“I was so stupid-”
“No.” Her voice is fierce. “He was stupid. He was cruel and selfish and stupid, and none of this is on you.”
My phone buzzes. Then again. Then again.
Maya takes it from my shaking hands, glances at the screen, and her face goes white.
“What?” I ask.
She hesitates.
“What, Maya?”
She turns the phone toward me.
The video is already going viral. “Tech CEO’s Vow Renewal Crashed by Pregnant Mistress.” It’s trending on Twitter, spreading across Instagram, being picked apart on TikTok.
And the comments.
How did she not know for a YEAR?
The assistant is hotter tbh.
Some women just can’t keep a man satisfied.
Imagine being humiliated like this in front of everyone you know lmaooo.
I’m going to be sick.
“Give me your keys,” Maya says, pulling me to my feet. “We’re getting out of here.”
“And going where?”
“Anywhere but here.” She steers me toward her car, ignoring my protests. “You can figure out the rest tomorrow. Tonight, you just need to survive.”
I let her guide me into the passenger seat. Let her buckle my seatbelt like I’m a child. Let her drive me away from the wreckage of my life.
The city lights blur past the window, and I think: This morning, I had a husband, a future, a plan.
Now I have nothing.