He Left the Altar to Save His First Love

Chapter 4: The Wedding Dress at the Hospital

For one horrifying second, the hallway became pure noise.

Doctors rushed into Yolanda's room. Sofia screamed. Mateo froze, silent and pale. Marco slammed his hand against the glass, helpless as the woman he had just found seemed to slip away again.

Then the monitor jumped.

One beat.

Then another.

The doctor shouted orders, and the line rose again.

Yolanda was alive.

Barely.

Marco turned back toward Voss, but the man was already walking away.

Marco ran after him and grabbed his coat. "What did you give her?"

Voss's calm mask cracked. "Let go."

"You said she wakes up too much. What does that mean?"

A new voice answered.

"It means they have been sedating her for years."

Marco turned.

Celeste stood at the end of the hallway in her wedding dress.

For a moment, she looked like a ghost from the life he had abandoned at the altar.

Then he saw the fear in her eyes.

Not jealousy.

Fear.

"You knew," Marco said.

Celeste's lips trembled. "I knew part of it."

"Part?"

"I thought she was paid to leave you. Later, I found out your father kept her hidden. By then, I was already tied to him. To Voss. To everything."

Marco stared at her in disgust. "And you were still going to marry me?"

Celeste flinched.

"I was going to tell you after the wedding."

Marco almost laughed.

Sofia stepped forward. "Are you the lady who hurt Mom?"

Celeste closed her eyes.

That was answer enough.

Mateo reached into his hospital gown and pulled out a small flash drive on a string.

"Mom gave me this when she was awake last week," he said. "She said the bad people would come if Sofia found you."

Celeste looked at the drive and went white.

Voss saw it too.

He lunged for Mateo.

Marco hit him first.

The flash drive fell to the floor and slid under the door of Yolanda's room.

Inside, Yolanda's hand moved weakly toward it.