She looked past me toward the dining room. “Maybe you should ask why he makes me want to.”
That stayed with me. When I brought it up to Ryan in the car later, he only shrugged lightly.
“Maybe your sister just doesn’t like me.”
He said it kindly, almost gently, like I was the one making too much of it. Maybe that was the first moment something shifted, though I didn’t recognize it then.
The closer the wedding came, the stranger Claire became.
One night, the four of us sat around my parents’ dining table eating pot roast when Claire suddenly set down her fork and looked directly at me.
“You should reconsider marrying him, Alice.”
My mother froze with her glass halfway to her mouth.
“What?” I laughed because I honestly thought she had to be joking.
Claire didn’t smile. “I mean it.”
Heat rushed into my face. “What is wrong with you?”
Mom snapped immediately, “Just because your sister found someone decent doesn’t mean you get to ruin it, Claire.”
Claire’s expression shifted into that old familiar wound — the one she’d carried after being labeled the “difficult one” so many times it practically became part of her identity.
“I’m not trying to ruin anything,” she shot back.
Dad pushed away from the table. “Then stop talking like this.”
Claire stood, walked out, and her bedroom door slammed down the hallway. No one followed her. I sat there while my parents turned her warning into bitterness, jealousy, and Claire simply being Claire.
The following night was my bachelorette party. Balloons. Sparkling cocktails. Far too much pink. I was trying to stay present in my own happiness when Claire arrived late, rain still clinging to her hair, wearing her work clothes.
She found me beside the bar. “Alice,” she said, looking like she had run out of time, “cancel the wedding.”
I stared at her. “What did you just say?”
“Please. Just cancel it.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain right now.”
I could feel every head in the room turning toward us. “So you came here to ruin my night for fun?”
Claire reached for my wrist. “Please listen to me…”
I yanked my arm away. “You’re jealous. You can’t stand that I finally have something good.”
I saw the words hit her.
Claire’s eyes filled with tears. “I am trying to stop you from making a mistake, Ally.”
“Then say what you mean.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. Not yet.”
I pointed toward the door. “Then leave.”
She did.
And that was the last thing I ever said to my sister while she was still alive to answer me.
My wedding day started bright and beautiful.
The church smelled like lilies and candle wax. Ryan stood waiting at the altar, calm and steady. Afterward, everyone drove downtown to the restaurant for the reception.
I kept glancing toward the entrance, but Claire never showed up. I called her several times, but every call went straight to voicemail.
My father insisted she was upset and would calm down eventually. My mother told me not to let her ruin my day. So I smiled at cousins, thanked people for gifts, and pretended my stomach wasn’t folding inward on itself.
An hour passed. Then my mother’s phone rang.
She listened for several seconds before going pale and pressing a hand over her mouth. “There was a crash,” she whispered.
For one second, nobody seemed capable of moving. Then chairs scraped back, car keys appeared, and suddenly we were all rushing out before the call had even fully ended.
Rain started during the drive. Heavy rain slashing sideways across the road, turning headlights into blurry smears.
The rescue crews were still searching when we arrived. Flashlights swept across the riverbank. Mud soaked through the hem of my wedding dress.
Claire had taken a different road — a shortcut beside the river. Her car went off the edge and into the water.
