THE GROOM WHO WAITED Part Two

Daniel Adebayo had not slept. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the church. The empty altar. The flowers. His wedding ring still sitting on his finger. And the chair where his bride was supposed to have been sitting. By morning, the story had spread everywhere. BRIDE DISAPPEARS ON WEDDING DAY. GROOM LEFT AT ALTAR. MYSTERY SURROUNDS MISSING BRIDE. People had theories. Some said she had changed her mind. Others said she had run away with another man. Someone even posted that Daniel must have known something. Daniel stopped reading. Then, at about 9:15 a.m., his phone rang. It was the police. They wanted him at the morgue. He almost dropped the phone. --- The morgue was cold. Daniel followed the officer down the narrow corridor, his stomach tightening with every step. A body lay beneath a white sheet. The officer stopped. "Mr. Adebayo..." Daniel stared at him. "Is it her?" The officer hesitated. "We need you to identify the body." Daniel slowly stepped forward. The sheet was pulled back. A woman lay there. She was wearing a wedding dress. Daniel froze. The lace. The sleeves. The tiny pearls around the neckline. His wedding dress. His breathing became shallow. But something was wrong. He couldn't recognise the woman's face. He stared for several seconds before shaking his head. "No." The officer frowned. "You said you couldn't identify her?" Daniel swallowed. "I don't recognise who is in that dress." "But the dress belongs to your wife?" "Yes." "You're certain?" "Yes." He looked at the body again. "My wife wore that dress yesterday." The officer exchanged a look with the other policeman. "Then why don't you recognise her?" Daniel didn't answer. Because he didn't know. --- Two hours later, they found the answer. The dress had been recovered from the scene of a car accident several kilometres away from the church. The woman inside it was not wearing any identification. But the dress had been enough to make the police connect the body to Daniel's missing bride. There was one problem. The woman wasn't his wife. DNA testing would eventually confirm it. But before the results came back, the police found something else. A wedding planner had reported that Daniel's wife had left the reception venue shortly before she disappeared. She hadn't been alone. She had been seen getting into a car with a woman nobody at the wedding recognised. And that woman had been wearing a long black coat. --- Daniel sat in the police station, staring at the photograph they had placed in front of him. The woman in the photograph was unfamiliar. "Who is she?" he asked. "We don't know yet." "Then why was my wife wearing her wedding dress?" The detective leaned back. "That's what we're trying to find out." Daniel looked at the photograph again. Then he noticed something. A small detail. A bracelet. His wife's bracelet. The one he had bought for her three months before the wedding. Daniel pointed at the photograph. "That bracelet belongs to my wife." The detective went silent. "Are you sure?" Daniel nodded. "I gave it to her." The detective slowly picked up the photograph. "Then we have a bigger problem." Daniel looked at him. "What?" The detective turned the photograph around. On the back was a handwritten message. Only four words. SHE WAS NEVER THE BRIDE. Daniel stared at it. His phone suddenly began ringing. It was an unknown number. He answered. Nobody spoke. Then a woman's voice whispered: "Daniel..." His heart stopped. He knew that voice. It was his wife's. Then the line went dead.

The Groom Who Waited

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