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  Nicole took a sharp right turn and drove the motorway to the city centre. Her mind and heart were racing with the living nightmare that she'd experienced in the church. It seemed surreal. She couldn't quite comprehend that less than an hour previously she'd been driving down the same road heading to what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life and now she was driving in the opposite direction with her whole life in meltdown.

  She wished that she was dreaming or having a nightmare and that it was some other poor misfortunate woman who'd been dumped at the altar. How could this happen to her? She'd had everything planned so carefully and meticulously, like everything else in her life. She'd always believed in plans. All her other plans had worked out, why not this one; the most important day of her life!

  She'd believed that as long as she was a good person, and made sensible decisions that everything would be well in her world. Follow the plan was her mantra and it had served her well until today. She slammed her fist on the horn in anger.

  Paul had been unfaithful with one of her closest friends. She suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. The steering wheel was slippery in her clammy hands. Her stomach heaved and her mouth went dry. She pulled over just in time to open the car door and violently throw up. How long had it been going on? How long had they been making a fool of her? Images of them together made her throw up once again.

  She slammed her fist on the horn in frustration. How could she not have known that he was cheating on her? How had he hidden it from her? Was Paul happy that it was over between them? Would he start dating Simone officially? Was Simone the only woman he'd been with? How many others were there?

  She could feel her stomach heaving. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, like all the fight had suddenly been knocked out of her. She rested her head on the steering wheel for a moment and tried to focus on her breathing.

  How could he do this to me? How could that bitch do this to me? Block it out, block it out! She couldn't deal with the enormity of her situation in that moment. I have to find Evie, then everything will be ok, she tried to console herself.

  Nicole sped down the motorway and before long she was parked outside her sister's apartment complex. She couldn't remember the code to the gate; it had been so long since she'd last visited her sister. A guilty pang shot across her heart. She'd never shown her little sister much interest or encouragement. She'd been too wrapped up in her own life. The two sisters weren't close, but Evette was the only person that she felt she had left to turn to now.

  She stood outside Evette's gate, desperately trying to remember the entrance code. She stared at the apartment numbers, each of which had their own buzzer on the wall. There were twenty apartment numbers listed. She couldn't even remember Evette's number, so she decided to buzz them all, figuring that someone would have to let her inside eventually.

  "Excuse me, love." A burly man ambled slowly towards her from the other side of the gate. "Can I help you?"

  "Yes, I'm trying to find my sister. I've forgotten her apartment number." Nicole tried to explain.

  The superintendent looked at her doubtfully. "You don't know your own sister's apartment number?" he asked, as he looked her up and down, taking in her tear-stained face and crumpled wedding dress.

  "It's been a very bad day," Nicole tried to swallow the lump that was building in her throat. "My sister's name is Evette Baxter. Please can you tell her that Nicole needs to see her urgently?"

  Finally, she managed to persuade the superintendent to let her inside. He must have taken pity on her in her dishevelled wedding dress and her makeup-streaked face. She was sure she looked a sorry sight.

  "It's number twenty," he advised her as he let her into the apartment block. "Take the elevator to the third floor and Miss Baxter's place is second on your left."

  "Thank you," Nicole sniffed as she brushed past him into the elevator. She was relieved when the doors finally closed behind her and she was away from his pitying eyes.

  Several minutes later and Nicole was standing outside Evette's door. She hesitated momentarily. She took a deep breath before knocking, but Evette swung open the door before she'd even had a chance to knock once.

  "Wow." Evette couldn't help staring at her sister. A mixture of shock and horror flashed across her face and it took her a few moments to regain her composure.

  "Aren't you going to ask me in?" Nicole asked tetchily.

  "Of course, come in, come in." Evette pushed open the door and let her sister inside.

  Her head was spinning. What on earth was her older sister doing at her apartment, wearing a wedding dress?

  "What happened, Nicole?" she asked as her sister flung herself onto the couch.

  "Take a wild guess," Nicole replied sarcastically.

  "I'm afraid to guess," Evette said carefully. "Isn't today supposed to be your wedding day?"

  Nicole looked dramatically at her watch and. “It's half past twelve. Yes, I should have been Mrs. Nicole Schofield by now, according to the wedding plan, but that's never going to happen. Paul dumped me at the altar."

  "Why?" Evette asked incredulously.

  "Apparently, he's been sleeping with my best friend, Simone. They've probably been having an affair for months for all I know."

  "Wow," Evette repeated as she slumped onto the sofa next to her sister. "I can't believe it."

  "Nor can I," Nicole sighed. "Isn't love grand?" She gave a strangled laugh."I couldn't stand to look at their pitying faces so I ran out of the church. I don't why I ran to you, but you were the only person that I could think of."

  "Well, I'm glad you thought of me," Evette said kindly.

  "I don't understand what I did wrong. I know I was a good girlfriend, he told me so a million times. I've supported him throughout medical school. I've been patient of the long hours he had to work at the hospital. What was my mistake? What did I do to deserve this?"

  "I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through, but I don't believe that any of this was your fault," Evette said slowly.

  Nicole smiled gratefully at her sister.

  "Would you like some wine?" Evette asked tentatively. She wasn't sure if Nicole would have wine at such an early hour. She was usually so straitlaced that she only ever drank one small glass of wine with dinner, "to aid her digestion."

  "Yes, please," Nicole accepted immediately. "Bring me the bottle."

  Evette hurried to her refrigerator and quickly returned with two large glasses of white wine. She handed Nicole a glass which she promptly demolished.

  "Fancy a refill?" Evette offered uncertainly.

  "Absolutely," Nicole held out her empty wine glass for more.

  They didn't speak again until Evette opened the second bottle of wine. She could see that her sister was in a complete mess, but she didn't know what to say or do to comfort her. Nicole had always been the perfect older sister with the perfect life plan, while she often felt like the black sheep of the family by comparison.

  Nicole was the A grade student, captain of the debating team who graduated with first class honours in her journalism degree. She was head-hunted in her final year of university by the top national newspaper in Ireland, News Central, where she'd been working ever since, steadily making her way up the corporate ladder.

  Evette, in contrast to her older sister, left school at sixteen, having barely passed her final year exams. Her working life to date had consisted of various temporary positions, none of which she'd managed to hold down for very long. She loved her sister but she didn't really know her. Nicole had always been busy with her own group of friends and Evette had moved out of home when she turned sixteen. They'd lost touch over the years and only saw each other occasionally at family gatherings like Christmas and their parents' birthdays, but that was about all the interaction they had with each other.

  "How could he do this to me? Nicole yelled suddenly, making Evette jump and spill some of her wine. "Things like this don't happen to people like me. People like me don't get dumped at t
he altar! I had everything planned perfectly. This sort of thing happens to people like you, not me!"

  "Gee thanks," Evette said evenly, trying to keep the anger out of her voice.

  "You know what I mean, no offence intended." Nicole waved her hand dismissively in the air.

  "Don't worry, none taken," Evette replied sharply. Same old Nicole, she thought to herself. She wondered how long she would have to endure her sister.

  Evette's old childhood resentments and inferiorities came flooding back to her at her sister's harsh words. She found it difficult to restrain from yelling that she wasn't the one who'd been dumped at the altar, instead she sighed and got to her feet. "I need to go out for a while," she said as she gathered up the empty wine bottles and glasses and stuck them in the kitchen sink.

  "You can't leave me now!" Nicole cried. "I can't be alone at a time like this!"

  "It's only for a few hours," Evette tried to explain.

  "Where are you going? Take me with you." Panic was starting to rise in Nicole's voice.

  "I'm going to work actually," Evette continued.

  "You're starting work at three o' clock in the afternoon?" Nicole asked disbelievingly.

  "Yes, I'm a model for a life-drawing class."

  "What?" Nicole almost choked on the last of her wine. "Is it nude?"

  "Yes, it's nude," Evette rolled her eyes behind her sister's back.

  "Well, I'll come too. I can't stay here on my own."

  "You're going outside in public in your wedding dress to sit in an art class and watch me, your sister, pose in the nude?" Evette said slowly.

  "Maybe not," Nicole relented. The prospect of seeing her sister naked wasn't very appealing.

  Evette looked Nicole up and down. She'd had enough of her sister already. She wasn't about to put up with her sanctimonious attitude nor was she going to tolerate being judged disdainfully in her own home. She'd had a surfeit of being treated like a second class citizen when she'd lived in her parents’ house and she wasn't prepared to regress to that stage in her life again.

  "Don't you think you should go home? Everyone must be worried sick about you at this stage." Evette couldn't wait to get her sister out of her apartment. There was a reason why they'd never spent much time together; they were polar opposites in every way.

  Nicole was uptight and obsessive whereas Evette was easygoing and free-spirited. They simply didn't understand each other.

  "Home? Where's my home? I'm not going home. I'm never going back there. Paul and his slut are probably fornicating in our bed as we speak!" Nicole shuddered involuntarily at the thought.

  Evette shuddered too. She'd never liked Paul. He'd struck her as a sanctimonious, arrogant, smug prig and as irritating as Nicole could behave sometimes, well a lot of the time, she didn't deserve to be dumped at the altar on her wedding day. Nobody deserved that treatment.

  "Mom and Dad must be going out of their minds with worry," Evette said, hoping that Nicole would pick up on her subliminal message and decide to go and stay with their parents.

  "Would you call them for me, please, Evie? I can't face talking to anyone."

  Nicole looked completely defeated as she sat on the couch in her crumpled dress. Her carefully styled hair was sticking up in all directions and she had black smudges under her eyes from her mascara.

  "Ok, I'll call them," Evie sighed.

  "Thank you, sis, just let them know I'll be staying with you for a while."

  "Will you be staying with me?" Evie asked in surprise.

  "Where else can I go?" Nicole asked mournfully.

  "Don't you have any friends?" Evie suggested, desperately trying to think of something to stop her sister from staying with her.

  "My best friend is sleeping with my fiance," Nicole said in disgust, "and my other friend probably knew about it all along, so no, I don't have any friends. Who knows, he's probably moved her in by now; out with the old and in with the new. Look I'll go. It's obvious that you don't want me here." Nicole struggled off the couch and tried to smooth out the wrinkles of her crumpled dress.

  "I know when I'm not welcome."

  "Of course you're welcome," Evie insisted, hardly believing the words that were tumbling from her mouth. "You can stay for as long as you want."

  "Am I really?" Nicole looked almost happy for the first time that afternoon. "Oh, Evie, I love you," and with that she flung her arms around her sister and held her tight.

  Chapter 2

  "Nicole! Get up, get in the shower and get dressed, NOW!" Evette yelled at her sister. She'd had enough of Nicole's wallowing in self- pity and moping around the apartment in her wedding dress. A dose of tough love was in order.

  Her sister had hardly moved from her position on the couch in almost a week. She was still wearing her wedding dress for heavens' sake! She'd spent the past week helping herself to Evette's rapidly diminishing wine supply and watching endless day time television. She refused to leave the house and fluctuated between anger and tears at having been dumped at the altar. She'd even thought about calling Paul and asking him to try again after one particularly drunken episode. Evette had managed to save her sister from humiliating herself even further by hiding all the phones in the apartment. Thankfully Nicole had left all her own possessions behind when she'd fled the wedding.

  "What? Where am I?" Nicole mumbled as she pushed her greasy hair out of her eyes.

  "You're coming out with me for a few hours. I'm going to meet my friends in the pub and you're coming too."

  "I can't," Nicole weakly tried to protest. "I can't face anyone ever again. My life is over. I'm a mess." She groaned dramatically and pulled the duvet over her head.

  "Yes, I know you're a mess, but that's nothing that a hot shower and a change of clothes won't fix."

  Evette unceremoniously pulled the duvet off her and helped her to her feet.

  "You smell," Evette wrinkled up her nose. "

  Thanks, sis. Kick me when I'm down, why don't you?" Nicole said indignantly.

  "Shower time." Evette marched her sister down the hall and pushed her into the bathroom.

  "There are fresh towels on the radiator and a new toothbush in the cabinet," she instructed.

  "Wonderful," Nicole muttered to herself from the other side of the bathroom door. She sighed and reluctantly turned on the bath taps. Everything had become such an effort to her these days. She used to be obsessed with hygiene, often having two showers a day. She would agonise over every strand of hair on her head to ensure that it was sitting perfectly. She'd spend hours getting dressed and putting on her makeup in the morning. Her nails were always immaculate, thanks to weekly manicures and pedicures at her local beauty salon. Image mattered a lot to her. "You never get a second chance to make a first impression" was one of her favourite lines from the many self-help books that she'd read. However, right now, after everything she'd been through, she really couldn't care less how she looked or smelled. The simple act of brushing her teeth seemed like a huge effort.

  Nicole searched through her sister's myriad collection of lotions and potions before settling upon a bottle of vanilla scented bubble bath. It was the most exclusive looking bottle in her sister's collection. Nicole wasn't used to using cheap bubble bath. She had rather expensive tastes in everything. She leaned against the bathroom sink as she tried to gather the energy to brush her teeth and gasped when she saw her reflection in the mirror.

  Her usually perfectly groomed bob was clinging in limp, greasy strands to her head. Her eyes were red from crying and had dark circles from the restless sleep she fell into most nights. Her skin was dry and blotchy from stress and too much drinking. Her mouth was parched from dehydration and for the first time in her life she looked and felt old and world-weary.

  Who cares what I look like anyway? She glared at her reflection in the mirror. I've got nobody to look good for anymore. She grabbed the toothbrush from the cabinet and brushed her teeth. Then she peeled off her wedding dress and sank into the welcoming wa
rmth of her bubble bath. She sighed as the scented water washed over her tired, aching body. She closed her eyes and sank further into her cocoon.

  "Nicole! Are you ok in there?" She jumped as her sister knocked loudly on the bathroom door.

  "I'm fine. I must have dozed off for a minute."

  "You've been in there almost an hour," Evette said impatiently from the other side of the door. "We're going to be late if you don't get a move on."

  "I'll be out in a minute." Nicole shivered in the now cold bath water. She hauled herself out of the bath and quickly wrapped herself in one of Evette's comforting, fluffy bath towels. She smoothed on some generic body lotion and spritzed her body with one of her sister's perfumes.

  She glanced at her discarded wedding dress on the floor and realised that she had absolutely nothing to wear. She briefly contemplated putting the once-beautiful dress back on again, but wisely decided against it. She bit her lip in a valiant effort to hold back the tears that threatened to erupt yet again. She was tired of crying and bored of feeling like a victim. She took a few more deep breaths and opened the bathroom door.

  “Are you feeling any better?" Evette asked gently as Nicole padded quietly into the kitchen.

  "A little," Nicole smiled weakly, "but I don't have anything to wear."

  "Oh, don't worry about that, you can raid my wardrobe until you pick up some things of your own," Evette offered.

  "Are you sure?" Nicole looked doubtfully at her sister.

  "Of course I'm sure. Come with me and we'll choose something for you to wear this evening." Nicole hesitantly followed her sister as she walked down the short hall to her bedroom where Evette pulled open the huge doors that housed her extensive wardrobe collection.

  Nicole sat on the edge of her sister's bed and waited with some trepidation at the outfit that Evette might choose for her. Their individual style was at opposite ends of the fashion spectrum. Nicole liked wearing "smart casual" outfits when she wasn't working; smart trousers or designer jeans, stiletto heels, a low-cut fitted top and a blazer.