On her birthday, Cassie hoped her fiancé would gift her the dream dress she’d fallen in love with weeks ago. Instead, her future MIL walked in wearing it. What followed wasn’t just awkward — it cracked open a chilling truth that left her questioning everything about the man she intended to marry.
Everyone I loved was crammed into the apartment Sean and I shared to celebrate my birthday. My sister had strung up twinkle lights, and Mom made me a chocolate cake with so much frosting, my teeth ached just from looking at it. Across the room, Sean caught my eye and gave me that slow, cocky wink that used to make my knees weak.
It still stirred something, but tonight, it felt… different. Charged. Like he was waiting for something.
He’d been acting strange all week, flashing me smug smiles and dodging questions about my party. I figured he was planning something special. I’d been trying not to get my hopes up, but I suspected he was going to give me the dress as a birthday gift, the one I hadn’t stopped thinking about since I tried it on two months ago.
The front door opened then. “Sorry, I’m late!” a familiar voice called out. “I had to find parking.”
I turned to greet Sean’s mother, but the words died in my mouth when I noticed she was wearing my dream dress.
I stood there frozen, staring at Linda as she made her way through the crowd. Sean hadn’t even wanted to enter the boutique on the day I first saw the dress. “What’s the point of looking at things we can’t afford to buy?” he’d said.
But I dragged him inside anyway, never suspecting how quickly his words would come back to bite me. “This is the one,” I’d told him, running my hands down the smooth, baby blue fabric while admiring the neckline in the dressing room mirror. “You look amazing,” he’d said.
“But it’s $200, babe. We’re budgeting, remember?”
My heart had broken a little as I hung the dress back on its rack. But we were saving for the wedding, after all.
That didn’t stop me from thinking about it, though. I’d shown Sean pictures of it online dozens of times over the past few weeks. “I want it so badly,” I’d say.
He’d always smile and nod. “Yeah, it’s a nice dress.”
I’d convinced myself that his dismissive attitude was a ruse, that he was planning to gift me the dress on my birthday, but now… now I didn’t know what to think. “Oh my God,” I said as I approached Sean’s mom.
“That’s the exact dress I wanted!”
The words tumbled out louder than I’d intended. Linda froze mid-smile, her arms poised to hug me. “Oh, really?” She said, her voice uncertain.
“I had no idea, dear.”
She glanced toward Sean, who was making his way over to us with that same grin he’d been wearing all evening. “Sean gave it to me last week,” she continued. “He said I deserved it, and that I must wear it to your birthday.”
I felt like I was underwater.
The surrounding conversations continued, but I felt removed from all of it. “Gift time! Happy birthday, babe,” Sean said, appearing beside me with a small wrapped box in his hands.
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