I’m Alice, 29, and I was in the middle of chemotherapy for Stage II lymphoma when I was supposed to get married last month. Instead, I ran away from my own wedding.
From the start, my future mother-in-law, Marta, didn’t want me with her son, Tom. When he proposed, she cried and begged him to reconsider. After my diagnosis, she called me a “burden” and said Tom deserved a healthy wife. Then she tried to secretly cancel our wedding by emailing the venue, pretending to be me.
On the wedding day, while we were saying our vows, she walked down the aisle, ripped off my wig in front of 100 guests, and shouted that the marriage was a mistake. Then she revealed something I never knew: Tom had once loved a woman named Claire who looked almost exactly like me. She accused him of trying to “save” me because he couldn’t save Claire.
I was humiliated and blindsided. I left the altar.
Later, I saw Claire’s photos—and the resemblance is undeniable. Tom insists he loves me for me, not because I remind him of her. He’s apologized repeatedly. But now I don’t know what to believe.
The wedding is postponed. I’m still in treatment. And I’m left wondering whether I was truly chosen—or just filling a space left by someone else.