The invitation sat on the kitchen table like it weighed ten stone.

Y/n had read it so many times the words were starting to blur together. But she didn't need to read them. She already knew them by heart.

The pleasure of your company is requested at the engagement party of Daphne Greengrass and Mattheo Riddle.

Outside, London carried on as usual. Cars. Rain. People with ordinary lives. Y/n's flat was too quiet. The kind of quiet that made the clock seem loud.

She was supposed to be getting ready. The party was tonight. Instead, she was still standing in the middle of her bedroom, staring at the bed where she'd laid out two dresses. Neither of them felt right.

The invitation had been sitting there for a week. She hadn't meant to keep it. She just hadn't thrown it away.

Somewhere down the hall, a neighbour's door opened and shut. Footsteps. Muffled voices. The world was moving. She was not.