SCAMMED BY MY BRIDESMAID

In the run-up to her wedding, Abigail Smith's* best friend disappeared owing thousands of pounds

- ABIGAIL SMITH

Some brides have a precise vision of what their big day will look like, from the exact shade of cream linen napkins to the number of roses in their bouquet. But for all the delight I took in planning my wedding day in 2018, I had only two must-haves: that I would marry Chris, then my partner of four years, and have my best friend Emma by my side as chief bridesmaid. Yet when that October day arrived, there was a space at the altar and an empty seat on the top table where she should have been. Emma's absence still shocks me.

Of course, the run-up to a wedding can be fraught if the bride becomes a diva. Arguments happen. But Emma and I had not had a petty fallout. She had betrayed me deeply, in a treacherous act worse than any man could have inflicted. She disappeared without trace after Chris, now my husband, and I loaned her £5,000, a third of our hard-saved wedding fund, to help pay off her spiralling debts.

Since the day we met in university halls of residence in Sheffield, Emma and I had been nothing less than soul sisters. Our bond had been instant, cemented by us never once having a cross word in the 13 years we'd been friends. Now in our early 30s, we never stopped laughing. I was girly, she was more of a tomboy – together we were the perfect balance.

I felt I knew her inside out – I trusted her implicitly. Both Chris – who I met in my third year at university – and I had known her since our Sheffield days, and we had both become aware of how perilous her finances were after graduating.

COMPULSIVE SPENDING