Chapter 2

"Cancel?"

Adrian's eyes filled with disbelief, though his voice dropped instantly.

He looked at me, barely containing his anger.

"Why? I need a reasonable explanation. You were the one who wanted to marry me no matter what, and now you're the one saying cancel out of nowhere?"

I lowered my eyes. Silent.

It wasn't that I didn't want to explain. I just didn't know how.

Was I supposed to tell him I already knew about him and Lily?

That they were the real engaged couple.

That our friends weren't skipping my wedding because they had a problem with me, but because they were attending his wedding with Lily.

Before I knew the truth, I had made scenes over the way everyone froze me out.

To be precise, before and after the reconciliation, I'd been making scenes the whole time.

Because it wasn't fair.

Everyone was hiding his relationship with Lily from me.

And even now, I was still the only one kept in the dark.

But those unanswerable questions were never going to be resolved.

Being deceived was humiliating. Being hysterical was humiliating.

So I gave up.

"Back then, my mother had just died. I needed someone. When I saw you fly all that way to help me handle her funeral, I begged you to stay. I wanted to use marriage to hold on to you."

"Even when you betrayed me, I could forgive you and take you back. But now I've calmed down. So there's no need anymore."

For a split second, Adrian's expression was pure disbelief.

He hadn't expected me to say all that so calmly.

Back then, I was reeling from a breakup and had just lost the only family I had left in this world.

Two devastations, piled on top of each other.

Even now, I rarely left the bedroom.

The anger in his eyes slowly faded.

Before long, something like tenderness surfaced in them. "Emma, we can't stop death from coming. But you still have me. I'll always be here from now on. You don't need to talk like this."

I really wanted to believe him.

I even wished I'd never learned the truth. Then I could have kept fooling myself.

Tears spilled out before I could stop them, landing on his arm.

He startled and quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe my face.

"Did I say something wrong? Emma, don't cry. You have me. I'm right here."

One last shred of hope surfaced inside me.

"Since no one's coming to our wedding, forget the ceremony. Just come to the city clerk's office with me tomorrow and sign the papers. Please?"

Lily's wedding was half a month before mine.

If Adrian registered with me first, he couldn't legally marry Lily.

No matter what he was planning, as long as he was willing to register with me first, it would mean he was staying.

Even if he lied to me for the rest of my life, I'd accept it.

But all he did was move his lips, his voice stumbling.

"I... Emma, you know how it is. I have meetings with clients. The company's been swamped. Lily went abroad, you've been resting at home. The three of us used to hold the company together, and now it's just me. I can't step away right now."

He had all the reasons—work, duty, family.

Just none that made me want to stay.

I didn't understand why he'd agreed to marry me while secretly continuing things with Lily.

The light in my eyes went out. I stopped asking.

I just nodded.

"Yeah. I understand."

Adrian caught the defeat in my tone. His body went stiff, and he looked almost lost.

Then his phone rang from his pocket. He seized on it like a lifeline, walking quickly to the balcony to take the call, glancing back at me.

But I could see his screen before it went dark.

The caller was Lily.

This wasn't the first time they'd been back in contact.

When he begged me to take him back, he'd sworn up and down that he and Lily would never speak again.

But not only had they never stopped—they were planning a wedding.

I walked quietly back to the bedroom, crawled under the cold covers, and canceled tomorrow's wedding photo shoot with Adrian.

Then I booked a random flight.