The Anonymous Notes That Destroyed My Wedding Chapter 02
My phone buzzed on the table all night.
Text after text from Chloe kept popping up.
The screen lit, went dark, then lit again.
I didn’t read any of them. I put my phone on silent.
At nine the next morning, someone knocked on the door.
Ethan walked in with the makeup artist behind him.
He was in a charcoal suit, wearing the tie I’d picked out especially for him.
“Get ready. We’re running out of time.”
I didn’t move.
“I told you. The wedding’s off.”
His expression hardened.
“The guests are about to start arriving. What is this now?”
I met his eyes and laughed without humor.
“I can’t walk down that aisle and pretend none of this happened. I can’t marry a man who’s been sleeping with my best friend.”
“Ethan, aren’t you disgusted with yourself?”
His lips parted, but before he could answer, the door flew open.
Chloe rushed in.
She wore a loose postpartum set, her hair twisted into a messy bun.
“Sienna, please. Let me explain…”
She hurried over and grabbed my wrist.
“It was an accident!”
I pulled my hand free.
“Save it.[口语化]”
“Even if what happened four years ago was an accident, was the baby an accident too?”
“For four years, I called you my best friend while you were sleeping with my fiance behind my back.”
Chloe opened her mouth, and tears filled her eyes.
“Sienna, I…”
My gaze dropped to the top she was wearing.
Embroidered in small letters near the collar: ST. ANNE POSTPARTUM RETREAT, SAN FRANCISCO.
A laugh slipped out of me as I turned to Ethan.
“So that’s what all those Bay Area business trips were. That’s why you never answered my calls or texts.”
“You weren’t working. You were going to see her. Taking care of her.”
“And every single time, I sat up praying your plane landed safely, too anxious to sleep until you texted me.”
Ethan’s mouth tightened. He looked down.
Chloe burst into tears.
“Sienna, I’m sorry… I never meant to lie to you…”
Ethan was at her side in two strides and caught her by the arm.
“Chloe, you just had a baby. You shouldn’t be standing this long.”
He guided her to the couch, crouched in front of her, and rubbed her back.
Then I saw the diamond ring on Chloe’s hand.
The stone was easily three times the size of mine, its facets flashing under the lights.
No wonder she’d called mine cheap. I’d ended up with the ring she hadn’t wanted.
“Ethan, I gave you eight years of my life.”
For a second, I couldn’t decide what hurt more: the betrayal or how little he valued me. “I was there for the leaky apartment and the luxury condo. I was there when we could barely afford groceries, and when you finally started pulling in six figures.”
“And the stone on my finger isn’t even a third the size of the one you gave her.”
“Was I really worth that little to you?”
Ethan shot to his feet, his face hardening.
“Enough. She just had a baby. She’s still recovering. Stop.”
“Fine. I’ll stop.”
I turned, grabbed my phone from the nightstand, and headed for the door.
I hadn’t made it three steps when I nearly ran straight into Ethan’s mother.
Diane Carter was wearing a formal burgundy mother-of-the-groom dress.
The smile vanished from her face the second she saw me.
“Sienna, look at the time. You haven’t even started your makeup. Where do you think you’re going?”
“Home. There won’t be a wedding.”
She stared at me for a second.
“What did you just say?”
“I said the wedding’s canceled. I’m not marrying him.”
Diane’s face flushed red.
“Sienna Reed, are you seriously going to humiliate our entire family like this?”
Her sentence died as she looked past my shoulder into the suite.
Chloe sat on the couch in the same loose recovery set, tears still streaking her face.
Diane stopped cold. Her expression changed at once.
“Chloe, you just had a baby. What are you doing out of the recovery center?”
I stared at her. When the realization hit, the absurdity of it all nearly made me laugh[润色].
Everyone had known.
Everyone except me.