The Anonymous Notes That Destroyed My Wedding Chapter 10

The Anonymous Notes That Destroyed My Wedding Chapter 10

Ethan stayed in Tahoe for two weeks. 

He tried everything he could think of. 

Flowers. Gifts. Kneeling. Apologies. 

I wanted none of it. 

By the seventh day, he finally cracked. 

That morning, I came out of the inn as usual, planning to take a walk by Lake Tahoe. 

He was crouched near the entrance. The moment 

he saw me, he sprang to his feet. 

He got up too fast. His legs buckled, and he dropped straight to his knees in front of me. 

I stopped and looked down at him. 

“Sienna.” 

His voice shook. So did the rest of him. 

“Tell me what I have to do for you to forgive me.” 

“Just tell me one thing I can do. Anything. No 

matter how hard it is, I’ll do it.” 

“If you tell me to die, I will.” 

I looked into his eyes and said nothing. 

Then he lifted a hand and slapped himself hard 

across the face. 

“That one was for you.” 

“I never should’ve slept with your best friend.” 

He slapped himself again. 

“That one was for your mom.” 

“When she died, I wasn’t there for you.” 

A third time. 

“And that one was for me.” 

“I’m a fucking asshole. I lost you.” 

His face started swelling almost immediately, 

blood beading at the corner of his mouth. 

But he didn’t stop. 

He slapped himself again and again, each crack 

painfully loud in the quiet street. 

“Sienna, look at me…” 

“Please, just look at me.” 

“I know I was wrong. I know that now…” 

“Hit me. Scream at me. Do whatever you want. 

Just don’t shut me out…” 

His voice grew rougher with every word, tears 

mixing with blood as they ran down his chin and hit the pavement. 

He knelt in front of me like a beggar, pleading for 

me to turn back. 

People passing by stopped to stare. A few lifted their phones to film him. 

He didn’t care. He kept slapping himself. 

“I’m the one who betrayed you. I’m the asshole!” 

“Come home with me. I’ll do whatever you say.” 

“I’ll never lie to you again for as long as I live…” 

I watched his face swell and his eyes redden. 

And suddenly, I was calm. 

It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt. I’d just been hurt so 

many times that I’d gone numb. 

“Ethan.” 

At last, he stopped and looked up at me. 

Desperate hope filled his eyes. 

“Get up.” 

His eyes lit up. 

“Does that mean you forgive me?” 

“No. This is embarrassing.” 

He planted his hands on the ground and tried to stand, but he’d been kneeling so long that his 

knees were numb and swollen. 

He tried twice and still couldn’t get to his feet. 

I turned to leave. 

Panicking, he grabbed the cuff of my pant leg. 

“Sienna, don’t go… You haven’t answered me yet…” 

I looked down at him and exhaled slowly. 

“Ethan, I don’t hate you anymore.” 

He froze. 

“But I don’t love you anymore, either.” 

His fingers slowly loosened. 

“You could kneel here for a month, a year, the rest 

of your life, and I still wouldn’t feel anything.” 

“Because the part of me that loved you died a little more every day you lied to me.” 

I turned and walked away, one step at a time. 

Behind me, he shouted my name, his voice raw. 

“Sienna!” 

I didn’t look back. 

I’d only gone a few steps when my phone rang. 

I answered. It was Ethan’s mother. 

“Sienna Reed, you bitch! Look what you’ve done to my son! Get back here and marry him, or I swear you’ll regret it!” 

Before I could say a word, Ethan’s roar came from 

behind me. 

“Shut up!” 

I turned. Ethan had staggered to his feet and was 

coming toward me. 

He snatched the phone from my hand and shouted into it. 

“Is insulting her all you know how to do?” 

“I’m the one who betrayed her! I slept with another woman! I let her walk away alone!” 

“What right do you have to blame her?” 

“Say one more thing about her. I dare you.” 

The other end of the line went silent for several 

seconds. 

When Diane finally spoke, her voice was shaking. 

“Have you… have you lost your mind?” 

“Maybe I have. You helped drive me there!” 

“I destroyed this family. Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you happy now?” 

“She’s never coming back. Happy now?” 

He hung up, his hand shaking. 

He handed my phone back without lifting his 

head. 

“I’m sorry… my mom…” 

“You don’t need to apologize for her.” 

I took the phone and looked at him once. 

“Ethan, go home.” 

“Nothing you do here will change anything.” 

“Your mom needs you. Your company needs you. Chloe and your child need you.” 

“But I don’t.” 

I turned and walked away. 

He stayed where he was for a long time. 

Long enough for the sky to darken and the 

streetlights to come on. 

Long enough for the street to empty around him. 

until he was the only one left. 

I heard later that he spent the entire night sitting. 

outside my inn again. 

The next morning, he left. 

Before he left, he paid my bill at the inn and 

prepaid another three months. 

He left one message with the front desk. 

“If she decides to leave, let her. You don’t need to 

call me.” 

He never showed up again. 

I checked out of that inn and found somewhere 

quieter. 

No one knew me there. No one knew anything 

about my past. 

The days drifted by slowly, like clouds over Tahoe. 

I ran every morning and watched the sun set over 

Lake Tahoe every evening. 

I adopted a dog and named him Sesame. 

I learned to cook, to change a light bulb, and to build a good life on my own. 

A year later, I saw online that Ethan’s company had gone under. 

He was deep in debt and had sold his condo and 

his car. 

He moved back into the same leaky little rental 

we’d lived in years ago. 

Someone posted a photo of him crouched outside the building with a cigarette, so thin he looked like 

skin and bone. 

I didn’t like it. I didn’t comment. 

I just kept scrolling, as if it were a story about 

someone I’d never known. 

Chloe took the baby and moved back to her 

hometown. I heard things between her and Ethan 

had ended badly before she left. 

She stormed into Ethan’s office and started 

smashing things. 

She screamed to anyone who would listen that 

he’d been sleeping with his fiancee’s best friend. 

Chloe helped destroy Ethan, but her own life didn’t 

turn out any better. 

Without Ethan’s money, she couldn’t get by raising. 

a baby on her own. 

Later, she married an older man who became 

abusive after the wedding. 

She tried going to the police, but it did little to 

protect her. Instead, he retaliated even more 

violently afterward. 

One night, a text from her lit up my phone. 

Two words. 

“I’m sorry.” 

I didn’t answer. I just kept walking Sesame. 

He trotted beside me, his tail wagging the whole 

way. 

I looked down at him and realized I liked this life. 

One woman. One dog. One bright, sunny day. 

No one to explain myself to. No one to wait up for. 

That evening, I posted a photo of Sesame and me 

sitting beside Lake Tahoe at sunset. 

The caption read, “Turns out, the lake is beautiful 

when you’re alone, too.” 

After I posted it, I put my phone aside. 

I made tea and sat by the window, watching the 

night settle in. 

The distant mountains were blue–green beneath a 

deep navy sky, the stars sharp and bright. 

A breeze slipped through the cracked window, 

carrying the cool damp air off the lake. 

From then on, the ugliest parts of my past stayed 

far behind me.