I Was Planning Our Wedding When He Told Me He Had a Wife Chapter 02

I Was Planning Our Wedding When He Told Me He Had a Wife Chapter 02

The cheerful voice stabbed at my nerve endings. I fought back my tears. “Mom, I have to go, I’ll call you back later!”

After hanging up, the man’s cruel, calm voice rang out. “The invites are sent. The venue is booked. The photos are done.” He paused. “I gave you all the ceremony you wanted.”

I looked up at him. “What is this? Are you trying to use all this, the venue, the photos, everything to back me into a corner? To make me just smile and nod while we put on this… this show for three people?”

“That’s not what this is.” He turned his back to me, facing the window. “I said you have a choice. You can walk away or you can stay, it’s up to you.”

“Just think for a second. Six years. Our plans. Your mom, our friends, they’re all invested. Are you really willing to throw all of that away over… a piece of paper?”

A piece of paper…

I nearly laughed through my tears. “She’s a person, Jason! A living, breathing person, your legally recognized wife! It’s not about a piece of paper!”

He turned around, his face expressionless. As if I were fixating on some irrelevant detail. “Then what do you want?” he asked. “For me to go back right now and ask her for a divorce?”

I choked. My heart pounded painfully against my ribs. “So what you’re telling me is… as long as she’s breathing, I’ll always be second?”

“Even if we stand up there and say ‘I do’ in front of everyone, I’ll still be the woman living in the shadow of your real marriage license? Just waiting around each month for you to pencil me in?”

Jason looked at me in silence for a long moment, then slowly let out a breath. “You’re being too extreme. I never said you’d be in the shadows.”

“Once we have the wedding, you’ll be my rightful Mrs. Miller. My children will only be born by you. She won’t appear in our social circle. She won’t affect your life. You two don’t even need to meet.”

His tone sounded like a concession. “You’re the only one in my heart. I’ll give you everything I can.”

Everything I can…

But that didn’t include loyalty. Didn’t include a future without a third person.