He Gave My Wedding Dress To Another Woman Chapter 09

He Gave My Wedding Dress To Another Woman Chapter 09

Ethan sent every message and sat there, raking his fingers through his hair, eyes locked on the screen.

His eyes were bloodshot. His grip on the phone was tight enough to crack the case.

But Chloe kept her phone on silent at night. She never checked it until morning.

His messages were piling up in the dark, unread.

Deep into the night.

Moonlight cut through the blinds and found him sitting on the floor, hollow-eyed.

The panic had burned itself out. What replaced it was worse — clarity.

Years ago. A night just like this one. The same moon.

He’d shown up at her door with flowers and his heart in his throat.

“Chloe, I’m in love with you. I want this — us — for the rest of my life.”

“I’ll stand with you through every storm.”

“There’s never going to be anyone else. Just you.”

He hadn’t kept a single one. Instead, he’d drifted straight into Haley’s orbit without even noticing.

The rumors wrote themselves.

He’d let Haley duck under his umbrella while Chloe stood watching in the rain.

He’d run through the downpour with Haley laughing on his arm — the exact thing he’d done with Chloe when it still meant something.

Not once had he stopped to think about what Chloe was feeling.

Every decision he’d made revolved around whether Haley was okay.

The memory of the pregnancy came back to him next. He couldn’t stop it.

Chloe’s face that day — wrecked, mascara streaking down her cheeks, begging. “Can’t we keep the baby? Please?”

She’d wanted to get married right then. She would have said yes to everything.

They were old enough. There was nothing stopping them.

And he’d held her hand and made his promises. “I’m sorry. This is on me. I know what I’m putting you through.”

“It won’t happen again. Ever.”

“From now on, you come first. Always. I won’t let anyone hurt you — I won’t even let you be sad. I swear.”

Every word hollow. Every promise broken.

Chloe didn’t trash-talk people. She never had. He knew that better than anyone.

He’d known her for what felt like a lifetime.

He knew exactly who she was — and he’d still taken Haley’s word over hers without blinking.

So why should Chloe believe him when he said Haley meant nothing to him? He hadn’t earned that. Not even close.

He sat with that truth for a long time. Then he went out, bought a pack of cigarettes, and dropped onto the curb. The first drag burned all the way down his throat.

He’d been a heavy smoker once.

The coughing had gotten bad enough to ruin his focus in the lab. Professor Hughes had warned him more than once — clean it up or watch the opportunities disappear.

He never could.

Chloe was the one who finally got him to stop. She’d tracked his intake, hidden his lighters, sat with him through the worst of the withdrawal. After that, the research doors started opening, one after another.

His name started to mean something in the department.

He’d told her once, lying in the dark after a good day, “After graduation, we’ll make it official. Then we’ll take on the world together — bigger stages, bigger dreams. You and me.”

Instead, he’d shattered every promise and expected her to sit still while he poured his time into the girl he’d let replace her.

If it were him — if he were watching the person he loved orbit someone else — he wouldn’t have lasted as long as she did. He would’ve been gone sooner.

He had no right to be angry. He never did.

The messages he’d sent earlier tonight stared back at him from the screen — petty, accusatory, pathetic. He opened a new text.

[chloe.]

[i’m sorry. i lost it earlier. can we please just talk?]

[i swear nothing happened with haley. please believe me.]

[let me prove it.]