Before the Wedding, the Dutiful Bride Flew to Iceland Alone Chapter 06

Before the Wedding, the Dutiful Bride Flew to Iceland Alone Chapter 06

His phone buzzed again.

This time, the wedding planner had sent a document.

[Mr. Sterling, this is the final wedding plan Miss Bennett approved before she canceled.]/

[She said you can keep it as a keepsake if you want.]

Miles opened it.

The first page was the original plan, the white camellia wedding.

The second was the version that replaced it, red roses.

Every modification note told the same story.

“Per Mr. Sterling: defer to Ms. Vance’s suggestion.”

“Per Mr. Sterling: defer to Ms. Vance’s preference.”

“Per Mr. Sterling: defer to Ms. Vance.”

They kept going, one after another.

Each one hit harder than the last.

Miles finally understood.

I hadn’t stopped wanting this wedding out of nowhere.

He was the one who had slowly written me out of it.

And I had simply stopped pretending there was still a place for me.

He pressed his hand over his eyes.

But the tears slipped through his fingers anyway.

I was already on the other side.

The plane broke through the clouds, and a thin band of light stretched across the horizon.

I sat by the window, watching the city fall away below me.

Before I powered off my phone, one last message came in from the planner.

[Miss Bennett, everything has been finalized.]

I typed back, [Thank you.]

Then I turned off my phone.

The clouds outside the window were still and endless, quiet as fresh snow.

I closed my eyes.

For the first time, I didn’t have to be sensible, and I didn’t have to be praised for it either.

It was the lightest thing I’d ever felt.

On my third day in Snowcrest, I saw the northern lights for the first time.

The green light spilled across the sky, and I stood in the snow, remembering.

Years ago, I’d sent Miles a photo of the northern lights.

[Miles, let’s go see them together someday, okay?]

He’d replied right away.

[Okay.]

[We’ll go right after the wedding.)

I held onto that promise for a long time.

On the nights when wedding planning left me so exhausted I wanted to cry, that promise was the thing I reached for.

But now the aurora was right in front of me.

And Miles wasn’t beside me.

I wasn’t as sad about that as I thought I’d be.

Some things, I was learning, were just as beautiful on your own.

One of the crew members handed me a cup of hot coffee.

“Chloe, we’re heading to the frost valley to shoot tomorrow. Get some rest.”

I nodded.

My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing in my pocket.

It was Miles.

From the moment I’d landed, he’d been texting every day.

[Chloe, let me know you got there safe.]

[Is it cold up there?]

[I checked the weather. Bundle up, okay?]

[I already had everything changed back for the wedding.]

[Camellias, soft gold lighting, the photo wall, all of it. Just the way you wanted.]

I read every message. I felt nothing.

There was a time when I would have given anything for him to show up like this.

Even one small message would have been enough.

[This looks nice.]

[This suits you.]

I would have been happy for days.

But affection that comes too late is like stale candy.

It still looks sweet on the outside.

But all you taste is bitterness.

\ I didn’t reply.

On the evening of the fourth day, the crew had just wrapped an outdoor shoot.

I stepped out of the car and saw a figure standing at the hotel entrance.

Miles was wearing a black coat, standing in the wind and snow.

He had always been put together.

But now his hair was tangled from the wind, dark circles carved under his eyes, and he looked like

someone who hadn’t slept in days.

The moment he saw me, he started walking.

“Chloe.”

His voice was raw.

I stopped walking.

“What are you doing here?”

Miles’s eyes went red the moment I spoke.

“I came to take you home.”

Something about that made me smile.

“My home is right here.”

The color drained from Miles’s face.

“You’re just saying that because you’re upset.”

“I know you’re angry.”

“The messages, the wedding, Serena, all of it. That was on me.”

“You can make me pay for it however you want.’

“Just please don’t stop wanting me.”

By the last word, his voice was shaking.

He had always been so proud.

And now he looked like something had hollowed him from the inside.

I looked at him, steady.

“Miles, I’m not punishing you.”

“I just don’t want you anymore.”

He stared at me like I was speaking a language he’d never heard.

“We were together for seven years.”

“Chloe, seven years.”

“How can you just say it’s over and walk away?”

I looked down, and the tiredness washed through me again.

“Then how did you do it? Seven years of loving me, and you couldn’t name a single good thing about

me?”

“How did you do it? Changing everything I spent six months building into whatever Serena

wanted?”

“How did you do it? Laughing at my dress with her, laughing at how hard I tried, laughing at the way I looked?”

Miles’s lips moved, but nothing came out, and the color kept draining from his face.

“You saw all of it?”

“All of it.”

I looked up at him.

“So don’t tell me you love me.”

“Your love is too cheap, too dirty, and too humiliating.”

Miles’s tears fell.

“It wasn’t like that…”

“I took you for granted.”

“I got used to you handling everything on your own. Used to you never complaining. Used to you always forgiving me.”

“I really thought you’d never leave.”

I smiled, just barely.

“See?”

“Even sensible people leave.”