He Abandoned Our Wedding, I Destroyed His Life Chapter 13

He Abandoned Our Wedding, I Destroyed His Life Chapter 13

“No.”

The word was out before he’d even finished.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

Matteo said nothing, just stubbornly pressed the bracelet into my hand.

“Then at least take this. You used to love it.”

“I don’t mean anything by it. I just… I hoped it might make you happy.”

I glanced down at the bracelet in my palm, then smiled a cold, empty smile.

“I don’t care about this anymore.”

With that, I turned and tossed the bracelet into the nearby trash can.

It landed with a faint, tinny clatter.

Matteo’s eyes widened. His lips parted, but no sound came out.

“I treasured it because I loved you. Anything you gave me was precious.”

“Now, anything that reminds me of you just makes me sick.”

He still couldn’t speak, but his eyes were turning red.

I raised a hand, rubbing the corner of my own eye.

It was the first time I had ever seen him cry.

But I had cried for him more times than I could count.

I cried when he was beaten up in an alley after his first trial. I cried when we finally saved enough to buy our apartment. I cried when our first wedding was canceled, and I cried the first time I watched him choose Chloe over me.

At first, my tears had broken his heart.

Eventually, they stopped affecting him at all.

He was only crying now because he knew, finally, that I was done.

He had lost the person who had held his life together.

I turned my back on him, walked back upstairs, and finished my dinner.

I acted as if nothing had happened, so my parents never knew Matteo had been there.

They piled my plate with food, talked about their cases, and shared stories from their years in the industry.

Beside my plate was a bowl of shrimp my father had peeled for me.

To them, it was just a small, ordinary gesture. But for years in New York, it was the kind of simple care that had become impossible for me to receive.

Thank God I still had time to start over.