I Bought a Boyfriend, Then He Spent Years Looking for Me Chapter 06

I Bought a Boyfriend, Then He Spent Years Looking for Me Chapter 06

I left with Lucas Grant.

He didn’t open the car window, but smoked one cigarette after another.

The smoke choked me until I coughed.

Lucas Grant and I had known each other before.

When my family hadn’t gone bankrupt, he confessed to me.

But back then, all I cared about was Ethan Carter, so I rejected him several times.

Until last week, when he suddenly came to find me.

Lucas Grant said that as long as I married him, he would help pay off my debts.

I asked why.

He said proudly,

“I want to prove you chose wrong back then.”

“I’m the only one who can save you.”

“That poor guy would only drag you down.”

Fine.

He wanted to marry me only for his hero complex.

Only to win against me.

—

How ridiculous.

Today, I had no choice but to ask him for one favor.

Just one phone call.

I needed an excuse to get away.

I had no idea how he managed to find the door.

I said coldly,

“Why did you pretend to be my fiancé?”

“What’s the difference?”

“We’re going to get married soon anyway.”

“I haven’t agreed to you.”

“Do you have any other choice?”

“Mia Sullivan, wake up.”

“You’re buried in debt. Any man who marries you is taking a massive loss.”

“Besides me, who else would want you?”

“That man just now?”

Lucas Grant sounded contemptuous.

“He’s that poor boyfriend from college, isn’t he?”

“Let me tell you, he came back to humiliate you.”

—

“You used to have him under your thumb, and he didn’t dare fight back. Now that you’re down, who knows how hard he’s laughing inside?”

“That has nothing to do with you.”

“How does it have nothing to do with me?”

“He stole my woman back then. Now I get to knock him down a little…”

“Lucas Grant, I’m not your property.”

“I didn’t say yes to you then, and I won’t say yes now.”

I got out of the car.

Lucas Grant didn’t stop me.

“Do you think you get to decide whether you say yes?”

“Mia Sullivan, think about your family.”

His careless, arrogant face somehow made me think of the past.

The people who spread rumors and mocked Ethan Carter had looked just like that.

In Ethan Carter’s heart, had I looked like that too?

News that I had returned spread among my classmates.

Along with what had happened to my family.

My former roommate, Emma Brooks, got back in touch with me.

—

She was getting married and asked whether I was still willing to be her bridesmaid.

It was a promise we had made.

Whoever married later would be the other’s bridesmaid.

On the wedding day, many old classmates came.

I added everyone’s contact information back one by one.

Emma Brooks wore her wedding dress, tears in her eyes.

“Mia, I always thought you’d be the first of the four of us to get married.”

“If I got married, how could I be your bridesmaid?”

“You still have the nerve to joke.”

“Four years without a word. I was so mad at you.”

“I was wrong.”

“I won’t leave again. I’ll stay and make it up to you.”

Emma Brooks laughed through her tears.

“Why did you vanish back then?”

“If you were in trouble, you could’ve told us. We could have helped.”

I lowered my head and looked at the tips of my shoes.

After thinking for a moment, I finally told her what had been in my heart all these years.

—

“I had never suffered a blow that huge in my life.”

“Emma Brooks, do you understand?”

“It felt like my whole life collapsed.”

“I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t dare face everyone’s eyes.”

“Even pity felt like it hurt.”

“I guess I acted on impulse.”

“I erased every contact method I had.”

Emma Brooks sighed.

“Ethan Carter almost went crazy looking for you.”

“What?”

I froze.

“You didn’t know?”

“He used almost every method he could.”

“He asked professors, asked the school, and was almost ready to file a missing persons report.”

“He was just a poor student then. He didn’t have many connections.”

“When he couldn’t find you, he went to your house.”

Emma Brooks looked at my face, then continued.

“You know he was always afraid of your parents.”

—

“But he worked up the courage and went anyway.”

“Who could’ve imagined your whole family had left? Even your parents were gone.”

“That was the first time I saw Ethan Carter break down.”

“He sat outside your house and cried like a wreck.”

“Later, he heard you might be on the West Coast, so he went looking for you.”

“But he still couldn’t find you.”

“Where exactly were you?”

Slowly, I said,

“Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix… I can’t even count. A lot of places.”

“Because debt collectors kept chasing us, my family changed names and moved almost every two weeks.”

“No wonder.”

Emma Brooks clicked her tongue.

“It’d be strange if he could find you.”

“Anyway, after he finally gave up and came back to Boston, he started building that missing-person data system.”

I didn’t understand.

I thought Ethan Carter hadn’t cared at all whether I stayed or left.

—

Before senior year graduation, I once heard him talking to someone from his dorm.

The guy asked him,

“What are your plans after graduation? Marry Mia Sullivan?”

Ethan Carter said coldly,

“No.”

That day hit me hard.

Not long after that, my family fell apart.

I broke up with him directly.

He didn’t try to stop me at all.

So what did it mean that he had looked everywhere for me?

Had he only regretted it after losing me?

I felt lost.

When Emma Brooks tossed the bouquet, I was distracted and failed to catch it.

The bouquet landed in Ethan Carter’s hands.

The wedding emcee said,

“This gentleman caught the bouquet. Congratulations. Sounds like good news is coming soon.”

“Will you give it to your girlfriend when you get back?”

—

“No need to make it that complicated.”

Ethan Carter walked toward me.

Then he held out the bouquet.