I Wore White While He Told Me I Was Never the Bride Chapter 09

I Wore White While He Told Me I Was Never the Bride Chapter 09

A month later, the investigations began to produce results.

Dad and my stepmother were charged with forging documents and misappropriating property.

Mia refused to cooperate with the investigation. Instead, she went online and played the victim, claiming I was using the Bennett family’s influence to bully a pregnant woman.

People asked her where the baby was.

She had no answer.

Once her hospital test results surfaced online, she finally fell silent.

Julian issued a public apology.

He stood before the cameras, pale, and admitted what he had done one deliberate word at a time.

“I hurt Evelyn Bennett.”

“I exploited her trust and allowed others to humiliate her.”

“I am prepared to accept full legal responsibility.”

A reporter asked, “Mr. Sterling, do you regret what you did?”

Julian was silent for a long time.

“Yes.”

“But regret changes nothing.”

I watched the video once.

Then I closed it.

Grandma asked, “Are you tempted to forgive him?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

“It just feels as though someone stole seven years of my life.”

Grandma stroked my hair.

“Then take back every year that comes next.”

The day the restoration of my mother’s house was completed, the magnolia tree was in full bloom.

I returned her photograph to the study.

She was young in the picture, wearing a white dress beneath the magnolia tree in the yard.

Her smile looked a little like mine.

I placed the voice recorder inside a glass display case.

It was the final testimony she had left to the world.

It was also the proof that cleared her name more than a decade too late.

Beside the case stood a wooden plaque bearing the name I had painted myself.

[Claire’s Haven]

I renovated the storefront beside the house, which had stood empty for years.

It was not a flower shop or a café.

It welcomed women whose reputations had been destroyed by lies, who were suffering domestic abuse, or who felt trapped in relationships with nowhere else to go.

They could come in for a warm drink.

They could make a phone call at no cost.

They could speak with an attorney or stay there for a while if they needed somewhere safe.

Grant came on opening day.

He brought a bundle of white magnolia branches and placed them in front of the display case.

“Mrs. Bennett, Evelyn kept your home safe.”

I looked at the flowers, my eyes burning.

After a long moment, I said softly, “Yes.”

“And in her name, I left a light on for other women too.”

“Mrs. Bennett would be proud.”

I looked at him.

“You met my mother before?”

Grant nodded.

“At her funeral, when you were twenty.”

“You wouldn’t stop crying, no matter what anyone said.”

“I offered you a tissue, but you didn’t take it.”

I thought for a long time before a vague memory finally surfaced.

It had been pouring that day.

A young man dressed in black had stood at a distance.

He had not come any closer.

He had only left an umbrella beside me.

I asked, “So you were the one who agreed when Grandma tried to set us up?”

A faint smile touched Grant’s eyes.

“Yes.”

“But you said you already had a home.”

“So I left you alone.”

A faint ache stirred in my chest.

“Don’t you feel as though you lost out?”

He shook his head.

“Love isn’t an investment.”

“If you ever chose to give me a chance, I’d count myself lucky.”

“If you didn’t, I still had no right to force my way into your life.”

I lowered my head and smiled.

Julian would never understand that, no matter how long he lived.

Six months later, Sterling Holdings was acquired.

Julian and Mia divorced. Half his assets went to Mia in the settlement, while the rest disappeared into lawsuits and breach-of-contract damages.

I heard that he later came to the gate of my mother’s house several times.

Each time, security escorted him away.

On his final visit, he left behind a paper bag.

Inside was the photograph of my mother that he had picked up from the broken frame.

There was also a letter.

I did not read it.

I told the butler to burn it.

Grant asked, “Aren’t you worried there might be something important in it?”

I replied, “Anything important should have been said on the day I wore that wedding dress.”

“Now it’s too late.”

Flames curled around the edge of the letter.

I watched the magnolia tree in the yard as the wind scattered petals across the ground.

Grandma called us inside for dinner.

Grant took my hand as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

This time, I did not pull away.

He looked down at me.

“Evelyn Bennett.”

“Does your grandmother’s offer to set us up still stand?”

I looked up at him.

“You’re on probation.”

He smiled.

“For how long?”

I considered it.

“A lifetime, maybe.”

His hand tightened around mine.

“All right.”

“I’ll take my time earning the permanent position.”

Later, many people asked whether I hated Julian.

I told them I did not.

Trash stinks when it’s kept where it doesn’t belong.

Throw it out, and the smell is gone.

My mother had not lived to see her name cleared.

But I had seen it cleared for her.

And I no longer had to twist myself into someone else just to protect another person’s image.

[The End]