My Dead Hero’s Wedding Chapter 01

My Dead Hero’s Wedding Chapter 01 The Groom Who Died Five Years Ago
I met Adrian Vale again at a comrade-in-arms’ wedding, five years after he was reported dead in the line of duty.
He was the groom, and I was the bridesmaid.
Claire Bennett smiled brightly and took my arm, eager to tell me their love story.
“He was badly hurt and had amnesia. I’m the one who dragged him out of pile of bodies. I heard some girl in the unit was all over him, but I took him overseas to recover.
“”what do you think, Sienna? Talk about fate, right?”
***
Claire Bennett poked my arm, yet I could not utter a single word.
My mind went completely blank.
For five years.
For more than a thousand days and nights, the man I’d thought dead had been hidden away by my comrade.
My whole body trembled.
Noticing my pale face, Claire quickly led me to the dressing room and asked cautiously,
“Sienna, what’s wrong? You don’t look so good.?”
Over these five years, I applied for discharge and turned down all arrangements from the organization.
I traveled to every place he might have been, questioned countless people, and even searched through piles of unidentified bodies near the border.
His tomb stands in the Veterans Cemetery.
I was the only one who refused to believe he was gone.
On countless dark nights, I pointed a gun at myself, wanting to end the days consumed by despair.
He once said, “Once this mission is over, we’ll get married.”
Now those words were nothing but a joke.
I stared at the hideous scar on my arm, left there when I took a bullet for him five years ago.
Tears stung my eyes, and my heart felt as if that very bullet had pierced through it once more.
Claire sighed, “Are you thinking about the past again? Let it go. It’s all over. You deserve a good man and a new life.
“I’ll have Adrian introduce you to some great officers sometime.”
Right after she spoke, Adrian walked in.
Dressed in a neat military formal uniform, he still had a tall, slender build and broad shoulders, just as he was five years ago.
He looked at me, his eyes utterly emotionless.
Those eyes that once held only me swept past me, as if I were a stranger.
He stepped forward and gently adjusted Claire’s veil.
Several old comrades followed behind him. Once upon a time, they all addressed me as Adrian’s wife.
Shock flashed across their faces when they saw me, then they averted their gazes.
A moment earlier, I could still fool myself into believing he had merely suffered severe injuries and amnesia.
But the looks from these comrades told me they remembered everything.
He was the one who chose to forget me.
Claire gazed at Adrian, her eyes sparkling, “”Babe, tell the guys to stick around tonight. Let’s have a real party.”
She then threw me a glance.
Adrian nodded, his gaze fixed solely on Claire, not sparing me another look.
It was as if we had never known each other.
A tight, crushing pain gripped my heart, then tore through it violently.
I rushed into the restroom and slid down the wall.
A sharp, throbbing ache spread across my chest, and I broke down in sobs.
“Adrian, you fucking bastard… how could you…”