I Changed The Wedding Into A Cancellation Mid-Ceremony Chapter 03

I Changed The Wedding Into A Cancellation Mid-Ceremony Chapter 03

Vanessa was in the bridal suite when I returned.

Her eyes were red. She was cradling a mug of tea.

Nathan stayed close, dabbing at her tears with a tissue.

“Vanessa, don’t cry.”

“None of this is your fault.”

A first aid kit sat on the table beside them.

My dad still had glass shards buried in his palm. His cuts hadn’t stopped bleeding.

Nobody had brought a first aid kit to the supply closet.

Vanessa had nothing but tears. And Nathan was treating her like she was the victim.

I watched them from across the room, and a memory surfaced.

At the company holiday party, I’d been burning up with a fever, waiting for Nathan outside the hotel.

He had promised he’d come get me after the event wrapped up.

I waited until sunrise. What I got was a text.

[Vanessa had too much to drink.]

[She’s new and she doesn’t know anyone. I’m going to make sure she gets home safe.]

My fever was so bad I could barely stand. But I still texted back.

[Okay. Drive safe.]

I took a cab home alone.

The driver kept glancing at me in the rearview mirror. He asked if I needed a hospital.

I shook my head.

Because back then, I still believed him. Vanessa was new. She didn’t have anyone looking out for her.

Of course Nathan would step up.

Thinking back now, I saw it clearly.

He was capable of caring. It was just never meant for me. Or for my family.

I walked over. Nathan glanced up.

“Are your parents done?”

His eyes slid past me, and his brow creased.

“Why are they still in those clothes?”

My mom had the black uniform draped over her shoulders, trying to make herself look as small as possible. My dad held her arm, his palm wrapped in a wad of tissue.

The tissue had already soaked through.

Nathan didn’t even glance at it. He turned to one of the staff.

“Move the Ashfords to another table.”

“They can’t sit at the head table looking like a mess.”

My mom went white.

My dad was already nodding before she could react.

“Sure, sure.”

“We’ll sit wherever.”

A staffer brought over a new seating chart.

They’d put my parents in the farthest corner. Spare chairs were stacked beside them, along with tangled audio cables.

Guests passing by gave them a wide berth.

They didn’t look like parents at their daughter’s wedding. They looked like an afterthought, shoved into a corner so no one would have to deal with them.

I stared at the seating chart. When I spoke, my voice was quiet.

“Why move them?”

Nathan frowned.

“Your parents look like a mess, and you want them at the front table? The cameras will catch everything.”

“We have press here.”

“I’m thinking of the big picture.”

The big picture. He just never counted my parents as part of it.

My dad caught my arm.

“Elena, the corner’s fine.”

“It’s quieter back there.”

My mom managed a thin smile.

“Really.”

“Better if the cameras don’t catch us looking like this.”

Something clenched tight inside my chest.

She hadn’t done a single thing wrong. But she’d already learned to make herself disappear.

It reminded me of last winter.

My mom had to have a minor procedure, and I called Nathan to ask if he could come to the hospital with me.

He said he had meetings all day. He couldn’t make it.

I spent the whole day running between floors, dealing with billing, picking up prescriptions, and signing forms.

By the time I got home that night, I had two blood blisters on my heels.

The next day, I saw a photo on Vanessa’s feed.

Nathan sitting beside her in a hospital hallway, a latte in his hand.

The caption read:

[Someone was worried my tooth extraction would hurt and refused to leave my side until it was over.]

I asked him about it.

He barely blinked.

“Vanessa doesn’t have anyone here.”

“Your mom had you.”

I didn’t say anything for a long time.

In the end, I talked myself into believing it. He was just too nice for his own good.

But now I got it.

He wasn’t soft-hearted.

Vanessa’s tears just mattered more to him than my entire family combined.