My Wedding Photos Belonged To His First Love Chapter 08

My Wedding Photos Belonged To His First Love Chapter 08

Lily’s situation blew up fast.

The brand partner discovered that two of the exhibition credits on her overseas résumé had been fabricated.

The so-called “independent visual director” role was really just an assistant’s byline.

The collaboration involved infringement, and the original files, timestamps, and scanned sketches

I had mailed in advance became the most direct evidence.

Sullivan Group was forced to issue a public apology.

Derek called me himself.

I picked up.

He said, “Nora, the lawyers will contact you. The compensation will follow

I said, “Okay.”

your terms.”

He was quiet for a long moment. “Is that really all you want to talk to me about?”

“What else is there?”

Silence on the line.

He said quietly, “I went to your old studio today.”

I didn’t speak.

He went on. “There are still photos on the wall that you didn’t take with you. Every one of them has

a date written on the back.”

“One of them was taken on my birthday. I fell asleep in the car, and you took the shot.”

I remembered.

That day, I had bought a cake and waited in the car for his meeting to end.

I waited until two in the morning. When he got in, he fell asleep right away.

The cake melted.

I didn’t wake him. I just took one photo.

On the back, I had written: [He’s exhausted. We’ll do his birthday next year.]

Derek’s voice cracked. “How did I never see it before?”

I said calmly, “Because you never turned the photo over.”

His breath caught.

1 hung up.

That night, Lily came to find me.

She stood at the shop door in a mask, her eyes red.

“Nora, I want to talk to you.”

I was sealing a photo album for a customer. “I’m busy.”

She stepped inside. “I know you hate me, but Derek really isn’t doing well. The Sullivan Group board is pressuring him to resign. Margaret is sick, too.”

I looked up. “So?”

She bit her lip. “You already got your copyright back. You humiliated him in front of everyone. Can’t you just stop pursuing this?”

I laughed a little. “Lily, aren’t you talking to the wrong person? You’re the one who infringed. You’re the one being held liable.”

Her face paled. “But you know Derek will protect me. You’re just trying to destroy him.”

I handed the album to the customer. Once they were gone, I turned to her.

“When you wore my wedding gown, you didn’t think about what that would do to me.”

“When you put your name on my proposal, you didn’t think about what that would do to me.

“When you turned my mom’s camera into a bracelet, you definitely didn’t think about what that

would do to me.”

Lily’s tears fell. “I just loved him too much.”

I said, “Then go love him. Just stop taking pieces of my life to do it.”

She started to say something else, but the bell above the door chimed.

Derek was standing there.

He had heard.

Lily spun around. “Derek, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just so scared.”

Derek looked at her like she was a stranger.

“The camera. You knew.”

Lily went rigid.

He stepped closer. “That day, you said everything of Nora’s looked worn-out and sad.”/

Lily’s face went completely white. “I just said it without thinking.”

Derek laughed.

It was a soft, terrible sound.

“So the woman I was hung up on for all those years wasn’t some perfect dream. She never was. I was just blind.”

Lily reached for him, crying.

He stepped away.

I stood behind the counter, watching. I didn’t feel the satisfaction I thought I might.

I just felt tired of the noise.

I said, “Take your argument outside. I’m closing up.”

Derek looked at me.

In that moment, there were so many words in his eyes.

But I didn’t want to hear any of them anymore.

I pulled the rolling shutter halfway down.

The light from inside spilled through the gap and cut them off outside.

Like a negative that had finally been exposed.

Light and shadow, clearly divided.