His Childhood Sweetheart Erased Our Wedding-So I Married Someone Else Chapter 02

His Childhood Sweetheart Erased Our Wedding-So I Married Someone Else Chapter 02

I did not sleep that night.

At four in the morning, Gavin texted me.

“Lily’s really upset. I’m taking her back to the hotel and helping her settle in. I’ll come home in the morning, and we’ll talk this through.”

In four years, he had only ever called me Erin. He rarely even called me “honey.”

I stared at the name Lily for a long time, then turned my phone facedown on the nightstand.

He had not come home by eight.

At nine, Lila posted on social media from the cafe beneath our apartment building.

The photo showed two cups of coffee and two cinnamon rolls. Her caption read, “Ten years, and he still remembers I take my latte with oat milk.”

I zoomed in.

Part of a man’s arm was visible in the background. The cuff belonged to the shirt I had bought Gavin the week before.

Now the shirt I had bought him was in Lila’s breakfast post, one more detail she could use to flaunt their ten-year history.

Gavin came home at ten.

“Lily cried most of the night. I couldn’t leave her alone, so I slept on the hotel couch. I’ve told you before. She’s been afraid of sleeping alone in unfamiliar places since she was a child.”

She was afraid of being alone in a strange hotel, so he had to stay with her.

I was afraid he would not come home, but that did not matter to him.

“What about the wedding?” I asked.

He hesitated. “We’ll postpone it for a month. Once I finish the drive with her, we’ll get married. Erin, I know this hurts, but you don’t understand Lily. When she gets upset, she can take things too far. If I say no, I’m afraid she’ll do something dangerous.”

Three years earlier, Lila had broken up with someone while she was overseas. At three in the morning, she called Gavin and said she wanted to die.

Gavin climbed out of bed beside me and spent four hours talking to her on the balcony.

The next day, my fever reached 102 degrees, and he told me to go to the ER by myself.

“Fine,” I said. “What exactly are you planning to do for an entire month?”

“Lily and I are leaving tomorrow. We’ll follow the scenic mountain highway all the way to the end. It should take a little over twenty days, and I’ll use the remaining time to prepare for the wedding.”

He said it so naturally that he sounded as if he were reciting an itinerary he had prepared long ago.

That was when I realized this had not been a decision made in the heat of the moment.

Maybe Gavin had already planned the entire trip before Lila ever walked into that private dining room.

I asked one final question. “Do you need me to do anything before you leave?”

He thought for a moment. “Could you wash my hiking jacket? My backpack is in the storage room too. Can you find it for me?”

I searched the storage room for half an hour. A photograph slipped from the backpack’s zippered side pocket.

It showed Gavin and Lila in high school, standing beside the school parking lot. Lila held up a whole eraser, and both of them were grinning at the camera.

On the back were the words, “Wait for me. Lily.” I put the photograph back.

I washed his hiking jacket, cleaned out his backpack, and placed both by the front door.

Then I opened my laptop and went to the bridal boutique’s refund page.

When customer service asked why I wanted a refund, I told them the wedding had been canceled.

That evening, Gavin found the photograph while packing.

He glanced at me. I sat on the couch scrolling through my phone without looking up.

He carefully tucked the photograph into the inside pocket of his jacket.

Before bed, he wrapped his arms around me from behind and whispered against my ear, “It’s only a month. I promise.”

He held me, but for the first time, his arms did not make me feel safe.