I Cancelled The Wedding While He Paid For Her Dream Dress Chapter 05

I Cancelled The Wedding While He Paid For Her Dream Dress Chapter 05

The delivery confirmation must have come through while I was asleep against the window.

No SIM card, just the trak’s patchy WiFi, so the message sat there for hours before I saw it.

The account read [Reid | WildScope). The Nat Geo director, the one Brielle’s crew had pushed aside.

One message. [My main camera was still rolling. Full original footage. Enough to take legal action.]

I opened the video. Every second of it was crystal clear, like being pulled back into that courtyard all over

again.

The camera caught everything. Brielle yanking the puppy out. The look on her face when she let go.

My hands weren’t steady. It took me a while to type back. [Thank you, I’ll cover your legal fees if they come after you.]

His reply came fast. [Don’t worry about it. I was right there.]

Back at Callum’s corporate office, the PR manager set a tablet in front of him. The trending page was open.

The man looked like he was about to be sick.

Reid Ellington’s post was sitting at number one. The caption was short. [Don’t kill an animal for content,

and don’t frame the person who tried to save that animal.]

Major media outlets picked it up within the hour. Callum couldn’t bury it, and he knew better than to try.

It didn’t take long for a whistleblower to leak the login location on my so-called apology. It traced straight

back to Callum’s corporate network.

The PR manager kept his voice low. “Mr. Harcourt, we can’t cover for Langford on this. You need to cut ties

with her. Now.”

Callum’s grip on his phone went white-knuckled. “I’m not cutting anyone off. Find Maren. Get her to back

up the story. Say the account thing was a mix-up.”

Brielle burst through the door, tears already running. She grabbed his arm. “Callum, I didn’t mean to… I was

scared. I panicked.”

Callum looked down at her. For the first time, he didn’t reach back.

On the screen behind him, someone had already made a GIF of the moment Brielle opened her hands. The disgust on her face was looped over and over. Unmistakable.

He dialed my number. Three rings, then the automated message.

The number was not in service.

His assistant stepped closer. “Mr. Harcourt, the rescue center doesn’t know where she is either.”

Callum shoved back from the table. The chait cracked against the desk leg. He didn’t notice.

He went through his contects my parents, the rescue center director, the wedding planner. One after another.

No one knew.

I picked up a new SIM card during my transfer at Juniper Junction Station.

The second it connected, a call came through on the messaging app. I picked up..

Callum’s voice, raw and worn thin. “Maren, where are you?”

I watched the empty platform slide by outside. “What do you want?”

His breathing was ragged. “I didn’t know she’d do that. I already pulled her endorsement deal.”

“She wasn’t the one who logged into my account.”

Callum fell silent.

“She wasn’t the one who wiped the security footage. She wasn’t the one who posted that statement under my name. And she wasn’t the one who let people plaster the clinic windows with nasty signs.”

His voice dropped. “I was trying to contain the damage. I thought you could handle it.”

I laughed, and it sounded nothing like me. “Brielle’s cruel, Callum. But you’re worse. You stood behind her, and the second it fell apart, you shoved me in front of it.”

“Maren, come back.” He was talking fast now. “We’ll go to the courthouse. Make it official. Then I’ll throw

you a wedding twice as big. Whatever you want.”

Through the window, the snow-capped mountains were getting closer. I kept my voice quiet. “Just hearing your voice makes me feel sick.”

The call went dead. Callum stayed where he was, phone still pressed to his ear.

Through the glass wall, his staff pretended not to watch.

His eyes dropped to the Cartier on his wrist. He remembered the day I gave it to him, how I couldn’t stop smiling, how my hands shook when I fastened the clasp.

He reached for the clasp. Stopped. Reached again. His hand closed around the watch instead, and he held it there.