After Our Wedding Was Canceled, He Searched the River for the Ring Chapter 02

After Our Wedding Was Canceled, He Searched the River for the Ring Chapter 02

Miles visibly relaxed before turning back into the apartment.

I remained where I was and opened the group chat for our wedding team.

Suddenly, I remembered the first wedding Miles had ever planned on his own. He had stayed up all night, revising the wedding-day timeline over and over.

I had asked him, “It’s only one wedding. Why are you taking it so seriously?”

He had looked down and smiled.

“Because every bride entrusts us with a once-in-a-lifetime dream.”

“A wedding planner’s most important job is making sure the bride isn’t disappointed.”

Later, he spent more than three months laboring over the plans for our own wedding. Sienna had volunteered to be our wedding coordinator.

I stared at the chat box before finally sending a single message.

Me: [The wedding is off.]

My phone kept vibrating in the back of the cab.

This time, it was Sienna.

I answered the call.

“Elena, please don’t do anything impulsive.”

A moment later, Miles took the phone.

“I was wrong tonight.”

“But you can’t throw away everyone’s hard work just because you’re angry with me.”

I looked out the window and spoke quietly.

“Miles.”

“Do you remember what you said when you planned your first wedding?”

“You completely let your own bride down.”

Then I hung up.

My grip tightened around the phone.

No matter how hard I tried, I could not understand why it had to be them.

The two people closest to me had destroyed the future I had spent so long waiting for.

I lowered my head and finally broke down.

I did not go back to the home Miles and I had prepared to share. The wedding decorations were still up. Everything we had prepared for the wedding was still there.

After tonight, I never wanted to go back.

By the time I got back to the small room at my floral studio, dawn was almost breaking.

Early the next morning, Miles’s call woke me.

“Elena, the bridal bouquet you delivered yesterday went missing while Sienna was checking the inventory.”

“Make another one. I’ll come pick it up.”

I held the phone without answering immediately.

Before yesterday, that call probably would have sent me into a panic.

Now, I felt perfectly calm.

The contract was still active, and the remaining balance had not been paid.

“Okay,” I said.

I opened the walk-in cooler.

My wedding was supposed to be the next day, so I had not brought in any new stock recently. The only flowers left were the ones I had reserved for myself.

Miles had helped me choose every stem.

I took them out, trimmed the stems, removed the thorns, and wrapped the stems with tape.

Every snip felt like I was cutting away another piece of our past with my own hands.

The doorbell rang just as I was finishing the bouquet.

Miles was there, with Sienna behind him.

The moment he saw the flowers on the worktable, his expression changed.

“Elena, those are…”

He did not finish.

I lowered my head and adjusted the final length of ribbon.

“Yes. They were for my bouquet tomorrow.”

Miles frowned.

I held out the finished bouquet.

“There was nothing else left.”

After a brief pause, I smiled.

“The flowers are gone. So is the wedding.”

Miles opened his mouth, but Sienna tugged at his sleeve.

“We’re running out of time.”

In the end, he took the bouquet.

“Elena, wait until I get back.”

I watched him walk away, then opened my email.

At the top of my inbox was an email I had received three days earlier, confirming my place in a study-abroad program.

I had waited a long time for that opportunity.

But Miles had told me that once we were married, I needed to stop trying to run off somewhere new.

I opened the confirmation link again and booked a flight leaving that night.

Then I began canceling everything connected to the wedding.

Every conversation I opened felt like I was tearing another piece of myself out of those eight years.

The venue was the only thing left. Since Miles had booked it, I was not authorized to cancel it.

By the time I reached the hotel to find him, the bride was giving her speech.

She stood onstage holding the bouquet, her eyes shining with happiness.

Her voice caught as she said, “The person I want to thank most today is Sienna.”

“The florist lost my original bouquet.”

“Sienna made this one at the last minute, so I wouldn’t have to go without.”