I Did A Wedding Survey, And Exposed My Ten-Year-Long Love Betrayal Chapter 09

I Did A Wedding Survey, And Exposed My Ten-Year-Long Love Betrayal Chapter 09

I turned back to Grant.

Sb, Grant–I don’t blame you.”

“But I don’t want to see you again.”

“Let me keep the memory of you from the day Mom died.”

His pupils shrank sharply. The color drained from his face.

I looked away from him and turned to Paige.

Twenty years of friendship. She mattered to me as much as Grant did.

I spoke.

“I’ll admit–I got too busy with work. I neglected you. But that doesn’t excuse what you did.”

“I don’t blame you. So there’s nothing to forgive.”

Paige froze. Tears welled up fast in her eyes.

She opened her mouth, like she wanted to say something–but all that came out were three words.

“I’m sorry.”

I turned away.

“If you really feel sorry–take Trevor with you when you leave.”

“From now on, I’m done with the past. I’m living for myself.”

I walked forward, leaving their muffled sobs behind in the wind.

That night, the three of them got into a huge fight downstairs.

I don’t know what was said.

But the next day, they were all gone.

An old colleague told me they went back to Ashford.

But their lives had completely changed.

They stopped hanging out together. The old friend group fell apart completely.

And surprisingly–Trevor withdrew to a religious retreat.

Still in the world, but not of it.

No woman ever came near him again.

Not long after, Trevor’s divorce case went to court.

Because Lila had faked the pregnancy, the judge granted the divorce.

And since they’d signed a prenup, she got nothing.

She slunk back to the Bennett house–but the good life was over.

The Bennett family business was already failing. The only reason they’d pushed Lila onto Trevor

was to get Hayes family money.

But now, not only did the Hayes family refuse to help–they started crushing the Bennetts instead.

Soon enough, the Bennetts went bankrupt.

Desperate for money, Richard and Vanessa sold Lila off as a mistress to a wealthy oil tycoon.

But Vanessa took the money and ran off on her own.

Richard had nowhere to go. He tried to find Grant.

But he was never going to find him.

What he didn’t know was that Grant had a hand in the Bennetts‘ downfall.

After he got back from Riverton, he sold off all his shares in the Bennett company.

He took the money and went abroad again.

After he went abroad, he had a lawyer transfer all the money to me. He started over somewhere

new.

As for Paige–she left her old circle and went back to her hometown.

She married a steady, honest man.

She stopped making new friends. Her life shrank to just work and home–boring to the extreme.

But for the first time, she felt at peace.

I heard all of this while I was filling out a survey called “Modern Women’s Views on Love and Marriage.”

I paused, and my eyes drifted to the last question: “What kind of wedding do you want?”

I could almost see the person behind the question–the one who’d hidden their heart inside it.

Behind me, Hudson kept walking past my desk, pretending not to look, craning his neck to catch a

limpse of my screen.

He looked so nervous–atıd so determined to seem casual-

that it made my heart soften.

I used to be the one sneaking around to plan surprises. Now I was the one being cared for this carefully.

A smile slipped out. I looked down at the screen and typed slowly:

“As long as it’s real, anything is fine.”