Three Years of not Being Chosen, I Left Chapter 05

Three Years of not Being Chosen, I Left Chapter 05

Three full months passed. Ethan might as well have been dead. He never contacted me once.

Time did its job. The scabbed over wound slowly stopped hurting.

Then the first snow of early winter fell.

A package arrived. Inside was a gold-embossed wedding invitation.

Groom: Ethan Caldwell.

Bride: Sophia Reed.

A handwritten note was tucked inside, neat and pretty.

【Nora, after ten years of friendship, this is the most important day of my life. Please come and witness it.】

I almost threw the whole thing in the trash.

But looking at that bright red card, a strange calm settled over me instead.

If she wanted to stage her perfect little production, the least I could do was show up as the audience.

That weekend I put on careful makeup and pushed open the doors of the banquet hall just as they were

exchanging rings.

Sophia stood in a white wedding dress, smiling like she’d won the lottery.

Ethan faced her like a puppet with the strings cut-no smile, no eye contact, mechanically sliding the ring

onto her finger.

In that exact second he looked up, past the crowd, and saw me standing in the doorway.

His hand jerked.

The ring hit the aisle with a sharp click and rolled a long way.

The whole room went still.

Sophia’s smile locked in place. Something ugly flashed through her eyes.

I ignored her and found a seat in the back.

I watched them scramble for the ring. I watched the officiant prompt a hollow-eyed Ethan through the rest

of the ceremony.

Whatever last scrap of resentment I’d been carrying finally dissolved.

Turns out the thing you steal doesn’t taste as good as you thought it would.

Near the end of the reception I stepped outside to call a car.

Cold air hit my face. Footsteps/rushed up behind me.

“Nora!”

Ethan stood there, eyes bloodshot, staring like a drowning man.

“Why did you come? Did you just come to laugh at me?”

I stepped back so he couldn’t touch me.

“Didn’t you both beg me to witness it? Congratulations, Mr. Caldwell.”

The words hit something vital.

He crumpled.

He dropped into a crouch on the pavement, hands buried in his hair, voice cracking.

“I’m not happy… Nora, every day feels like hell.”

“I never wanted to marry!

her!”

I looked down at him the way you look at a bad street performance.

“If you didn’t want to, who held a knife to your throat?”

He jerked his head up, eyes red and wild.

“That night at her father’s place I was in a shit mood and drank too much.”

“I don’t remember anything. The next morning she was in the bed next to me.”

“She said if I tried to find you she’d report me.”

“Not long after she waved a positive pregnancy test in front of my parents.’

“My mother was desperate for a grandchild. She forced me to take responsibility. Sophia threatened to kill

herself-”

He clawed at his own hair, sobbing.

“Nora, I was trapped! You’re the only one I ever wanted!”

“If it wasn’t for the baby I never would’ve stood up there with her!”

“So?”, I waited.

He stared at me, lost.

“What exactly are you trying to prove by telling me this?”

“That you can’t keep it in your pants, or that you’re too much of a coward to say no when it counts?”

His face went paper-white.

“Nora, she set me up-

“Shut up, Ethan.”

I cut him off clean.

“Stop packaging yourself as the victim. It’s disgusting.”

“Even if she set you up-if you hadn’t left the door wide open with all that special treatment, where would she have gotten the nerve or the chance to climb into your bed?”

He stumbled back a step. No answer.

A white dress came flying out of the hotel entrance.

Sophia hiked up her skirt and ran toward us, panic and jealousy written all over her face. She grabbed

Ethan’s arm.

“Ethan, what are you doing? People are still toasting inside!”

She glared at me like a dog guarding a bone.

Ethan turned his head toward her with pure, dead dislike. Not a trace of newlywed affection.

I watched the two of them yanking at each other.

My Uber pulled up.

I opened the door, didn’t spare them another glance, and left them one last line.

“Congratulations. May you have a long life and a kid who looks just like both of you.’

The door shut. The cold and the circus stayed outside.

In the rearview I saw Ethan shove Sophia’s hand off and drop onto the curb, howling.

Sophia stood alone in her white dress, face uglier than any tears.

I looked away.

“Let’s go.”