My Wedding Was His Family’s Biggest Lie Chapter 09

My Wedding Was His Family’s Biggest Lie Chapter 09

Three months later, I sat in my office at Northstar Technologies’ Product Division and finished reading the

last project report.

Then I shut down my computer.

The October sky outside my Northbridge window was clear and impossibly blue.

The red comments hadn’t appeared in a long time

Maybe there was nothing left in my life it needed to warn me about. Maybe there were no more liars hiding in the shadows, waiting to be exposed.

My phone lit up.

Maya had sent me a WhatsApp message.

[Claire, have you seen what’s trending?]

A screenshot followed.

The trending hashtag read: #HarborviewWeddingScamGroomBankrupt.

I opened it and skimmed the story.

After multiple partners withdrew their funding, Ethan’s company ran out of operating cash.

The company had filed for bankruptcy and entered liquidation the month before.

His car, company shares, and business assets had all been frozen.

As for the riverfront condo he had transferred to Vanessa…

She listed it on a real estate site two months after receiving it. The asking price was $2.2 million.

She had never intended to live there.

People in the comments had also uncovered Vanessa’s latest update.

She had gotten married to a man in finance, and they now lived in Kingswell.

The authorities were trying to recover her illegal gains.

I closed the trending page and set my phone on the desk.

I didn’t feel satisfied.

I didn’t feel anything at all.

It was no different from reading any other news story.

Someone knocked twice.

Miles Foster from the neighboring department stepped into my office with two cups of coffee. He placed a stack of printed documents beside my computer.

“Director Bennett, I printed the material for this afternoon’s project workshop.”

“Also, there’s a man downstairs who says he knows you. He asked me to find out whether you’ll see him.”

I picked up my coffee.

“Who is he?”

“Some guy.

Miles glanced toward the office door.

“He looks rough. He hasn’t shaved, his coat is wrinkled, and he says his name is Ethan Caldwell.”

Again.

This was his sixth visit.

I hadn’t seen him during any of the first five.

The first time, he had waited outside Northstar Technologies all day.

The second time, he found my company apartment, but security stopped him at the entrance.

He stood in the rain for two hours.

The third time, he asked four or five mutual contacts to deliver messages for him. I didn’t answer a single

one.

The fourth time, he mailed an eight-page handwritten letter to my office.

I didn’t open it.

I fed it straight into the shredder.

The fifth time, he knelt in the lobby until two security guards dragged him outside.

Every time Ethan came to

be the red comments briefly returned.

[He truly regrets it, but Claire doesn’t need his regret.]

I put my coffee back on the desk.

“I won’t see him.

‘All right.”

Miles turned toward the door.

“Wait.”

I stopped him.

“Tell him one thing for me.”

“What?”

I thought for a moment.

“Tell him Claire Bennett isn’t easy to handle anymore.”

“And she never will be. He needs to stop coming here.”

Miles nodded and left.

My office fell silent again.

Sunlight streamed through the blinds, stretching the coffee cup’s shadow across my desk.

I pushed open the conference-room door, took the seat at the head of the table, and opened the file in front

of me.

“Let’s begin.”

The screen came to life.

My new project was moving forward exactly as planned.

It had nothing to do with Ethan.

This was a normal life.

More importantly, it was mine.

The red comments appeared one final time.

A single green sentence drifted across my vision.

[Claire’s story didn’t end with a fairy-tale romance. She reclaimed her life and herself. That was enough.]

I smiled and pressed the

A green light came on.

Confirmation button.

This time, it was real.