After Our Wedding Was Canceled, He Searched the River for the Ring Chapter 08

After Our Wedding Was Canceled, He Searched the River for the Ring Chapter 08

Before I could answer, a voice came from behind me.

“Elena, who is he?”

Luc walked over carrying a bundle of eucalyptus, his gaze sweeping over Miles.

I took the eucalyptus from him and answered calmly, “My ex-boyfriend.”

Miles’s expression changed instantly.

Luc raised an eyebrow and said in slightly awkward English, “Ex-boyfriend? He let a girl like you go?”

Then he looked at Miles and gave him a polite smile.

“This man has very bad judgment.”

Miles’s gaze lingered on Luc’s hand, and his voice turned cold.

“Who is he?”

I did not answer.

He took another step forward, anger simmering in his eyes.

“Elena, did you leave me because of him?”

The moment the words left his mouth, he seemed startled by his own accusation.

I laughed.

“Miles, what right do you have to ask me that?”

His throat worked.

I looked directly at him and spoke one word at a time.

“I wasn’t the one kissing someone else three days before our wedding.”

“I wasn’t the one telling you I loved you while defending another woman.

“I’m single now. I’m free to get close to whoever I want.”

Luc seemed to understand most of that and immediately moved closer to my side.

“Yes. Single. Free.”

Then he casually took hold of my wrist.

My body stiffened slightly.

The light in Miles’s eyes went out.

In the past, I had always been happy when he got jealous. It meant he cared about me.

Now, it only made me tired.

Miles closed his eyes briefly. When he spoke again, his voice was hoarse.

“Elena, that’s not what I meant.”

I pulled my hand free, then turned and walked into the academic building.

Miles followed and stepped into my path.

“We need to talk.”

“There’s nothing left to talk about.”

I looked at him calmly.

“We were never legally married.”

“It was just a breakup.”

Miles’s eyes reddened instantly.

“You call eight years just a breakup?”

“Elena, can you really walk away from all of it?”

I stopped.

The wind carried the damp scent of grass and leaves.

Suddenly, I remembered the first time he had held my hand, years ago.

He had said, “Elena, we still have so much time ahead of us.”

He had been right.

There was still so much time ahead of me.

It simply did not have to include him.

“Miles, I still have a long life ahead of me,” I said softly.

“I don’t want to waste any more of it.”

Without looking at him again, I carried the flowers inside.

Miles did not show up unannounced again over the next few days.

Still, traces of him kept appearing in my life.

The broken radiator in my dorm room was repaired almost immediately. Hard-to-source flowers I had been unable to order appeared outside the classroom the next morning.

When one of my instructors asked me at the last minute to participate in a floral exhibition, the tools I needed were already waiting on my worktable.

Nothing came with a name, but I knew it was him.

That was how he used to care for me.

The first time I took on the floral design for a wedding, I was so nervous that I stayed awake all night. Miles stayed beside my worktable until morning, checking the flower order with me over and

over.

Back then, Miles had genuinely cared about me.

I just did not know when he had started giving his tenderness to someone else.

The day before the exhibition, the institute changed the setup location at the last minute.

Luc and I carried the display stands into a glass conservatory.

The wind suddenly picked up outside, making the old roof supports creak overhead.

Luc went to find the building manager.

I had just placed the main arrangement on a tall display stand when hurried footsteps sounded

behind me.

“Look out!”

Before I could react, Miles rushed toward me and shoved me out of the way.

A second later, an entire row of metal display racks crashed down.

The sound of shattering glass was deafening.

I hit the floor, and the arrangement in my hands went rolling far away.

When I pushed myself up, Miles was lying amid the broken glass.

Blood streamed from his temple, running down his cheek and into his collar.

“Miles!”

At the sound of my voice, his eyelashes fluttered.

His fingers moved with difficulty, as though he were trying to make sure I had not been hurt.

“Don’t move. The ambulance is coming.”

Miles looked at me, his lips frighteningly pale.

“Elena…”

“This time, I put you first.”

Then he suddenly closed his hand around my wrist.

“Don’t go.”

“At least this time, don’t leave me here alone.”

I stared at the blood covering his face, unable to force anything past the tightness in my throat.

When the paramedics rushed inside, Miles finally closed his eyes.

His hand was still gripping my sleeve.