Betrayed On My Wedding Eve Chapter 40

Betrayed On My Wedding Eve Chapter 40

I took emergency leave.

I brought his ashes home. And buried him beside my mother.

If his real family wouldn’t have him.

Then I would be his family.

The day of the burial, Brendan came.

He’d gotten thin. He was barely there.

He held two bunches of white chrysanthemums.

He laid one at my mother’s grave, one at Julian’s.

He said he’d put everything together now.

He showed me a video Jade had posted on Instagram. An apology. To me and others she’d misled.

She admitted: she’d never traveled any of those places. She’d been in New York the whole time. She’d built the persona to keep Brendan thinking about her. And she’d gone after me out of jealousy.

After Brendan watched it, he called her.

Her voice came through, pitiful.

“Brendan. I did what you asked. I’ve been dragged online for days. You owe me forgiveness now. And you said you’d marry me. That still holds, right?”

Brendan was flat.

“No. I’m not marrying you. You lied to me. I lied to you. We’re even.

“I only asked you to apologize because of what you did to Lena.

“Don’t contact me again.”

He hung up. Blocked her. Turned to me.

“The camera. I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was your mother’s.”

I shook my head.

“Don’t apologize. I’m not going to forgive you.”

The damage was done. Words couldn’t fix it.

He looked hollowed.

“And I owe Julian an apology too.

“When he first went overseas, he reached out a lot. I just fought with him every time. I knew it wasn’t his fault, what our parents put me through. But I was too cowardly to leave, so I resented him for going.

“I heard he’d been with someone really spirited. I always wondered if I’d just left with him back then. Maybe we’d have both ended up with you. Could’ve had a fair shot, at least.”

I kept my voice even.

“No point in hypotheticals.

“I loved Julian. That’s all there is.”

He stood up slowly. Let out a breath.

“I think maybe I’ll open a flower shop. Near the cemetery.”

He looked at Julian’s headstone.

“Just. To be somewhere I might see you sometimes.”

I thought of what I was about to say. Something dismissive.

But then I stopped.

“Someone once told me his younger brother didn’t really want to be a doctor.

“He thought about you. He hoped you’d think hard about what kind of person you actually wanted to be.

“Don’t give yourself more regrets.”

Brendan went still.

Something in his eyes that looked like a long-ago memory finally reaching the surface.

I picked up the chrysanthemums from both graves.

“Neither of them liked these. Don’t bring them again.”

I handed the flowers back and walked away.

We were two boats swept along by the same current.

For a moment, heading the same direction.

Then curving apart.

Each toward a different horizon.