He Left Me Behind, So I Married Someone Else Chapter 03

He Left Me Behind, So I Married Someone Else Chapter 03

……

I stared at the screen for a long time.

Champagne gold?

The Wedding Dress?

The formalwear?

I had already chosen the color palette I loved.

I had already picked out my wedding dress.

But now, she had replaced everything and chosen a completely different design.

And Adrian hadn’t even bothered to ask me.

He had let her decide everything.

That night, when he came home, I told him directly.

“I don’t want to have the wedding anymore.”

He froze for a moment.

“Why?”

“I’m exhausted,” I said. “I want a Destination Wedding instead.”

He didn’t agree at first.

Later, he must have gone into the study and realized I might have seen something.

That was when he finally agreed.

He thought staying quiet was him compromising for me.

He thought giving me whatever I wanted meant he was spoiling me.

But he didn’t know…

I was the one slowly letting go.

Letting go of a wedding that had slowly become Grace’s dream instead of mine.

Letting go of a place where she had no place in my marriage.

But even now, she was still there.

Every second of our trip.

“Nora?”

He was still talking on the phone.

“You’re an adult, Nora. Can you stop acting like this? What are you even trying to accomplish here?”

I came back to my senses.

“Nothing,” I said.

“If you don’t want to keep exploring, then just go back. Aren’t you busy with work anyway?”

“You—”

I hung up before he could finish.

Then I slipped my phone back into my pocket.

I found a small restaurant by the street and sat down.

The owner brought me a burger and some fries.

Then she casually asked,

“Traveling alone?”

“Yeah.”

She smiled and pointed outside the window.

“It gets lively around here at night. There’s a Night Market nearby. You should check it out.”

I nodded and lowered my head to eat.

Actually, this wasn’t the first time I had traveled alone.

When Adrian and I were engaged, we had planned to go to Colorado for our Engagement Photos.

The flights and hotel had already been booked.

But the day before we were supposed to leave, Adrian got a call from Grace.

She had just gone through a breakup and wanted someone to drink with.

After he hung up, he looked at me and said,

“You go ahead first. I’ll come in a couple of days.”

“Or maybe we should reschedule?”

I said okay.

Then I went to Colorado alone.

I stayed in Aspen for five days.

Two days passed.

Then another two.

He still didn’t come.

Even when I returned, the only thing he asked was:

“Did you have fun?”

He had forgotten what that trip was really for.

It wasn’t a vacation.

It was supposed to be about our future together.

Our Engagement Photos.

I had cried.

I had argued.

I had tried to make him understand.

But people cling to the good moments.

They hold on, even when they know they shouldn’t.

I started dating Adrian during my sophomore year of college.

Back then, every Friday, he would spend two hours riding the subway to my campus just to have a meal with me at the Campus Dining Hall.

During finals, when I stayed up all night studying, he would video call me and sit there on the screen just to keep me company.

When I was overwhelmed in the library, struggling over my papers, he would help me organize my thoughts again and again.

After graduation, I failed seven job interviews.

I sat on the sidewalk and cried.

He crouched down, wiped away my tears, and said,

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of you.”

Later, when I met his parents for the first time, his mother clearly didn’t like me.

She thought my background was too ordinary.

That I was Not Good Enough for Him.

Adrian had never been the sweet, affectionate type.

He wasn’t good at saying the right things or making me feel better.

But he had never once given in to his family.

I couldn’t let go of those memories.

I missed the man who used to spend two hours on the subway every Friday just to share a meal with me.

The man who stayed up with me while I studied.

The man who once crouched down in front of me and offered me his sleeve when I cried.