He Married Her On The Day We Were Supposed To Wed Chapter 03

He Married Her On The Day We Were Supposed To Wed Chapter 03

“Elise!”

Ryan called after me urgently, but I did not slow down or look back.

I took a cab to the hospital. My mother seemed to have more color in her face than usual.

She handed me a peeled apple and asked brightly, “Elise, how did the courthouse wedding photos turn out? Let me see them.”

My throat tightened, and my nose stung.

I did not know how to explain what had happened, and I could not bear to tell her the truth.

Just as I was gathering the courage to confess, Ryan suddenly opened the door.

He sat beside her bed and began giving her a gentle massage, fussing over her with the same attentiveness he had shown for the past ten years. With a soft laugh, he said, “Elise didn’t like how the courthouse wedding photos we took before the ceremony turned out, so she sent them back to the photographer for retouching. We’ll go back to city hall in a couple of days to make it official, and then we’ll show you everything, Mom.”

For the first time, Ryan called her Mom instead of Mrs. Carter.

My mother’s eyes immediately filled with tears, and she was so moved that she failed to notice how wrong everything felt between us.

I pulled Ryan into the hallway, my face dark with anger.

“I already walked away. What else do you want from me?”

With the gentle familiarity of someone who had done it countless times before, Ryan tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. He looked at me and sighed.

“Elise, we’ve been together for twelve years. Can you really bear to leave me now?”

What difference did it make whether I could bear it?

He was someone else’s husband now.

I glared at him through reddened eyes and let out a humorless laugh.

“Whether I can bear it or not, I have to.”

I turned to leave, but Ryan blocked my path with his body.

He grabbed my shoulders and suddenly lost control, pulling me tightly into his arms.

“But I can’t bear to lose you.”

His grip was so tight that no matter how hard I pushed, I could not break free.

“When I was saving up for your ring in college, I met Lila at the coffee shop where I worked part-time.”

“She was shy and blushed whenever she spoke. Creeps were always harassing her, so I helped her out a few times. Eventually, we became close.”

“One night, a customer slipped something into her drink. I rushed to the hotel to get her out, but then she suddenly kissed me. I lost control, and we…”

“I tried to end things with her, but Lila was innocent. My conscience told me I couldn’t hurt her or abandon her. I had to take responsibility.”

“She stayed with me all these years without ever having a real place in my life, never making a scene or asking for anything. I was the one who wronged her. I had to marry her to make it up to her.”

So twelve years and eight years were not simply two sets of numbers that happened to overlap.

While I had been holding my diamond ring and smiling like a fool, Ryan had been in bed with another woman.

While I waited in our apartment with his favorite barbecue ribs, he had been eating spaghetti another woman had made for him.

There had been countless moments when I had believed I was happy while he was betraying me.

“Enough! I don’t want to hear how the two of you started sleeping together. Get away from me!”

Sobbing, I sank my teeth into Ryan’s shoulder.

The metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth. He trembled from the pain but did not fight me.

Despite the pain, Ryan gently stroked the top of my head.

“Lila may be the one I married, but everything else she has, you’ll have even more of.”

“The love, money, and time I give you, and the way I care for your mother, won’t change just because I married Lila.”

“There’s also a new drug overseas that has shown promising results for late-stage stomach cancer. Elise, when should we take your mother to try the treatment?”

Drained, I closed my eyes and stopped biting him.

Ryan truly had treated me well over the years.

If Lila had never existed, I might have been the happiest woman in the world.

Whatever I wanted, Ryan bought for me without caring about the price.

Wherever I wanted to go, he came with me, even if it meant canceling business commitments.

When my mother became ill, he personally helped care for her and stayed up late discussing treatment plans with her doctors.

He had also been paying her enormous medical bills.

I could not leave Ryan.

At least not until my mother recovered.