He Said He Loved Me, Then Gave Her Our Marriage Certificate Chapter 03

He Said He Loved Me, Then Gave Her Our Marriage Certificate Chapter 03

A tremor ran through my entire body.

After Grant attacked the previous sponsor, the man withdrew his funding.

I had cooked Grant an elaborate dinner and persuaded him to invest in Serena’s agency instead.

[He went with me to shoots in the pouring rain. When I worked late composing shots, he brought me a coat.

Once, I mentioned a movie I wanted to watch for inspiration, and he arranged a private screening.]

[When my fever kept spiking to 102.2 degrees, the man who claimed he did not believe in prayer hiked a brutal mountain trail to a remote chapel and kept an all-night vigil for me.]

[I knew it was wrong, but I fell completely.]

It felt as though someone had ripped my heart out and left it to freeze.

After my mother died, I dreamed that she was cold.

I searched online for ways to cope and decided to visit a memorial chapel and light a candle for her.

Grant laughed at my superstition. He said he would follow me anywhere on earth, but he could not pretend to believe in prayer.

Apparently, belief was not the barrier. He had simply never believed I was worth crossing it for.

[When I finished the project, he threw me a wrap party.]

[During the raffle, I somehow won the grand prize: three no-questions-asked favors from the sponsor.]

[I used the first favor that night. I asked him to kiss me.]

[I expected him to refuse, but he said a promise was a promise and kissed me hard.]

[It was my best friend’s birthday, the night she and Grant had planned to be together for the first time.

Jealousy consumed me, and I became desperate to keep him there.]

[I handed him the second favor voucher and asked him to stay.]

[After thinking for one minute, he called my best friend and claimed he was away on business.]

[I was stunned that my body didn’t reject him. Then he kept me awake all night.]

Nausea rolled through me. Serena had won that project with a campaign proposal I had spent several sleepless nights creating for her.

They had used my work to build the stage for their betrayal.

The debate beneath the post grew uglier.

[She was assaulted while saving her best friend. She only fell for the first man who didn’t judge her past.]

[Does love erase basic decency? What did her best friend do to deserve betrayal from both of them?]

Serena replied to the criticism.

[You’re right. The next morning, I ran into my best friend in the hotel lobby and realized the suite she had reserved with Grant was right beside ours.]

[Looking at her made me sick with guilt. I started avoiding Grant.

I even quit my job and moved across the country to Ashford.]

[For someone like me, it should have been enough that something beautiful had shone on me once.]

[But he followed me to Ashford. He said he had wanted me since the first night he rescued me.]

[He said the strength I pretended to have made his heart ache. No one had ever seen through me like that.]

[He admitted that the investment and the grand-prize raffle had both been arranged for me.]

[He called me a wounded princess and said he wanted to be the man who entered my heart and led me out of the worst memory of my life.]

[He said his love for her was steady and comfortable, but his love for me was consuming and electric.]

[No one wanted to spend a lifetime feeling nothing, and he was no different.]

[Faced with that kind of passion, I was selfish one more time. I used my third favor and asked him to marry me.]

[I would get the legal marriage. She would get the public wedding.

It was the best ending I could imagine.]

[That’s the whole story. Now I’m going to see my best friend.]