I Saved 10,000 Points For Our Wedding, He Deducted 500 For Her Chapter 07

I Saved 10,000 Points For Our Wedding, He Deducted 500 For Her Chapter 07

The next morning, the woman who owned the B&B gave me a hesitant look.

“That man outside? He stood there all night.”

I lifted the bowl and took a sip. “Not my problem.”

After I cleared away the dishes, someone knocked on the gate again.

I thought it was Ethan. When I opened the gate, another familiar face was waiting.

Sienna stood outside, travel-worn, her eyes red.

“Claire.”

I leaned against the doorframe. “Why are you here?”

“Do you know what he said to me? He said the last eight years were his fault, that none of it was on me. But what about me? What did I do wrong? We grew up together. He promised he’d always be there for me when

we were eleven. You came along years later, so what gives you the right…”

“Because I was his girlfriend.”

I cut her off. “You two made a promise when you were eleven. He had a girlfriend at twenty-six. Those things

did not have to be at odds. You made them that way every chance you got.”

“What did I do?”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. Her voice sharpened.

“I never made him choose me. He bought me things. He came whenever I called. He took points from you.

Those points…”

“You took them. You logged into his account and docked me yourself.”

Sienna went pale. Her sob caught for half a second.

“Sienna, do you know why I put up with you for so long?” I asked, still leaning against the frame.

“Because I thought if I earned enough points, Ethan would finally be mine. Then I understood something. If

you have to earn points just to get someone, they were never yours to begin with.”

“Spare me the speech.” She clenched her teeth.

I raised my hand and slapped her.

The slap cracked through the air. Her head snapped aside. She froze, one hand pressed to her cheek.

“That was for every point you took from me over eight years.”

I lifted my hand again. She squeezed her eyes shut and flinched backward.

“And the second would be for every time you came into our home knowing he had a girlfriend, wore his jackets, and wore the ring he bought you. You say you never made him choose you, but everything you did pushed him to choose you.”

My hand hovered. Then I slowly lowered it.

“Don’t come back.”

Sienna stood there clutching her cheek, shoulders shaking.

“Ethan… he really doesn’t want me anymore.”

Before I shut the gate, her hoarse voice came from behind me.

“Claire… do you think I’m disgusting?”

I paused.

“Yes. So stay out of my life.”

I went back inside and closed the gate.

I did not know when Ethan had come back, but he was outside again.

“Claire.”

“I’m begging you.”

For a second, my whole body went still.

In eight years, Ethan had never begged anyone for anything.

He was always composed. Always certain I would come back. Always so sure of himself he could keep his

pride perfectly intact.

“Just hear me out.”

He leaned back against the gate. I heard the dull knock of the back of his head against the wood.

“The points were stupid. I was stupid. I should have married you eight years ago. Instead, I used that bullshit system to keep you waiting for eight years. I made you earn alone, wait alone, swallow every hurt alone.”

“I can’t undo what happened because of Sienna. When her parents divorced, she cried in my arms all night. We were eleven. I told her, ‘If you ever need anything, come to me.’ I thought I was comforting someone who was basically my little sister. Then I kept doing it. I let it go further and further until I forgot…”

“I forgot you were the one I should have been taking care of.”

Silence settled on the other side of the gate.

With my back against the cold wood, I suddenly remembered my eighteenth birthday. The candles had burned down, wax pooling on the tray, while I cried so hard I could barely breathe. Ethan had patted my head and said, “It’s just a game. You can’t get upset every time you lose.”

He had comforted me that day.

Then he had gone to comfort Sienna.

“Claire.” His voice came again through the gate.

“I’m not leaving. I won’t say another word until you want to see me.”

“Ethan.” I kept my voice even through the gate. “Go.”

“I’m opening a B&B here. I’m not going back to that city. Don’t contact me again.”

“Stand there for three days, three years, thirty years. I still won’t open this gate.”

Silence stretched on the other side.

Then his footsteps retreated, one by one, down the steps.

Then they stopped.

“All right.”

“Then I’m staying too.”

I stayed with my back against the gate. I did not turn around.

It rained all night.

He sat outside in the rain all night.