I Signed Away My First Love, Then Married Someone Else Chapter 01

I Signed Away My First Love, Then Married Someone Else Chapter 01

It had been three months since Ethan Caldwell and I broke up.

My brother and my childhood friend cornered me in an alley and forced me to sign an agreement.

“You may have broken up, but you’ve been nothing but trouble since we were kids.”

“Sign it. Promise you won’t crash Ethan and Maddie’s wedding, and we’ll let you go.”

I glanced over the letter-size page.

Every word read like a formal confession that I’d sabotaged someone else’s relationship.

At the bottom, in fine print, it said: [I hereby promise that I will not enter or come within five hundred yards of the venue for the wedding of Ethan Caldwell and Madeline Hale.]

A few feet away, someone held up a phone, livestreaming the whole scene to the wedding-party group chat.

My brother shoved a pen into my hand, his patience already gone.

“Just sign it. If you hadn’t clung to Ethan and threatened to kill yourself every time he tried to leave, he and Maddie would’ve been together a long time ago.”

My childhood friend, Nathan “Nate” Brooks, chimed in.

“Promise you’ll leave them alone and move out of New York after the wedding. Do that, and we’ll still treat you like the little sister we grew up with.”

I held the pen without saying anything.

They probably expected me to do what I always had and dissolve into hysterics.

“Ethan promised he would marry me.”

After all, I’d starved myself and slit my wrists for Ethan.

My obsession with him ran bone-deep.

Instead, I signed my name without a moment’s hesitation and smiled at them.

“Tell them I wish them a lifetime of happiness.”

As I turned out of the alley, I brushed my thumb over the ring on my left hand.

They had no idea that the girl who’d once been willing to die for Ethan had already died on that rooftop three months ago.

I was someone else’s wife now.

…

Sure enough, the group chat exploded.

“Holy crap. What just happened? She really signed it?”

“She stood there with that pen forever. I thought she was about to cry.”

“She sounded so calm when she wished them well. I barely recognized her.”

“I still don’t buy it. Remember when she starved herself until she ended up in the hospital with a perforated stomach? The first thing she said when she woke up was, ‘Ethan, if you don’t marry me, my death will be on your hands.'”

Madeline sent a blushing emoji.

Then she followed it with a message.

“Thank you, Claire. We really are going to be happy.”

Grant snapped a picture of the agreement and dropped it into the chat.

There it was, in black and white, with my signature at the bottom.

“She signed. Show’s over.”

“If she tries to show up at the wedding, I’ll drag her out myself.”

Nate added another message.

“It’s real. I watched her sign it.”

The chat went quiet for a few seconds.

Then someone dropped a screenshot from the livestream into the chat.

“Wait. Why is she still wearing a ring?”

“I noticed it too. It caught the light while she was signing.”

“Looks like a diamond.”

“Come on. Her family cut her off months ago. How could she possibly afford a diamond?”

“Maybe it’s a copy of the engagement ring Ethan gave her. She still can’t bring herself to take it off. Talk about not knowing when to quit.”