I Signed Away My First Love, Then Married Someone Else Chapter 11

I Signed Away My First Love, Then Married Someone Else Chapter 11

“Ethan!” Madeline ran after him and grabbed his arm. “Don’t even think about it. You know how

Powerful the Mercers are. None of us can afford to make an enemy of them.”

Ethan tore his arm from her grip.

“You. This is all because of you!”

The accusation silenced the garden.

Madeline stumbled back two steps, her train dragging over the ground as her eyes flooded with

tears.

“Ethan, what did you just say?”

“Your mother started getting better months ago, and you never told me. You knew how badly Claire was hurting. You knew she was still waiting for me, and you wore that ring to make sure she saw it.”

“I…” Madeline’s lips trembled. “Ethan, this is our wedding day.”

“Our wedding?” Ethan laughed and swept a hand toward the crowd. “Do you all understand? She got married. She married Julian Mercer. She couldn’t even be bothered to come stop me.”

Some guests were taking photographs. Others were recording videos.

People whispered to those beside them.

“What the hell is happening? Is the groom walking out?”

“So Madeline tricked him into this marriage?”

Nate stood nearby, clenching and releasing his fists.

He wanted to step forward and pull Ethan away, but his feet might as well have been rooted to the ground.

Grant couldn’t move. One thought consumed him.

His sister had gotten married, and her own brother hadn’t known.

A voice suddenly came from the entrance.

“Well, this isn’t what I expected. I came for a wedding. What happened?”

Lauren stood in the doorway, taking in the scene.

The guests were completely silent.

The groom looked furious, and the bride was in tears.

“What did I miss?”

Someone in the crowd who knew Lauren answered.

“Ethan called off the wedding.”

“He called it off?” Lauren looked at Ethan. “Then Claire stepped aside for nothing

The words “stepped aside” stopped Ethan cold.

He’d spent years telling her to be gracious, step aside, and wait.

Now she had. She hadn’t made a scene. She had let him go.

And he couldn’t find a single thing to say.

After a few seconds, Lauren continued.

“Three months ago, she was still going to ask me to be her bridesmaid.”

“She said she’d waited forever for that wedding. Her brother never stood up for her. She couldn’t understand why the friend she’d grown up with had stopped caring. But you had finally proposed, and for the first time in her life, she felt safe.”

Color drained from several faces in the crowd.

“What happened after that?”

“A few days later, she texted me and said she didn’t need a bridesmaid anymore. I asked why. She never answered.”

Ethan froze.

She had wanted to marry him.

She always had.

He’d known it.

But three months ago, he’d done the unforgivable.

He had already put a ring on her finger.

Yet the moment Madeline said, “My mother only has days left,” he agreed to stage a wedding with

her.

He’d given another woman the wedding date that should have belonged to Claire.

And then he had asked Claire, “Why can’t you be gracious for once?”