I Waited To Settle Our Wedding Date, Only To Find Him Acting As Her Fake Partner Chapter 02

I Waited To Settle Our Wedding Date, Only To Find Him Acting As Her Fake Partner Chapter 02

Once I’d packed my things, I pulled out several large trash bags.

I tossed in the matching mugs we’d bought together, then peeled the Polaroids off the wall, seven years of our life disappearing into the bags one photo at a time.

I scheduled a junk-removal service to come at first light and haul away everything else.

Sometime after midnight, still wide awake, I watched our group chat with mutual friends suddenly blow up.

Someone had posted a crisp aerial video.

Fireworks turned the night sky bright as day.

Hundreds of drones shifted into formation over Maddie’s small Vermont hometown before finally settling into two enormous letters: M + E.

Maddie and Ethan.

Friends who had no idea what was really happening started tagging me one after another.

“Ethan is going all out just to make Maddie’s fake wedding look real. That drone show alone has to be five figures.”

“Claire, if your man is this romantic for a fake wedding, what’s he going to do when you two actually get married? Hang the moon for you?”

The stars she got?

I sat on the floor surrounded by trash bags, staring blankly at the glittering display on my screen.

I thought about our fifth anniversary.

There’d been a free drone light show over the Charles River that night. I’d spent an entire week asking Ethan to come with me after work.

Instead, I’d stood in the wind for two hours, hands and feet numb with cold, and he never showed.

When I finally reached him by phone, he sounded exhausted.

“Claire, something came up at work at the last minute. I really can’t get away.”

“Why are you standing out there freezing for that anyway? Be good and head home. I’ll send you a latte later to make it up to you.”

Before he even finished, Maddie’s impatient voice came through the phone.

“Ethan, switch back! I’m one win away from Diamond. I need you.”

His lie unraveled on the spot.

The line went silent for a beat. Then came the faintest sigh.

“She’s having a rough day. I’m just helping her finish one rank-up game. You’re always the understanding one, babe. Don’t make this a thing. Just grab an Uber and head home.”

That night, I’d walked back to our apartment alone through the freezing wind.

My phone buzzed, pulling me back to the present.

It was a video call from Ethan.

I answered.

Ethan filled the screen in a suit, a groom’s boutonniere still pinned to his lapel.

“Claire, did you see the video in the group chat?”

He smiled into the camera and made the promise as casually as if promises cost him nothing.

“I was just thinking this town’s too small for something like that. When we get married next year, I’ll rent out a whole stretch of the Charles River waterfront and make ours twice as big.”

Before he could finish, Maddie, still in her wedding dress, squeezed into the frame.

“Claire! Ethan is seriously useless at taking care of people.”

She pouted at the screen.

“Look how long my train is. He didn’t even think to come help me with it.”

Ethan set the phone on the table, leaving the camera tilted toward them.

He went over to her. He complained under his breath, but his arm slipped around her as naturally as breathing.

“Maybe don’t be so short.”

Maddie huffed, utterly unapologetic.

“I’m training you for Claire. Otherwise, when you two get married, you’ll be completely useless.”

“So I’m supposed to thank you?” Ethan laughed despite himself.

Maddie pretended to take offense and playfully kicked at his shin.

“What kind of attitude is that?”

She overdid it, caught the hem of her dress under her shoe, yelped, and pitched forward.

Ethan caught her around the waist without thinking.

She was still trying to play it off when he gave her an exasperated, amused sigh.

“Enough. At this rate, you’ll destroy that dress before you even make it to the reception.”

Then he bent down and hoisted Maddie, wedding dress and all, over his shoulder.

“Ethan! Put me down!”

Maddie shrieked and squirmed against his back, her legs kicking in the air.

“Keep squirming and I’ll drop you.”

Laughing, Ethan gave her a light smack on the butt.

They laughed and wrestled in front of the camera as if no one else existed.

I watched without saying a word.

Then I ended the call.

I got his promises. Maddie got the softness, the attention, and the instinctive care he never had to think twice about giving her.

At first light, the junk-removal crew arrived right on time.

I let go of everything from those seven years and walked away with only fifty dollars.

The living room was so empty that even the echoes sounded cold.

I left the spare key on the empty shoe cabinet by the door, texted the landlord that I was moving out, and didn’t even ask for my security deposit back.

I took one last look at the home I’d spent seven years building, then walked out.

With my suitcase rolling behind me, I called an Uber to South Station.