I Wore White While He Told Me I Was Never the Bride Chapter 04

I Wore White While He Told Me I Was Never the Bride Chapter 04

Julian followed Mia’s gaze and looked at me.

A terrible suspicion suddenly took shape in my mind, and I stepped back.

“Julian, what are you planning to do?”

He was silent for two seconds.

“Evelyn, Mia is pregnant. She can’t handle any more emotional stress.”

I stared at him.

“So?”

Julian avoided my eyes and lowered his voice.

“Take off the dress.”

For a moment, I thought I had misheard him.

“What did you say?”

His voice dropped even further.

“Let Mia wear it first.”

“The wedding has to go on.”

I laughed.

“Julian, this is my wedding dress.”

“You chose it for me yourself.”

His throat moved as he swallowed.

“I’ll buy you a better one later.”

I clutched the skirt and backed away.

“Julian, forget it,” Mia said.

Julian looked at me, his expression darkening.

“Evelyn, don’t force me to do this.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“Which one of us is forcing the other?”

At that moment, my stepmother walked forward carrying a large manila envelope.

“Evelyn, stop being so difficult.”

She began taking the contents out one by one: my mother’s framed memorial photograph, the key to her house, and a redevelopment appraisal notice.

My breathing immediately turned ragged.

My stepmother picked up the photograph and ran her thumb along one corner of the frame.

“Your mother’s house is in a valuable neighborhood.”

“If we sell it to the developer, the money could pay off a good portion of the Sloan family’s debt.”

My head snapped up.

“Don’t you dare touch it!”

She dangled the key in front of me.

“And then there are all those old rumors about your mother.”

“You wouldn’t want everyone in Bayport hearing how she supposedly forced her way into the Sloan family, would you?”

I stared at her.

She leaned close enough that only I could hear her.

“Evelyn, once someone is dead, their good name is all they have left.”

My entire body began to shake.

I lunged for the photograph, but two security guards grabbed my shoulders from either side.

Chloe screamed and rushed toward me.

“Let her go!”

Someone quickly restrained her.

Julian stood several feet away with a deep crease between his brows.

He could see how terrified I was.

Yet all he said was, “Evelyn, just bear with it a little longer.”

“Once today is over, I’ll make it up to you.”

I looked at him, and the tears finally spilled down my face.

“Julian, you disgust me.”

The color drained from his face for a moment.

Mia clutched his sleeve and cried, “Julian, don’t do this. Evelyn will hate me.”

The moment she finished speaking, she suddenly grabbed her stomach.

“It hurts…”

“Julian, it really hurts…”

His expression changed instantly, and he swept her into his arms.

Even as she leaned against his chest, Mia kept looking at my wedding dress.

“Forget it.”

“I don’t need to wear it.”

“The baby matters more.”

Julian paused.

Then he looked at the guards, his voice turning cold.

“Keep going.”

“Take the dress off her and bring it to the hospital.”

I stared at him blankly.

“Julian.”

He did not look back.

He simply strode out of the ballroom with Mia in his arms.

The guards came toward me again.

Someone yanked the veil from my head, scattering pearl hairpins across the floor.

One guard held my wrist while another reached for the zipper at the back of my dress.

The guests below the stage were stunned into silence.

Some gasped.

Others raised their phones.

A few whispered among themselves.

“Are they really taking her dress off?”

“This is beyond humiliating…”

The dress was slowly peeled away from my shoulders.

On the day of my fitting, Julian had stood behind me in front of the mirror and stared for a long time.

He had said, “Evelyn, I’ve never seen you look more beautiful than you do in that dress.”

And yet, only minutes ago, he had stood there long enough to watch his guards start peeling it off me before he walked away.

My bare shoulders were exposed beneath the ballroom lights, and the zipper had already been pulled all the way down.

The only thing keeping the dress against my chest was my own desperate grip on the fabric.

One more inch, and I would be completely exposed in front of a ballroom full of guests and cameras, stripped of the last shred of dignity I had left.

Suddenly, the ballroom doors were thrown open from the outside.

The middle-aged man leading the group wore thin gold-rimmed glasses and carried a document envelope in one hand.

He stepped directly in front of me, blocking every camera.

“Ms. Bennett, I’m the attorney retained by Mrs. Bennett Sr.”

A black wrap settled over my shoulders.

Eleanor Bennett, the Bennett matriarch, entered behind him, her silver hair gleaming as she leaned on an elegant cane.

Her gaze swept past everyone else and landed on me.

Her eyes immediately filled with tears.

“Evelyn.”

I looked at her, my throat closing.

“Grandma.”

She turned to the attorney.

“Take Evelyn home.”

“If anyone tries to stop her, take legal action against them too.”

As we reached the doors, Dad shouted behind me.

“Evelyn Bennett, if you walk out today, don’t expect the Sloan family to ever take you back!”

I did not turn around.

At the same time, Julian was waiting outside the emergency room at the hospital.

He knew he had pushed me too far that day.

Still, as far as he was concerned, there was room to fix things as long as I remained at the hotel.

Once Mia calmed down, he could go back, hold me, and coax me into forgiving him.

He still remembered how I had lingered over a sapphire necklace the last time we browsed a jewelry counter.

All he had to do was make a call, have it delivered, and fasten it around my neck himself.

At worst, I would cry for a while and yell at him a little.

Then I would go back to him anyway.

We had been together for seven years.

There was no way I would actually leave.

At the thought, he relaxed.

He was about to call the store manager when his phone rang.

It was his best man.

Julian answered immediately.

“Did the dress arrive?”

The man on the other end was silent for several seconds.

“Julian.”

“Mrs. Bennett Sr. took Evelyn away.”

“And there’s more.”

“Her attorney called the police.”

“They reported us for false imprisonment, assault, and forcibly stripping her in public.”