My Boyfriend & BFF Pranked Me At Our Wedding, I Dumped Both Of Them Chapter 07

My Boyfriend & BFF Pranked Me At Our Wedding, I Dumped Both Of Them Chapter 07

Ethan sat numbly on the floor amid shards of glass.

His hand had been cut open, but he glanced down and ignored the blood.

After sitting on the couch for a while, he got up and wandered into the bedroom.

In the bedroom, only the wedding dress remained, like a belated reminder.

He swayed on his feet for a long moment before suddenly remembering something.

In the storage room, he dug out several old suitcases coated in dust.

Inside were a few old cameras and a stack of memory cards.

He inserted one into the computer. The drive was packed with video files.

He opened the first.

The image shook, then settled on Nora. Her hair was tied in a high ponytail, and she held a stick of cotton candy, smiling so widely that her eyes curved into crescents.

“Ethan, stop filming!” Nora reached toward the camera. “My cotton candy is melting!”

His younger voice came from behind the camera. “Just one more. You look beautiful.”

He opened another video.

Bundled in winter coats, the two of them sat in a craft studio making clay mugs.

Nora’s hands were covered in wet clay. She held up a lopsided cup.

“Look. Doesn’t it remind you of someone?”

He laughed and moved the camera closer.

Embarrassed at being filmed, Nora smeared her clay-covered hand across the lens.

The image blurred, leaving only the sound of their laughter.

Ethan opened the videos one by one.

The amusement park, the beach, a street fair, New Year’s Eve.

Nora was in every one.

He scrolled down to the raw footage from the later prank in the prop room.

Inside, Nora was pounding on the door, her voice already hoarse.

Ethan, I’m really scared. Let me out.”

Off camera, he laughed and told the camera operator to wait another 10 seconds.

Ethan reached out and paused the video.

When he had edited it, he had thought her cries went on too long. He had kept only the few seconds when she looked most desperate and added a laugh track.

Now her plea, “Let me out,” rang in his ears. He couldn’t bring himself to press play.

His phone lit up. Someone from the management company asked whether he could save the account with a reconciliation video.

Management: Get her back. Apologize, bring flowers, propose. That’s what people want to

see.

Ethan stared at the word “propose.”

The wedding gown still hung in the wardrobe. He had seen how many nights she had worked on it, yet he had never properly looked at the finished gown.

He typed “Okay,” then erased it letter by letter.

Ethan: I’m not filming anymore.

The reply came quickly.

Management: Then you’ll have to cover the losses yourself.

He sat before the computer for a long time without moving.

One cigarette followed another until the ashtray overflowed.

He opened another old video, which showed Nora standing outside her dorm, looking up and waving to him.

He hit pause.

The image froze on her upturned, smiling face. The tip of her nose was red from the cold, and her eyes shone.

Ethan buried his face in his hands.

His shoulders began to tremble. A strangled sob caught in his throat.

Tears ran between his fingers.

He hunched over and wept.

More than 10 days later, I received an sss from Ethan.

Attached were a transfer receipt for the wedding expenses and a list of videos.

He said he had taken down every video he could and was working through the team’s stored raw footage, deleting it item by item.

His sss ended with a single sentence: There are still reposts, and I’ll keep contacting people to get them taken down.

I checked the amount and saved the receipt without replying.

A few days later, I walked out of the office and saw someone standing below the steps.

Ethan had lost so much weight that his cheekbones jutted out.

He had once cared obsessively about his appearance. Now he looked disheveled from head

to toe.

When he saw me, he ran forward a few steps, then stopped.

He clasped his hands in front of him so tightly that his fingertips turned white.

I hesitated, then kept walking down the steps.

He followed at my side, his voice barely above a whisper. “Nora… can I talk to you for a

minute?”

I turned to look at him.

He stood with the light behind him, exhausted and ill at ease.

“How did you find me?”

That was the only thing I wanted to know.

Seeing that I was willing to speak to him, Ethan stepped forward eagerly.

“You printed your onboarding documents at home before you left. I saw the company’s name.”

People streamed in and out of the office building. Several coworkers glanced curiously at us as they passed.

I had no desire to put on a show for them.

“There’s a coffee shop up ahead. We can talk there.”

Inside, I ordered two lattes.

Across the table, Ethan gave me an ingratiating smile.

“I remember you never used to drink coffee. You always ordered hot chocolate with less syrup, right?”

I set down my cup.

“You remember wrong. Vanessa didn’t like the smell of coffee, and you told me not to drink it at the studio either. Then you made me give up hot chocolate because you said sugar caused breakouts and I wouldn’t look good on camera.”

His smile vanished.

He lowered his head and swallowed hard.

When he reached across the table for my hand, I yanked it away.