My Fiancé Chose Her Over Me—So I Canceled Our Wedding Chapter 05

Just then, a tremendous crash came from overhead.

Someone shouted.

“Get out of the way!”

The metal floral frame suspended above the platform came crashing down.

I didn’t even have time to react.

Ethan lunged forward and pulled Sophie into his arms.

Luke grabbed her arm.

Ryan put himself in front of her.

Three men.

Not one of them thought of me, standing closest to the falling frame.

A metal edge scraped my shoulder. I tumbled down the steps, my palm slamming into broken glass.

Blood welled up instantly.

“Soph!”

“Where did it hit you?”

“It’s okay. Let me look!”

I went pale with pain.

All three of them had their backs to me.

Ethan crouched in front of Sophie and turned her wrist this way and that, checking the single red mark twice.

I called his name.

“Ethan.”

He didn’t hear me.

I called again.

Still, nobody turned around.

Sophie was the one who finally noticed the blood on the floor.

“Claire’s hurt!”

Only then did Ethan turn.

He looked at my hand for two seconds.

“That looks a little deep.”

Then he waved over a staff member.

“Could you take her to get that treated?”

Then he looked down at Sophie again.

“What about you? Does anything hurt?”

She shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“This is all my fault.”

“If you hadn’t all come to protect me first, Claire wouldn’t have gotten hurt…”

Ethan cut her off immediately.

“How is any of this your fault?”

Luke patted her back.

“It was an accident.”

Ryan comforted her, too.

“Don’t cry. Seeing you like this will only make her feel worse.”

I looked down at my hand. Blood kept seeping from the wound.

I suddenly wanted to laugh.

I was the one who got hurt.

And somehow, Sophie was still the one who needed comforting.

A hotel staff member went with me to the hospital, where I got stitches.

Two hours later, I returned to the hotel.

The rehearsal was already underway again.

Sophie stood where the bride was supposed to stand.

Ethan held her hand, showing her how they would walk down the aisle.

Luke and Ryan cheered them on from below the platform.

Nobody noticed I was back.

Nobody noticed the thick bandage now wrapped around my arm, either.

At eleven that night, Ethan finally called me on his own.

“You home?”

“Yeah.”

“Then give Soph a call.”

“She’s been crying all evening about you getting hurt. No matter what we say, she’s convinced it’s her fault.”

“Tell her you don’t blame her. Don’t let her keep beating herself up.”

So that was why he called.

I gave a little laugh.

“Sure.”

Ethan seemed surprised by how readily I agreed.

His voice softened.

“That’s more like it.”

After we hung up, I didn’t contact Sophie.

I opened a flight booking app instead.

I bought a ticket for the earliest flight the next morning.

Just as the payment went through, another message arrived from Ethan.

[By the way, how’s your hand?]

A few seconds passed.

A second message popped up.

[Get some sleep. Don’t be late for the wedding tomorrow.]

I put my phone facedown on the table without replying.

He’d finally remembered the woman he was supposed to marry tomorrow.

Too bad.

There wouldn’t be a wedding tomorrow.

Or a bride.