My Fiancé Postponed Our Marriage License Seventeen Times For His Intern Chapter 09

My Fiancé Postponed Our Marriage License Seventeen Times For His Intern Chapter 09

Another month passed.

Winter settled over Paris, and the streets began to glow with early Christmas lights. My French came more easily now. Work did too. Alistair had already told me that by spring, he’d have me take the lead on my own case.

That night, I left the office late.

He was standing under the streetlamp outside my building.

Black coat, a bouquet in his hand.

Callen.

He looked thinner—sharper around the edges, like something had been stripped away. Dark circles hollowed out his eyes, his lips dry and cracked. He looked like he hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten, hadn’t stopped.

I didn’t move.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came for you.” His voice was rough, worn thin. “I couldn’t wait anymore.”

“For what?”

“For you to come back.” He took a step closer. “You stopped answering. You wouldn’t take my calls. So I came.”

I glanced at the flowers.

White roses.

My favorite.

“I keep replaying everything,” he went on. “The first time I saw you—in that gray suit, tearing through a mock trial like you owned the room. I remember thinking, I’m going to marry her.”

His breath caught, but he pushed through it.

“And the wedding… you looked at me like I was enough. I held your hand and told myself I’d spend my life taking care of you.”

His voice broke.

“I didn’t.”

He looked up at me, eyes red.

“I lost you.”

Silence stretched between us.

“Liora,” he said quietly, “I know I was wrong. I know I made you wait, over and over again. I know I chose the wrong thing every time it mattered.”

“I shouldn’t have walked away from you like that. I shouldn’t have put her ahead of you.”

He swallowed hard.

“But you have to believe me. There’s nothing going on between me and Mireya. She’s just a junior associate. I was just trying to mentor her—”

“Callen.”

I cut him off.

“You still don’t get it.”

He froze.

“This isn’t about whether you wanted her.” My voice stayed level. “It’s about the fact that you never chose me.”

I met his eyes.

“The first time, you left me outside City Hall. The second time, you left me on the side of the road. After that… I stopped counting.”

A beat.

“Every time, it was her.”

His mouth opened, then closed again.

“You say you loved me,” I said. “But I was always second.”

“Whatever she needed—whenever she needed it—you were there.”

A faint smile touched my lips.

“That’s not love.”

“I can fix it.”

He stepped forward, grabbing my hand, his grip tight, almost desperate.

“I already did. I transferred her out. She’s not at the firm anymore. I don’t take her calls. I don’t answer her messages. There’s nothing between us.”

His voice shook.

“Go through my phone. It’s all you. There’s nothing else.”

I looked down at his hand.

It was trembling.

“Do you know something?” I said quietly. “There’s something I never told you.”

He stared at me. “What?”

“That day—at the wedding. I remember everything you said.”

I lifted my gaze.

“You said you’d take care of me. That you’d love me. That you’d never let me down.”

He nodded, like he was holding onto it.

“But that’s all you said.”

His expression faltered.

“You never said you wanted to marry me.”

The color drained from his face.

“You said everything except the one thing that mattered.”

I pulled my hand free.

“I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought maybe you were nervous. Maybe you forgot.”

A pause.

“But later… I realized you probably didn’t forget.”

His voice came out strained. “Of course I did. I planned everything. I —”

“Then why didn’t you show up?”

That stopped him.

Completely.

He stood there, silent.

“Because in your mind, I was already yours,” I said. “Paper or no paper — it didn’t matter to you.”

I met his eyes, steady.

“But it mattered to me.”

His face went pale.

“Liora…”

“You should go back, Callen.”

I turned toward the building.

“Liora!” he called after me, voice breaking. “I’ll wait. I’ll stay right here until you forgive me.”

I didn’t look back.