My Wedding Dress And Ring Were For My Best Friend Chapter 06

My Wedding Dress And Ring Were For My Best Friend Chapter 06

Everything had unfolded exactly as Ethan expected.

Nora had not argued with him or caused a scene, so he assumed the matter was over and they had moved past it.

By the time he reached home, he was so drunk that the figure moving in front of him looked both blurry and vaguely familiar.

“Ethan, wake up. You need to get cleaned up.”

He rubbed his eyes and struggled to focus. As the person before him gradually came into view, his expression turned cold.

“What are you doing in my house this late? Where’s Nora?”

Paige’s smile stiffened, but she quickly recovered.

“She’s probably still angry. She wasn’t here when I brought you home.”

Ethan pressed his fingers to his temples and let out a long breath. Then he pointed toward the door.

“I did what I promised to do for you. Now leave.”

Paige acted as though she had not heard him. She suddenly wrapped her arms around his waist, her voice urgent and deliberately sweet.

“Ethan, since you’ve already done this much for me, why not go all the way?”

Ethan pushed her away, trying to put some distance between them.

“What are you talking about?”

Paige stared at him with reddened eyes.

“Are you still pretending not to understand? You know I like you. You know I love you. The engagement ring, the bridal heels, and the wedding dress were all made in my size, so why not let me be the bride? I’ll love you more than Nora ever could.”

She puckered her lips and leaned in to kiss him.

At that moment, Nora flashed through Ethan’s mind.

Her lips were naturally soft and pink. She never coated them in heavy, sticky gloss.

She had never been the one to hug or kiss him first the way Paige was doing now.

The thought made him shove Paige away with both hands.

“Paige, get a grip. You’re Nora’s best friend, and I’m her fiancé. We can’t do this to her.”

Caught off guard, Paige stumbled backward and fell onto the couch.

The fall finally cracked the pleasant mask she had been wearing.

She whipped around and stared at him in disbelief.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“We’ve already gone this far, so stop pretending. If you didn’t have feelings for me, you wouldn’t have taken my side every time while you were with Nora. I noticed everything you did, and I remembered it.”

“Just look at what happened yesterday. Everyone at the company knows you have feelings for me. That’s why you helped me frame Nora for plagiarism.”

“Paige!” Ethan roared. “You know better than anyone whether Nora plagiarized anything!”

“You’re Director of Product Design now. You’d better not talk about her like that.”

His instinctive defense of Nora wiped the last trace of warmth from Paige’s face.

She sprang to her feet, marched over, and grabbed his collar.

“Why can’t I say it? What’s wrong? Does it hurt to hear someone insult her?”

“The more you tell me to stop, the more I’m going to say it. Ethan, after everything you’ve done, don’t fool yourself into thinking you can still go back to her.”

“She’ll never forgive you, and she’ll never take you back. Nora isn’t like me. She doesn’t need you. The next man she chooses might be far better than you.”

“Shut up!”

Ethan clenched his fists, his eyes turning red.

He pointed toward the door and struggled to keep his voice under control.

“Get out. Right now. Stop trying to turn us against each other. I’m the only man Nora will ever be with.”

Paige suddenly burst out laughing, doubling over with it.

She had not planned to tell Ethan that Nora was about to marry another man.

Now she changed her mind.

What could make him give up faster than seeing it for himself?

She unzipped her bag, pulled out a deep burgundy envelope containing a thick ivory wedding invitation, and placed it on the coffee table in front of him.

“Don’t forget to attend Nora’s wedding to another man.”

With that, she picked up the bag she had dropped and slammed the door behind her.

Ethan remained frozen in the middle of the living room for what felt like an eternity.

When he finally came back to his senses, he pulled out his phone and began calling Nora.

Every call went straight to voicemail.

With no other way to reach her, he called their former faculty advisor.

“Professor Ellis, did Nora send you a wedding invitation?”

“She did. I was just about to ask you about it. You’re not the groom anymore? The invitation says she’s marrying someone named Lucas Whitmore.”

As Ethan listened, he opened the invitation.

Two names gleamed across the thick card in gold foil, burning into his eyes.

His hand began to tremble uncontrollably.

[Bride: Nora Bennett.]

[Groom: Lucas Whitmore.]

Who was this Lucas Whitmore?