Seven Failed Weddings, and He Still Let Her Ruin My Marriage Shoes Chapter 05

Seven Failed Weddings, and He Still Let Her Ruin My Marriage Shoes Chapter 05

For a moment, Nolan thought he had misheard her. His pupils contracted, and his heart shot straight into his throat.

“Aunt Lorraine, what… what did you just say?”

“What do you mean Elara married into the Hayes family in Harbor Springs?”

Aunt Lorraine had already lived over his repeated failures.

Now he had caused Elara to be barred from Bennett Hollow for seven years.

She glared at him kindly.

“I mean exactly what I said. Elara got married. She doesn’t need you showing up here with this pathetic charade.”

“Now leave. You’re getting in the way while we load her bridal chests.”

Aunt Lorraine waved them off with absolute contempt.

All blood drained from Nolan’s face.

Elara had gotten married.

But not to him?

Refusing to accept it, he lunged forward to block her path, his voice shaking violently.

“That’s impossible. Elara loved me that much. How could she marry someone else? Aunt Lorraine, are you and Elara putting on an act to fool me?”

Aunt Lorraine’s hand cracked across his face in a resounding slap, unleashing years of pent-up fury.

“And you still have the nerve to talk about how much Elara loved you?”

“Do you know she loved you enough to risk her life for you? And how did you treat her?”

“You let some wild girl play games with her wedding. She waited seven years for you, and you spent seven years indulging someone else’s nonsense.”

“A man like you deserves to lose her.”

Furious, Aunt Lorraine shoved Nolan away.

For once, after being slapped, Nolan did not get angry.

Instead, when he saw the trunks, panic overriding his shock.

“If she really got married, why are her wedding gifts still here?”

“Aunt Lorraine, I know I was wrong. Please, let Elara come out and see me.”

Aunt Lorraine looked at him and gave a cold snort.

“The Hayes family didn’t want Elara exhausting herself, so they picked her up first and put her on a flight.”

“The wedding gifts are just arriving later.”

“No. No, that’s impossible.”

Nolan muttered, a blind panic clawing at his chest.

Aunt Lorraine glanced at him, still irritated.

“What’s so impossible about it? Thanks to your negligence, she’s banned from setting foot in this hollow for seven long years.”

Something exploded in Nolan’s mind.

But he did not dare think too deeply about it.

“I need to see Elder Bennett. I need to see Grandpa.”

Ignoring the groomsmen trying to stop him, he rushed off to find my grandfather.

When he saw Elder Bennett sitting alone in my room, looking lonely and worn down, his heart dropped.

“Grandpa… Elara really married someone else?”

Elder Bennett’s clouded eyes turned toward him.

After a long silence, he finally said slowly, “Yes. She left this morning. She won’t be coming back for seven years.”

“How could you let her go?”

Nolan choked out, tears finally spilling over.

He couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

Sure, he had humored Tessa’s antics, but he had never doubted his future with Elara.

She was supposed to be his wife.

Grandpa looked down at Nolan, who had collapsed onto the

floorboards, and let out a weary sigh.

“Nolan, when you and Elara first got together, I told you.”

“For the bridal pickup, the groom had to make the boots for the bride. And the pickup had to succeed the first time if the marriage was to be blessed.”

“If seven pickup ceremonies failed, it would be taken as a bad omen.”

A regret Nolan could not describe surged up from the bottom of his heart.

Elder Bennett did not need to say the rest.

He remembered it now.

A bride marked by that kind of omen could no longer marry a man from Bennett Hollow.

She had to marry outside the community and remain away for seven years before returning, all to restore the family’s reputation.

And because Elara was Elder Bennett’s granddaughter, her marriage had to become a strategic family alliance, one that would bring vital commercial resources back to Bennett Hollow and repair the damage.

For a hundred years, not a single wedding under that tradition had gone wrong.

Only Elara’s had failed seven times in a row.

And the reason it had failed was because Nolan had indulged Tessa again and again, letting her swap out the boots he had prepared for his bride.

Nolan’s heart filled with regret until it felt like it might burst.

He finally broke down.

“Grandpa, it wasn’t Elara’s fault. It was mine.”

“Please let Elara come back. I’ll admit my mistake in front of everyone in Bennett Hollow.”

Elder Bennett looked at him with disappointment.

“It’s too late. The family alliance has been settled. No one can change it now.”

Nolan sat there on the floor as if the spine had been pulled from his body.