She Wore My Dress, She Married My Groom, She Planned My Love Chapter 08

She Wore My Dress, She Married My Groom, She Planned My Love Chapter 08

After Torin returned to Sableton, he didn’t have some explosive fight with Cambria.

He simply moved out of their home and let his lawyer handle every conversation from then on.

Cambria went to his office several times.

She cried. She used the baby to try to convince him to stay.

When she finally realized he wasn’t coming back, her tone turned cold.

“Why am I the only one you blame?”

“You married me because you wanted to. You agreed to give me that wedding.”

“Torin, neither of us is innocent.”

She never admitted to answering the hospital call.

And she continued to insist that what happened outside the bridal suite had been an accident.

But this time, no one believed her without question.

After the baby was born, she and Torin divorced.

Mom and Dad no longer defended Cambria the way they once had, they couldn’t pretend nothing had happened either.

The family still lived in Sableton. They still gathered together for holidays.

But now there were sudden silences at the dinner table.

Everyone knew who the empty chair had once belonged to.

Tressa sent me a long apology letter.

She admitted that Cambria’s expensive gifts had made it easier for her to stay quiet, again and again.

At the end, she asked if I could give her another chance.

I never replied.

By the time she was truly afraid of losing me, she already had.

A year later, Mom, Dad, and Corbett came to Viremont.

They didn’t warn me ahead of time. They simply waited outside my office building all day.

When Mom saw me, she instinctively took a step forward, then stopped.

“Veda.”-

“I’m not here to make you come home.”

“I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

She looked much older than I remembered.

Dad stood beside her holding a box of pastries from the bakery I had loved as a kid.

Corbett kept his head down, unable to look at me.

I had imagined this moment more times than I could count.

I used to picture them finally understanding what they had done, traveling all that way because they couldn’t bear to lose me.

But now that they were actually standing in front of me, I felt nothing but calm.

“I’m doing well.”

“You don’t need to come again.”

Mom burst into tears.

“Do you really not miss us at all?”

I was quiet for a few seconds.

“I did when I first left.”

“I missed you when I had a fever after surgery and there was no one there.”

“I still missed you when my proposal got rejected six times and I thought I couldn’t keep going,”

“Eventually, I stopped.”

Mom covered her mouth and couldn’t say anything else.

Dad slowly set the box of pastries down.

Corbett finally looked up, his eyes full of regret that had come far too late.

None of them tried to change my mind again.

When they left, they placed the pastries on the steps.

I didn’t take them.

Some things matter because they arrive when you need them. Once that moment is gone, bringing them

later doesn’t make up for it.

Two years later, the Viremont waterfront project was finally complete. After the final project celebration, I walked home along the river.

Another anonymous email appeared on my phone.

Just one line.

[Veda, I’m still waiting for you to come back.]

I deleted it and kept walking.

A few moments later, my coworkers caught up with me, calling my name and asking if I wanted to grab a bite with them.

I laughed and agreed.

Once, I had believed that losing Torin and losing my family would leave me with nothing.

I had been wrong.

The world was so much bigger than them.

On the other side of the ocean, I had work I cared about, friends who showed up, and people who respected

me without asking me to shrink myself first.

I had a future that didn’t require me to suffer just to deserve it.

As for Torin and the Kellans?

They finally learned how to love me.

I just didn’t need their love anymore.