The Bride Saw Red Threads of Desire, Then Fled the Wedding Chapter 05

The Bride Saw Red Threads of Desire, Then Fled the Wedding Chapter 05

My friends woke up that morning to my message: the wedding was off, and I was sorry. But I was already

gone.

They went looking for me and found Graham instead, helping his mother blockade the hallway outside my

suite.

They managed to film it without being seen and sent me the video.

I watched it, and my hands went ice–cold.

I’d given him an out: a clean break, quiet and private. Instead, he’d dropped the act entirely and sicced his

whole family on me to make sure I went through with it.

I called Graham. “Leave my friends out of this. I’ll be at the venue by eleven.”

A veiled hat hid the circles under my eyes.

I pulled a sleek black dress out of my overnight bag.

My mother came with me to the hotel ballroom.

Graham’s mother froze the second she saw me, all black, head to toe. Her hand hovered over the gift table.

Graham stepped forward and reached for my hand.

“Enough, Tessa. I brought your dress. Go to the bridal suite and change.”

I pulled away.

“Where’s Camille?”

“She’s not feeling well.”

“Wore herself out last night?”

Graham’s mother shoved me.

“Watch your mouth. This is supposed to be a celebration. What kind of bride talks about her own fiancé like

that?”

My back caught the corner of the gift table. I doubled over, gasping.

My mother was there in a second. “Don’t you dare put your hands on her.”

Graham’s uncle and cousin blocked her. “Your daughter’s the one making a scene. She’s trying to drag the

whole Calder name through the mud.”

Graham’s mother jabbed a finger in my face.

“She either walks in there and goes through with this wedding, or she marches in there right now and apologizes to every single guest the Calders invited.”

Graham grabbed my arm.

“Mom, that’s enough. Leave her alone.”

“You’re still defending her?” Graham’s mother snapped.

“She’s my wife.”

I almost laughed. “We haven’t signed the marriage license. I’m nothing to you.”

Graham’s grip tightened.

“Tessa, stop.”

“I know I messed up last night. Marry me today, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right.”

“You think this is a negotiation?”

Graham stared at me, and something in his expression shifted: genuine confusion, like he truly didn’t

understand.

“You’re really going to throw away seven years over one mistake?”

From inside the ballroom, the emcee’s voice echoed through the speakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, please

welcome the groom!”

Applause erupted. Graham straightened his jacket and walked in, smiling like nothing had happened.

The ballroom was a fantasy: spotlights, flowers everywhere, the wedding march swelling through the speakers. The emcee’s voice boomed: “And now, the bride!”

I stood in the doorway of the venue I’d dreamed about for five years, dressed head to toe in black, like I’d

come to bury someone.

Camille was standing by the altar in her bridesmaid dress. Her eyes were swollen. The plain band was still

on her finger.

The second she saw me, she burst into tears. “Tessa, oh my God, you came. Listen, last night, I was in a bad place and Graham just came by to check on me. That’s it. I swear there’s nothing going on.”

She reached for me as she spoke, hands fumbling at where the hem of a wedding dress should have been.

The emcee called the groom forward. Graham walked toward me, smiling, as if we were still in love.

He met me halfway down the aisle, holding his hand out.

I reached out my hand. Then I turned, grabbed Camille by the arm, and hauled her forward.

She yelped and tumbled straight into Graham’s arms.

The room erupted. Gasps, whispers, chairs scraping, every head turning at once.

I pulled out my phone and walked to the AV booth.