The Fake Wedding Was For Me, The Real One For Her Chapter 09

The Fake Wedding Was For Me, The Real One For Her Chapter 09

I laughed and squeezed back. Before their time ran out, I called the guards off, walked over to where my family had fallen, and crouched down.

“Go back.”

“I’m not your family anymore. And you will never ever have my forgiveness.”

“Even if I could go back the next time we met, it would be as strangers. Or worse.”

“Clara…” Julian’s hand reached for me, shaking. Tears ran down his face.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

His face-wrecked, hollowed out with regret-flickered once, then dissolved into thin air. Gone.

I felt nothing. Not relief, not sadness. Just stillness.

The meteor shower came the next night, right on cue. I cut my palm open with a blade, and Nathaniel did the same. Our fingers laced together, blood running between them before dripping onto the astrolabe.

Earlier that evening, Nathaniel had asked me-shy, careful, nothing like the man who’d just ordered people

beaten-whether I’d let him take me on a real date when we got back.

I looked at those honest, open eyes of his – and said yes.

Everything that came before – all of it – had already turned to ash. Time turned, and the world kept moving.

I was home. And for the first time, home actually felt like something I wanted.

When I opened my eyes, skyscrapers filled the skyline. Crowds. Traffic. The modern world, loud and alive.

Nathaniel’s hand was still in mine. We looked at each other, grinned, and held on tight.

Months later, I crossed paths with my parents on the street. By then, I’d already heard what had happened.

When I reclaimed my original body, Chloe’s soul was ripped out instantly. Without a host to anchor her, her spirit failed fast, rotting from the inside out.

She had begged my parents, sobbing, screaming-demanding they find the spiritualist, get her another body, anything. They said no.

In the end, she crumbled – screaming until there was nothing left. No body. No trace. Just gone.

But in the frantic moments before her soul was fully ejected-knowing she was losing control-she’d snapped completely. She grabbed the wheel while Julian was driving and sent the car straight into a semi-truck.

Julian and Arthur were both in the car. Julian lost both legs. Arthur fell into a permanent coma.

My parents went through their entire savings on medical bills. When the money ran out, they ended up on the

streets.

Begging. Just like Chloe always said she’d done.

They spotted me coming out of a flower shop, a bouquet for Nathaniel in my arms.

They called out. I turned the corner and didn’t look back.

–

Their voices thin, broken trailed after me down the sidewalk. I kept walking.

“Seraphina!”

A different voice. Warm, steady, anchoring me. Up ahead, Nathaniel was waiting-hand raised, smile wide,

the sun catching his face.

–

The spring air brushed warm against my skin. I broke into a run- light, free, fast straight toward him.

(The End)