The Same Wedding Dress, Two Different Brides Chapter 09

The Same Wedding Dress, Two Different Brides Chapter 09

Elliot glanced at the screen and was about to decline the call.

It it up three times in a row.

Finally, he answered, his voice deliberately distant.

“What is it?”

Vivian went quiet for a beat before replying, “Elliot, what room is Elena in? I want to come see her.”

“No.”

“She doesn’t want to see you.”

He hung up.

“Elena, I’ll do everything I can to make up for what I’ve done.”

“I’ll make things clear with Vivian. I won’t be this involved with her anymore.”

“That’s your business. It has nothing to do with me.‘

My voice was cold, and Elliot had no answer.

Silence settled over the room.

A short distance down the hall, several nurses were quietly gossiping while looking toward my

room.

“Someone came by asking for Ms. Walsh’s room number. She said Ms. Walsh is the woman her fiancé has been seeing on the side.”

“She said the other woman even got pregnant and was pressuring her fiancé to call off the wedding.

She didn’t know what else to do, so she came here looking for her.”

“Seriously? I’ve talked to Ms. Walsh a few times. She seems really nice.”

“Why wouldn’t it be true? I saw the fiancée myself. She’s wearing an engagement ring, and the guy

in there has a matching band.”

“So Elena really is the other woman. Losing the baby in that crash… Guess that was karma.”

They weren’t speaking loudly, but every word carried into the room.

Elliot slowly went pale.

After four years, Vivian’s carefully maintained façade finally fell away in front of him.

He finally heard how people talked about me.

He finally understood the kind of judgment his casual references to Vivian as “my girlfriend” or “my fiancée” had brought down on me.

But I’d been living with words far uglier than these for far too long.

Just then, the door opened.

Vivian walked in, and the moment she saw us, her eyes reddened.

“Elliot, I came to ask for Elena’s room and heard she lost the baby. Please don’t take it too hard.”

Elliot’s expression turned cold.

“You know exactly why she lost the baby.”

Vivian froze.

“How would I know? I…”

Then realization seemed to hit her.

“The crash…”

She hurried to explain.

“Elliot, you have to believe me. I thought it was just a minor rear–end collision. I didn’t know Elena

would lose the baby.”

Elliot said nothing.

He simply studied her.

Vivian’s eyes quickly filled with tears.

“I know I’ve come between you and Elena. What happened to the baby is my fault.”

“After the ceremony, I’ll step away quietly and stay out of your lives.”

“There won’t be a wedding.”

Vivian’s head snapped up.

“What?”

Elliot moved to the doorway, blocking it.

“Vivian, I’ve spent four years repaying what I owe your family, and I still intend to.”

“But I’ve finally realized that gratitude and love are not the same thing. I’m not going to keep Furting Elena.”

Vivian started crying.

“Elliot, you’re really going to cut me out of your life because of Elena? But you’re all I have.‘

“You have your parents. You have a family.”

“Whether we held that ceremony or not, I was never going to be your husband.”

Vivian went white.

She turned toward me.

“Elena, are you happy now that you’ve forced Elliot to abandon me?”

I said nothing.

Elliot answered before I could.

“Don’t you dare put this on her.”

“Vivian, I was the one who gave you the wrong idea. So let me make this clear once and for all.”

“Everything I did for you came from what I felt I owed your family. Maybe I went about it all wrong, but we were never in a relationship for me to abandon you.”