The Wedding Is Off, and So Am I Chapter 02

The Wedding Is Off, and So Am I Chapter 02

As if afraid I might refuse, he hung up immediately.

Then he sent me another message:

Lucas Sterling: [Vera, please, stop causing trouble, okay? I’m just getting a marriage certificate with Celeste. It’s just a piece of paper. It doesn’t mean anything. Postponing the wedding is just so we can save your dream wedding for the perfect time.]

Those familiar words stung my eyes.

What did “the perfect time” even mean?

I’d heard that for eight years. I’d waited nearly three thousand days and nights for him to marry me.

Instead, I waited for him to become someone else’s legal husband.

Lucas Sterling, I won’t wait for you anymore.

Because we were never right for each other.

Lucas withdrew the message.

Then he sent a new one:

Lucas Sterling: [I shouldn’t have sent that where Celeste could see it. She’s pregnant and overthinks things. Just take care of what I asked. I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for what you’ve lost—starting in three years.]

I couldn’t help but laugh.

I waited two minutes. Sure enough, he withdrew that one too.

So was he lying to me or to himself?

If he was really just helping Celeste out of kindness, why would he care if she got upset over the promises he made to me?

The baby in her belly wasn’t his, and he was going that far for her.

What if the baby was his?

I shook my head, pushing the intrusive thought away.

I typed a single “Okay” and sent it.

But all I got was a red exclamation mark.

To appease Celeste, he had wasted no time in deleting me.

Fine by me.

I didn’t care. I posted on social media announcing the wedding was off.

A lot of people immediately asked why.

Not wanting to stir up trouble, I followed Lucas’s explanation and said I was the one who didn’t want to get married so soon.

But my friends all texted me, telling me not to be stupid:

“Vera, Lucas isn’t the broke kid he used to be. Now that he’s successful, all kinds of women are throwing themselves at him. If you suddenly call off the wedding, aren’t you handing your husband right over to them?”

I didn’t reply.

Because Lucas was already someone else’s husband.

Soon after I made my post, Celeste sent me a photo of their marriage certificate.

In an extremely smug tone, she thanked me for helping make it happen.

Celeste: [Vera, thank you for being such a great wingman. Lucas and I were supposed to get the certificate tomorrow, but to cheer me up, he pulled some strings and got it done tonight.]

I didn’t respond. I just blocked her and deleted the chat.

My phone buzzed. My mother called, scolding me:

“You silly girl, what’s wrong with you? You’ve got the fruit right there ripe for picking, and you’re making a fuss? What are you trying to do? By the time you change your mind, he might not even want to marry you anymore.”

I laughed softly.

“What if he’s the one who doesn’t want to get married?”

My mother paused, then scolded me even more fiercely: “Then that means you didn’t do something right. Lower your pride and say something nice to him. Don’t be with him for all these years and end up with nothing to show for it.”

I’d loved Lucas Sterling for eight years. He always said he wanted to build a career before starting a family.

But now that he’d actually succeeded—had a house, a car—it turned out he didn’t want to build a family with me.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried. Trying didn’t help.

For eight years, I’d helped him build his business. I’d lived with him in a basement apartment eating instant noodles. I’d shamelessly told him a thousand times that I dreamed of marrying him, whether rich or poor.

I’d even had three abortions.

Because he said the timing wasn’t right. He didn’t want a child to suffer with us.

I loved him, so no matter how heartbroken I was, I did what he wanted.

Just like tonight, when he said he wanted to get a marriage certificate with his childhood friend.

Even though it felt like my heart was being cut open, I also felt a strange sense of relief.