They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 07

They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 07

He’d sent me a few messages over the past couple days. Asking where I was, if I’d eaten. I never replied.

He sent a cash gift with a note attached: “Don’t be mad. I’ll find you when I’m done.”

I never opened it.

He didn’t think much of it. Figured I was just throwing a tantrum. I’d get over it in a couple days.

It wasn’t until he saw that scarred hand appear in front of the Maypole Goddess statue that it hit him—he hadn’t seen me in two full days.

His cigarette had burned halfway down. Ash dropped onto his shoe and stung for a second.

“Ethan…”

My mother Holly walked up to him. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I need to talk to you.”

Her voice dropped lower and lower—afraid my father would hear, afraid my brother would hear, afraid anyone would hear her speaking up for her daughter.

“I’m a useless mother,” she choked out. “I have no say in that house. I couldn’t even protect my own heirloom bangles… All I can do is stand there and watch.”

Ethan paused. “The other day… the bangles Mr. Hale gave to Calla—those were yours?”

—

“Yes. My mother left them to me before she passed. Said to pass them down to my daughter. I wanted to save them for Haven, but…”

She couldn’t finish. Just shook her head.

Ethan felt something twist in his chest.

He’d already given Calla Haven’s wedding gown—told himself he’d just have a better one custom-made for Haven later. But those bangles—those were Holly’s. Her mother’s legacy. He wanted to say something, but the words died in his throat.

My mother looked up at him. Her tears made the wrinkles around her eyes glisten.

“Ethan, if you do marry Haven someday… please treat her right. Don’t let her suffer anymore. I’m useless in this house. But if I know she’s happy… that’s all I need.”

She said it like she’d already made peace with something.

Ethan was still holding his cigarette, about to say something reassuring, when a neighbor wandered over with a grin.

“Hey, if it isn’t the Maypole groom! What’re you doing standing out here all alone?”

“My daughter was in the Choosing too. Shame she Rejected the Match. No wedding for us today.”

Ethan’s hand went stiff. “Wait—your daughter? She Rejected the Match?”

“Yeah. Her fiancé caught someone else’s ribbon—and my girl found out he was seeing someone on the side. She refused to marry him. So

—

she Rejected it.”

The neighbor waved it off. “Ah, well. Can’t force these things.”

Ethan’s cigarette slipped from his fingers and hit the ground.

Rejected the Match. His daughter.

Then who was the other bride inside?

He whipped his head toward the Meeting House entrance.

That scar…

He remembered the night of the fireworks. The way she’d fallen, palm flat against the firework residue.

He remembered turning away to help Calla instead.

He remembered that she never made a sound.

The cigarette fell to the ground. A ringing filled his ears—like a swarm of bees.

That person was…

“That’s Haven!!!”