We Planned Nine Weddings, All Canceled For His Superstitious Childhood Friend Chapter 09

We Planned Nine Weddings, All Canceled For His Superstitious Childhood Friend Chapter 09

The black sedan moved smoothly through the streets, shutting out all the noise and chaos behind

The back seat was quiet and peaceful, a world away from the disaster at the wedding.

I turned toward Elliot.

“Don’t you have anything you want to ask me?”

He looked over with the same quiet tenderness he had always shown me.

“About what?”

“I suddenly asked you to marry me today, completely on impulse,” I said softly. “Do you think I was just using you? That I married you to get back at Julian?”

Elliot reached over and gently brushed a stray lock of hair from my forehead.

“Even if you were using me, I still would’ve said yes.”

I gave him an exasperated look.

“Do you have any standards? Any dignity?”

Elliot laughed under his breath.

“Mara, we’ve known each other almost thirty years. I know you better than anyone.”

“I know how completely you loved Julian. But underneath all of that, you’ve always known where your line is.”

“Remember how much you loved fried trout when we were kids? You got hurt by a fish bone once, and you never touched fish again.”

“You can love someone with everything you have, but you’ll never make the same mistake twice.”

He took my cool hand in his.

“I know you might have married me today because you were hurt, because you were acting out of

spite, or because you wanted revenge.”

“And maybe that makes me selfish, but I’m glad.”

“As long as you choose to stay with me, I don’t care why. I’ll take it. It’ll be enough.”

I looked into his warm, open eyes.

The bitterness, exhaustion, and hurt that had built up inside me over the past ten years slowly began to loosen their grip.

Elliot, I didn’t marry you out of spite or revenge.”

“I’m more clearheaded now than I’ve ever been.”

“I could never lose by marrying you. And before Grandma died, what she wanted most was for the two of us to end up together.”

Warmth softened Elliot’s expression.

He pulled me gently into his arms. His embrace was steady and warm, enough to make all the turmoil behind me feel far away.

“Okay.”

“Then tomorrow, we’ll visit your grandma’s grave.

I rested against him and finally let my defenses fall.

I nodded.

Within hours, everything that had happened at the wedding was all over social media.

Prescott Group’s stock plunged.

As far as the public was concerned, a man who treated marriage like a joke and openly humiliated

the woman who had saved his life had no business running a company.

As the scandal grew, business partners began pulling out, and sales kept falling.

Julian was forced out as CEO.

He probably never imagined that what he had dismissed as one ridiculous scene would end up costing him so much.