I loved her, so whatever she said, no matter how deeply it cut, I gave her what she wanted.
Just like tonight. She said she wanted to get a marriage license with her childhood sweetheart.
In that moment, even as my heart split open, I felt a strange sense of relief.
Better this way. At least I wouldn't have to keep groveling in the dirt, waiting for her to marry me.
My mom was still on the phone, chattering away about how to win a girl's heart. The grievances piled up in my chest suddenly lost all desire to be spoken.
"Mom, the wedding's off. I'm not marrying her."
I hung up and called the wedding planning company to cancel tomorrow's ceremony.
The emcee went quiet for a beat before speaking.
"Ms. Delgado already called about this. But she asked us to keep the decorations and banners in storage for three years. That's going to be tough. Most of it's single-use material..."
It hit me instantly. It wasn't that she hadn't had time to notify the guests on both sides.
She just didn't want to deal with the questions.
And she assumed I'd be like those cheap decorations, sitting in storage, waiting for her for three years.
"Throw it all out. Even if it weren't disposable, three years in storage would rot it."
Just like her love for me.
It would fade with time until nothing remained.
After I hung up, I pulled up Isabella Delgado's number and stared at it, dreading the conversation.
She despised Graham. If she found out her daughter had already gotten a marriage license with him, she'd probably have a stroke.
I took a deep breath and wired back the eighty-eight thousand dollars of dowry money she'd transferred to me.
I counted to three in my head. The phone rang.
"Wilfred, why did you send the money back?"
"Mom, Carrie and I are putting the wedding on hold. I'm going abroad for three years."
Even though I was telling the truth, Isabella was too sharp not to sense something was wrong.
"Did Carrie do something to hurt you? I'm going over there right now! The wedding is happening tomorrow, and that's final!"
"Ma'am, the wedding really can't go forward..."
But Isabella had already hung up.
That was Carrie's headache now, figuring out how to handle her own mother.
And it was time for me to pack and leave.
The apartment was decked out for a newlywed couple. Every detail reflected the happy life I'd imagined after the wedding.
Now every single one of them was a blade buried in my chest.
There wasn't much to take. One suitcase, not even full.
But there was plenty to throw away.
By the time I finished, I noticed Carrie had called me several times.
Didn't take a genius to figure out why. She was going to blame me for not handling Isabella.
I left the key on the entryway table and grabbed the last framed wedding photo on my way out.
I walked straight into Carrie.
The photo crashed to the floor and shattered.
A shard sliced across the top of my foot, and blood welled up immediately.
Carrie shoved Graham behind her, shielding him, and glared at me.
"Wilfred, what the hell? Didn't you see Graham standing there? What if you'd hurt him?"
She didn't see the blood pooling on my foot. Instead, she crouched down and carefully picked a speck of glass no bigger than a pea off Graham's shoe.
I had no interest in watching her dote on another man. I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the door.
She caught the suitcase in her peripheral vision and scrambled to her feet, grabbing my arm.
"Wilfred, where are you going?"
I was about to answer when her phone rang.
I saw the caller ID. Isabella.
She picked up, irritation bleeding through her voice.
"Fine! I know! It's not canceled! I'll smooth things over with him! Don't worry!"
She hung up and turned to me.
"Wilfred, my mom says the wedding has to go ahead tomorrow as planned."
"I don't want to upset her, so let's keep everything the way it is. But can you be the one who runs?"
"My mom adores you. If you're the runaway groom, she won't blame me. And I can explain it to her later, tell her I only got the license with Graham because I was upset."
