As she spoke, she called her secretary and instructed them to send someone to keep an eye on me to prevent any disruptions. Then, glancing at the time, she hurriedly left with Terry to the civil affairs office.
As the elevator doors closed, I didn't miss the smugness and provocation in Terry's eyes. Nor did I miss Patricia asking, "Terry, did you bring your ID card?"
This wasn't a show for Terry's mother, it was a show for me.
Before the bodyguards she arranged arrived, I quickly drove to the bridal shop to retrieve the wedding dress. It was a custom-made, handcrafted gown from Italy that I ordered specifically for marrying Patricia.
Recently, she had lost some weight, so certain parts needed to be adjusted. It made no sense for her to marry someone else while keeping the dress I ordered, this was unreasonable.
When I arrived at the bridal shop, the owner was surprised and said, "Mr. Summer, your girlfriend picked up the wedding dress a few days ago! She even brought a man along to try it on. I wasn't in the shop at the time ..."
Seeing my expression change, the owner quickly checked the surveillance footage. On the video, Patricia wore the wedding dress I had custom-made and slowly walked toward a visibly stunned Terry.
"Terry, do I look good?" The smile on her face was one I had never seen before and Terry's eyes lit up like green flames.
"You look amazing, even more beautiful than in my dreams! Patricia, pinch me. Let me see if this is a dream. For years, I could only marry you in my dreams ..." He choked up as he spoke.
Patricia, full of tenderness, stood on tiptoe and kissed the tears off his face while said, "Silly, thank goodness you came back in time. Otherwise, I would've married someone else ..."
The shop owner, watching the video of the two passionately embracing, awkwardly apologized to me, "Mr. Summer, I'm sorry. This was a mistake by my staff ... I'll find an excuse to get the wedding dress back for you right away!"
It was clear to everyone, I had been cheated on and even my wedding dress was taken. Furious, the owner immediately made a phone call.
The moment they spoke, Patricia's voice turned angry, "Did Anthony ask you to get the wedding dress? Tell him I'll wear this wedding dress to marry him, so stop making trouble!"
I never expected Patricia to be so shameless. What made her think I'd still marry her?
The shop owner, left holding a disconnected line, awkwardly offered me compensation.
But the culprit was clear, so I simply sent Patricia a screenshot of the original wedding dress order.
She called me immediately, "Anthony, what do you mean by this? Just because I wore the wedding dress early, you want money from me? Shouldn't you feel it's even more valuable since it's been worn twice?"
But when Terry suggested keeping the dress as a memento, she promptly hung up and transferred the money to me.
She threatened me, "You'd better have the shop owner order me another handcrafted wedding dress, one better than this one, or I won't marry you!"
After six years of love, it dawned on me for the first time that I might have never truly known Patricia. Looking at her location pinned at the civil affairs office, I thought I would feel heartbroken, but instead, I felt nothing at all.
I disabled the shared location feature on our couple's app just as Secretary Beckett arrived with two bodyguards.
"Mr. Summer, as long as you don't cause trouble, we won't interfere with your movements!" Once overly polite to me, Secretary Beckett now spoke in a superficially courteous tone but looked at me with complete disdain.
Too weary to deal with such a turncoat, I went to my office, resigned and then drove home.
