He was just a stranger passing by when he found me. He rushed me to the hospital and signed the surgery consent form himself.
A stranger, taking on that risk to sign for me.
Lorraine, the woman who was supposed to be my fiancée, hung up on me to go watch the parade floats with her guy best friend.
The doctor couldn't hide his pity.
"Good thing you got here in time. You almost died, you know that?"
A suffocating despair closed over me.
I called Lorraine again and again.
By the time night fell, my parents had arrived from hundreds of miles away. Lorraine, three miles down the road at the amusement park with Chad, never came.
That day something in me went cold for good, and I went home with my parents.
Something came to mind, and I opened the chat with the cousin I was closest to.
Before the ceremony, he'd messaged me.
【Jules, is the wedding starting soon?】
A few minutes later.
【Don't be too upset. I know Aunt and Uncle wouldn't let us come to the wedding, but honestly, they already regret it.】
【I really believe things between you two can get better.】
He'd sent me a video.
Looking at my parents on the thumbnail, I couldn't bring myself to open it.
Now, with a shaking finger, I pressed play.
On the couch at my aunt's place, both my parents' eyes were already red.
My mother kept wiping at her tears.
"Why is that boy so stubborn? We told him that woman was no good."
"Who leaves their fiancé lying there with a smashed head, life on the line, to go play around with another woman?"
"And then what? She kneels in the snow one night, kneels herself right into a hospital bed, mumbles some empty little vow, and he goes soft."
My father sat there gripping his teacup, saying nothing.
My mother, furious, smacked him.
"And you. Why say something so harsh? Telling him if he dared marry her, you'd disown him as your son."
"Well, now you've done it. Our son really has run off."
Looking at the new gray in my parents' hair, my tears fell one after another.
My father was silent for a long time.
Then he took a bank card out of his wallet and handed it to my cousin.
"Howie Abbott, get this to your cousin when you can."
"There's five hundred thousand dollars in bride-price money in there. Don't let that girl's family look down on him."
A whole day of held-back emotion broke all at once.
I covered my face and couldn't stop the sobs, crying until my throat went raw.
There was only one thought in my head.
I want to go home.
I didn't bother sorting anything, just grabbed my things and stuffed them into the suitcase.
I couldn't even wait for the morning train, so I paid two thousand dollars for a long-distance Uber straight home.
The moment I zipped the suitcase shut, Lorraine called.
"Why aren't you answering my texts?"
I didn't respond.
She clicked her tongue but didn't press it, her tone offhand.
"Things got a little out of hand. A lot of the ballroom decorations got wrecked."
"I had the hotel set up a small hall on short notice. We'll just run our ceremony in there."
The main hall was ten thousand square feet. The small one was a thousand.
The people who came for the wedding experience got the main hall. The actual groom got the small one.
The way Lorraine said it, it was as easy as swapping a parking spot.
But I couldn't be bothered to care anymore.
I answered flatly: "Fine."
The complaint she'd braced for didn't come, and Lorraine paused.
Then, catching up, she let out a breath of relief.
"Now that's more like it."
"The hotel's already setting up, and I just had someone make an exact copy of the wedding cake."
Something crossed her mind, and her voice dropped, turning a little tender.
"Lorraine, I'm about to really become your wife."
"The wedding starts at nine. Make sure you're there on time."
The call ended.
I slipped the diamond ring off my ring finger and set it on the hotel nightstand.
Then I turned, and got into the Uber home.
