Three days before we were supposed to sign the marriage license, I finished planning the last wedding of my career.
When the doors opened, the groom with his arm around the blonde bride was Nolan James. The man I was about to marry.
He lifted the microphone, grinning wide and shameless.
“The white wedding dress has finally found its true owner.”
The blood drained from my face. I snatched my phone and dialed him like a lunatic.
Nolan picked up without hesitation. When I demanded an explanation, his voice was perfectly calm.
“Lisa isn't a gold-digger like you. She doesn't want a car, a house, or a bride price. She doesn't even need the title.”
“All she wants is me.”
“Love that pure? I can't let her down.”
“But don't worry. This is just a ceremony for her. When it's time to sign the license, it'll still be you. You'll still be the legitimate Mrs. James.”
The microphone carried his voice across the entire banquet hall. Laughter, sharp and mocking, hit me from every direction.
Through the blur of tears, I thought of the black suit I'd hand-stitched for Nolan myself.
It should go find its true owner, too.
……
His friends crowded around to toast him, praising him for landing a foreign wife.
He pulled Lisa in by the waist and tipped his chin up, proud.
“It wasn't until I met Lisa that I understood what real love is.”
Then he glanced in my direction. The guests followed his gaze.
It didn't take long for someone to recognize me.
“Hey, isn't that wedding planner Mr. James's fiancée?”
“Tsk tsk. Poor thing. Planning her own boyfriend's wedding to another woman.”
“Poor thing? Please. She's nothing but a gold-digger. Demanded two hundred sixty thousand in bride price before she'd sign the license.”
“Two hundred sixty thousand? Who does she think she is? She deserved to get dumped.”
The rest of the guests turned to stare at me, eyes full of contempt.
I bit down on my lip until it hurt, nails digging into my palms.
None of them knew. When Nolan wanted to start his company, I sold the only thing my mother ever left me—her house—and gave him every cent for his startup capital.
He promised me that once the business took off, he'd buy it back.
That $260,000 bride price was the house's current market value.
I opened my mouth, but not a single word came out.
Then someone in the crowd yelled.
“Hey sweetheart, make sure you tell all your girlfriends back home—a man like Nolan James doesn't come around twice, and you let him slip right through your fingers!”
Nolan beamed. Beside him, the blonde bride nestled into his chest, blushing and radiant.
I couldn't breathe. I stumbled backward, nearly losing my footing.
A coworker beside me caught my arm.
“Gusta, are you okay?”
I shook my head, my voice raw.
“I'm fine.”
Then I turned and walked out of the banquet hall.
Nolan caught a glimpse of my retreating figure. The smile on his face faltered for a second, something tight pressing against his chest.
But the congratulations pouring in from every side buried the feeling before it could take hold.
After the ceremony ended, I drifted out of the hotel entrance in a daze and walked straight into Nolan's car.
He'd pulled up right in front of me and rolled down the window. In the passenger seat sat the blonde bride.
I saw their fingers laced together, and my chest clenched so hard the air locked in my throat.
Nolan once told me that passenger seat was mine and no one else's. He'd even put a little sticker on the dash: *Gusta's seat only ♡*.
The sticker was gone. In its place was a photo of Lisa.
Nolan leaned out the window and waved me over.
