Goodbye to the Love I Lost Eight Years Ago Chapter 08
The night before the wedding, Liam tried to contact Claire one last time.
His fingers trembled over the screen.
But Claire had not only blocked his number.
She had blocked his messages too.
So her fiancé mattered that much to her?
So much that she was not even willing to be friends with him?
Maybe that was for the best.
At least now, he could finally give up.
He could marry Vanessa properly and do his best to be a good father.
On the day of the wedding, everything passed in a blur.
The music.
The vows.
The smiling guests.
Vanessa’s hand in his.
Through it all, Liam kept searching the venue for Claire.
Claire never came.
Neither did her mother.
When he saw that the seats meant for the Winters family had been filled by other relatives and friends, a constant ache settled
behind his ribs.
Then the ceremony ended, and it was time to make the rounds for toasts.
When Liam reached the table of his old high school classmates, he had just lifted his glass when Claire’s former best friend
looked at him with a sneer.
“Only one drink, Liam? Are you kidding me?
“You should drink at least three. One for the dead woman you killed with your own hands.”
The moment Rachel said that, a male classmate standing beside her grabbed her arm.
“Rachel, what are you doing?”
Rachel shoved him away.
“What am I doing? I’m sick of all of you.”
As she spoke, her gaze moved to Margaret, who was standing beside Liam.
“And you. If you were going to invite me, you shouldn’t have sent me money before the wedding and told me to keep my mouth shut.”
Her smile turned cold.
“Absolutely disgusting.”
With that, Rachel shoved back her chair, grabbed her bag, and turned to leave.
For reasons Liam could not explain, panic surged through him.
He called after her urgently.
“Rachel. Who died?”
Rachel stopped.
Then she laughed.
Two tears slipped from the corners of her eyes as she turned back to him.
“Who died?”
Her voice shook with contempt.
“Claire died.”
After saying that, Rachel walked out of the hotel without looking back.
The wineglass in Liam’s hand slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor.
He turned to his mother in disbelief.
“She said Claire died?”
His voice was almost a whisper.
“Why would Claire die?”
“Didn’t you say she was preparing for her wedding?”
Margaret’s face went pale.
Vanessa hurried forward and clung to his arm.
“Liam, I’ll explain it to you later. Right now, we’re in the middle of our wedding.”
Liam looked at her slowly.
“You knew too?”
Vanessa’s face lost all color.
At the table, every one of his old classmates had gone silent.
Looking at them, Liam suddenly laughed.
He laughed until tears came.
So everyone knew Claire was dead.
Everyone except him.
The pain came all at once, sharp and endless.
His body shook as he grabbed the classmate who had once been his closest friend and dragged him outside.
The moment they reached the hotel entrance, Liam’s knees buckled.
He knelt on the ground.
“I’m begging you,” he said, his voice breaking. “Tell me the truth.”
The man was startled by the sight of him kneeling.
Then he told Liam everything.
Not one detail held back.
By the time Liam understood the truth, he was laughing again.
The sound was hollow and unbearable.
So what had this been?
From beginning to end, had he been the stupidest one of all?
He had been stupid.
He had been blind.
Because he had noticed how abnormally thin Claire was.
He had felt how light she was when he carried her.
But what had he done?
Because of his pride.
Because of his hatred.
He had wiped his hands with wet wipes and used disgust as an excuse not to ask a single question.
