He Had a Secret Wedding, I Had a Final Goodbye Chapter 08
Two years later, Mia and I came home.
When the plane landed, daylight flooded the windows. The familiar city slowly came into view, and I sat there watching it for a long time.
I no longer felt the crushing desperation I had when I left, or the anxiety I had expected to feel on
my return.
I was simply calm.
It felt like I had taken a long detour and finally found my way back.
Julian was already waiting for us at arrivals.
He hadn’t brought flowers or made a production out of welcoming us home. He simply took our luggage and handed us each a hot drink.
“Are you tired from the flight?”
Mia held her cup and murmured, “Thank you.”
Julian smiled and opened the car door for us.
On the drive, he never brought up the past. He only told us that he had arranged a place to stay near both the hospital and the office. If it didn’t work for us, we could change it later. There was no rush.
I sat in the back seat, watching the streets slip past the window as the tension slowly left me.
It wasn’t because someone had made arrangements for me.
It was because I knew that this time, every choice was mine to make.
After we came home, I got Mia settled and went with her to a follow-up appointment at the hospital.
Once everything was stable, I started work.
The day I got my ID badge, I looked down at it.
Leah Warren.
That was the only name on it.
I wasn’t anyone’s girlfriend or fiancée, and I wasn’t someone being supported by somebody else.
I was simply myself.
A lot had changed back home in those two years.
Adrian and Vanessa were completely over, and from what I had heard, the split had been ugly.
Vanessa had lost the baby. Adrian’s career had taken a hit, he had been reassigned at work, and most of the people around him had drifted away.
My adoptive parents had aged a lot.
They reached out to me several times. At first, they kept explaining that they had hidden the truth because they were afraid I couldn’t handle it. When I remained distant, the explanations gradually
turned into them telling me how sorry they were.
But some damage couldn’t be undone just because they regretted it.
They used to tell me, “Family comes first. Sometimes you just have to let things go.
But all that “just let it go” had nearly destroyed me.
So when they finally humbled themselves, I didn’t cave the way I used to.
I still did what I felt I owed them, but nothing more.
A little over a month after we came home, I saw Adrian again.
I had worked late that night, and by the time I left the office, it was completely dark outside.
The streetlights were on, and the air had turned cool.
I had barely made it down the steps when I saw him waiting by the curb.
He wore a dark coat and carried nothing. He looked like he had been there for a long time.
When he saw me, he took two steps forward.
“Leah.”
I stopped and looked at him without saying a word.
