The Roses Wilted at Dusk Chapter 09
On the fifth day, Tamsin Calder sent me an iMessage.
[Ms. Ellison, sorry to bother you.]
[There are some things I think I should say in person, but you’re not in this city, so I can only message you.]
I leaned back in my office chair and waited for her to finish typing.
[I know now about the wedding plan.]
[Those details weren’t my ideas. Dashiell gave them to
meg]
[He said he’d always had a wedding like that in mind.]
[White roses, lemon tarts, a garden at dusk, and the piano version of Clair de Lune.]
[He said that was his idea of a perfect wedding.]
[I thought it was his taste.]
[Now I know it was you.]
Tamsin sent another message.
[Ms. Ellison, I knew he was still in love with someone else.]
[But I didn’t know that person was you.]
[And I didn’t know what I tried on wasn’t just a wedding. dress. It was the place you waited four years for.]
She stopped for a long time.
A few minutes later, a new message popped up.
[But Ms. Ellison, the wedding invitations have already gone out.]
[Both our families arrive the day after tomorrow, and the funding agreement is tied to the wedding schedule.]
[This is no longer just between Dashiell and me.]
[I hope you can understand and not make things difficult for Dashiell.]
What they cared about was never what I had lost.
It was whether my loss would inconvenience them.
I found the photos of the old wedding scrapbook in my
phone album and selected four.
First: the cover, dated four years ago.
Second: the design sketch for the white rose brooch, with the note beside it saying it was a fourth-year gift for him.
Third: the wedding date page, exactly the same date as the printout in her hand.
Fourth: the vow card, first line: I want to marry you in the fourth year.
I sent them.
With one sentence:
[Ms. Calder, do these details require my authorization for use? Or has Mr. Lockwood already decided for me?]
The chat showed she was typing.
She typed for a long time, stopped, then began again.
Finally, she sent a voice message.
I tapped it.
Her voice was tight.
“Ms. Ellison, I really didn’t know.”
“If I had known, I would not have used them.”
After two seconds, she continued.
“This was never clean from the start.”
“You’re the person who was wronged. And I’m the condition placed on the table.”
That sentence was truer than everything before it
But truth did not mean I had to forgive.
I did not reply to the voice message.
I only typed:
[Ms. Calder, I am no longer the planner for this wedding.]
[The schedule, the plan, the coordination. None of it has anything to do with me.]
[If you have questions, please contact the team that took
over.]
