He Had a Secret Wedding, I Had a Final Goodbye Chapter 03
I had nowhere to go, so I ended up in a cheap motel.
The room was painfully small, with worn curtains that had clearly seen better days.
I sat on the edge of the bed and called Mia first.
The moment she answered, she asked, “Leah, have you been crying?”
My throat tightened, but I told her no.
She went quiet for a moment before asking softly, “Did you and Adrian have a fight?”
“People online are talking about you.”
My stomach dropped.
The one thing I had been dreading had happened.
As soon as we hung up, I opened X.
It wasn’t a top trend, but it had spread far enough to reach everyone who mattered.
The headline was vicious.
#Pregnant Best Friend Gets Married, Homewrecker Causes Scene#
The post was packed with images: the video from the night before, the courthouse photo, and old pictures of Adrian and me together.
The worst part was how completely they had rewritten the timeline.
They claimed Adrian and Vanessa had been together first.
They said I was the one who had come along later.
They even claimed Mia’s illness cost so much that I had clung to Adrian because I needed someone to support us.
The replies were vicious.
I read them one after another until my eyes burned, but no tears came.
Not long after, a message from work arrived.
The company formally notified me that because the online scandal was damaging its reputation, my employment was being terminated.
I stared at the words for a long time without really processing them.
I had fought for that job every step of the way.
When I was an intern, I pulled all-nighters with clients revising proposals, sometimes so exhausted that I would hide in the restroom just to wipe away a few tears.
Later, when the projects piled up, I would go for days getting only a few hours of sleep each night.
I had thought at least one thing in my life was mine because I had earned it myself.
Apparently, even that wasn’t true.
That evening, I went to Adrian’s family home.
I wasn’t holding out any hope.
I just needed to know what I had really been to him all these years.
I had never been to that house before.
We had been together for seven years, and I had never once met Adrian’s parents.
Whenever I brought it up, he would say, “My family’s old-fashioned. We’ll do introductions later.”
And somehow, I had believed him.
When the door opened, Adrian’s mother spotted Vanessa first.
She took Vanessa’s hand with a warm smile.
“So you’re Vanessa. Come in.”
I stood by the door, completely ignored.
When she finally noticed me, she frowned at Adrian.
“Who is she?”
For one moment, I actually felt nervous.
Adrian paused for half a second before answering coolly.
“She’s a new driver at my company.”
I looked down at my plain clothes and understood everything.
Next to Vanessa, I was someone he was ashamed to claim.
Adrian’s mother immediately lost interest in me and turned back to Vanessa.
Wedding invitation proofs and a bridal gown catalog were spread across the coffee table. One glance was enough to make my stomach twist.
I had chosen that invitation design myself.
Six months earlier, Adrian and I had stayed up late going through options together.
He had told me, “When we have our wedding, we’ll use this one.”
Tucked inside the bridal catalog was a sketch of the gown I had loved.
It had been too expensive, so I hadn’t ordered it.
Adrian had held me and promised that once his year-end bonus came through, he would take me to get it.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t bought it.
He had bought it for someone else.
Adrian’s mother flipped through the proofs and said quietly, “Make sure you change the bride’s name.”
Adrian took them from her and casually called the wedding planner.
“Change the bride’s name to Vanessa Quinn.”
“And have Vanessa measured for the dress.”
His expression never changed.
I listened and felt hollow.
After his mother led Vanessa upstairs, Adrian finally came over to me.
“I…”
I looked at him without saying anything.
He sighed.
“I’m sorry. Whatever you need, I can still help you.”
I almost laughed.
“Did you really think the only reason I stayed with you was your money?”
Adrian frowned.
“Wasn’t it?”
“If anything, I was the one who never asked you for anything. I don’t owe you a thing.”
Whatever was left inside me went cold.
Just then, the hospital called.
A nurse spoke in a rush.
“I’m calling about Mia Warren.”
“She became severely distressed, and her condition has worsened. Please come to the hospital right away.”
The words hit me like a blow.
I turned and ran.
By the time I reached the hospital, Mia had already been moved to a monitored unit.
The doctor told me she had seen the posts online and completely broken down.
She was already in poor health, and the stress had nearly been too much for her.
