The Bride Isn’t Me, So I’m Calling Off the Wedding Chapter 04
After submitting my resignation to my supervisor, I immediately booked a plane ticket.
By tomorrow afternoon, I could disappear from their world.
After turning off my phone, I began packing my luggage.
In the corner of a drawer, I found a pair of couple keychains—the ones Jason Miller and I had picked out together at a night market years ago.
The paint had long since worn off mine. The other one, which should have been hanging from Jason Miller’s keys, was now mixed in with Claire Shaw’s collection of little accessories.
At some point, Claire’s things had taken over the home that was supposed to belong to Jason Miller and me, while everything that belonged to me had been pushed into the corners.
I was still lost in thought when a knock suddenly sounded at the door. It was a delivery of roses from Jason Miller.
A note was attached to the flowers: Baby, don’t be mad anymore. Please forgive me this once.
In the past, I would have accepted them without hesitation, then smiled coyly and told him not to do it again.
But this time, I didn’t want to forgive him.
I was dragging my suitcase toward the door when Natalie’s mother suddenly sent me a voice message:
“Natalie, tomorrow is their wedding rehearsal. You have to come, or Claire will get suspicious. I know you’ve been wronged these past few days, but trust me, tomorrow will be the last time. Please, I’m begging you.”
I was about to refuse when the event organizer also messaged me, requiring me to be there in person tomorrow to coordinate every detail of the wedding.
My hand tightened around the suitcase handle, then stopped. After thinking it over, I ultimately agreed.
This would be the last time I ever went to see them.
The next day, I arrived at the wedding venue as promised. They had already begun rehearsing.
Claire was wearing the wedding dress I’d almost returned, a radiant smile on her face as she looped her arm through Jason Miller’s and walked with him toward the center.
Cheers rang out throughout the room. Everyone was happy for the two of them.
The officiant I had hired now held up a microphone and asked Jason Miller whether he was willing to grow old with Claire.
Jason Miller clasped Claire’s hand and said solemnly,
“I am willing to grow old with her. Meeting her was the greatest stroke of luck in my life.”
The familiar words reached my ears, and I stared blankly at Jason Miller.
He had actually taken the wedding vows I had written by hand and used them to win Claire over.
Before I could react, Jason Miller leaned down and kissed Claire on the forehead right in front of me.
The applause below did not stop. My parents’ eyes glistened with tears, as though this were truly their wedding.
But I knew that kiss had not been part of the original rehearsal.
I clenched my fists, and a surge of disgust rose in me.
I was about to leave when another message suddenly popped up from “Who Should Get the Wedding?”
Natalie’s older sister wrote in the group chat with a laugh,
“I think Claire and Jason Miller really are a perfect match—talented man, beautiful woman, made for each other. Why don’t we let them turn this fake wedding into a real one?”
Another round of voting began.
I tagged Jason Miller in the group chat:
“What are you choosing this time?”
Jason Miller stood onstage with a dark expression. While everyone around him was busy congratulating Claire, he came down, dragged me aside, and snapped,
“Claire is still here. Do you really have to cause trouble right now? What if you make her depression flare up?”
“If you keep this up, don’t blame me for firing you.”
“You know how much effort you put into getting this job in the first place. Are you really willing to give it up?”
I never imagined he would threaten me with my job. I stared at him in shock and fury.
Jason Miller didn’t want to keep making a scene and sighed.
“I vote yes. Are you satisfied now that you’ve heard my answer?”
I nodded without crying or making a fuss.
Jason Miller’s grip on my hand immediately loosened, and an emotion I couldn’t read appeared across his face.
Then, right in front of him, I started another vote in the group chat:
“Who should be the bride on the marriage certificate?”
“I vote for Claire. The rest of you can do as you please.”
After sending the message, I pulled my hand free from Jason Miller’s, threw the wedding ring I had worn again and again at him, and left the wedding venue.
Jason Miller didn’t come after me. He assumed I was merely throwing a tantrum. He would never know.
Soon, I would be leaving this city.
