Secret Love Ended Before His Wedding Chapter 02
At those words, anger, disappointment, disbelief, and the sickening ache of utter betrayal surged up inside me all at once.
My eyes burned. It felt as if every bit of strength had been drained from my body.
My mother noticed my pale face and quickly said.
“Sienna isn’t feeling well today, so we won’t hold up your family dinner. We’ll all get together again on my birthday.”
Nolan looked at me for a long moment.
In the end, he said nothing. He simply took Brielle’s hand and left my house with her.
My mother thought that I was grieving a dead boyfriend, wrapped her arms around me the moment the door closed.
“Sienna, you’re still young. You have your whole life ahead of you. If he didn’t get the chance to marry you,
that was his loss. The next one will be better.”
Looking at the worry in her eyes, I forced myself to smile.
“Mom, I’m fine. I’m just tired. I want to go to my room and rest for a while.”
I carried my suitcase upstairs and pushed open my bedroom door.
The first thing I saw was the framed calligraphy on the wall, the one Nolan had written for me himself.
A Future Unbound.
Senior year, I had been suffocating under schoolwork and college applications.
There had been countless moments when I wanted to give up.
Nolan knew.
He had never liked taking notes, but that night, he stayed up and organized key points for every subject for
He said, “Dummy, if you still can’t get good grades after reading these notes, don’t come see me anymore. You’ll embarrass your teacher.”
Along with the notes, he gave me his final calligraphy project.
Bright roads ahead.
A Future Unbound. It was a promise that we would climb to the top together.
Later, I lived up to his expectations.
I got into the same university as him.
Thinking of what he had just said, I set down my suitcase, took the frame off the wall, tore the paper in half,
and threw it into the trash.
When I looked around, I saw a photo of the three of us still sitting neatly on my desk.
It was taken after graduation, on our first trip to Hawaii without our parents.
In the photo, I stood in the middle.
Nolan and Brielle, one on each side, had both leaned in, though looking closely now, their shoulders seemed
to incline subtly toward each other, cutting me out of the frame entirely.
Even now, I still remembered what happened when that photo was taken.
Brielle had deliberately nudged me closer to Nolan and whispered.
“This is your chance to get close to him. Don’t waste it. There are plenty of pretty girls in college. If you don’t
make a move, someone’s going to steal him.”
My expression went cold.
I picked up the photo, frame and all, and tossed it into the trash too.
Since they had chosen to abandon our love and our friendship first, why should I keep holding on?
I searched my room and gathered everything connected to them.
The old graphic novels Brielle had left at my place.
The birthday gifts Nolan had given me every year.
The unsent love letter I had written to him when I was eighteen but never had the courage to give him.
That night, after dinner, I carried the trash bag out of the house.
“Isn’t that heavy? Why didn’t you call me to help?”
A hoarse voice came from behind me.
I turned around.
Nolan was standing there in casual clothes, hands in his pockets, looking at me with that lazy ease I used to
know so well.
I used to be lazy and hated making a special trip downstairs just to take out the trash.
Whenever my mother asked me to do it, I would go straight to Nolan.
Especially during the five years we had been dating.
“Silent treatment? Are you really that mad?”
He raised an eyebrow and walked toward me, reaching for my hand.
I stepped back to avoid his touch.
Shock flashed through Nolan’s eyes, and his brows drew together.
I didn’t look away. I met his gaze and said calmly.
“The whole neighborhood knows you’re getting married now. It isn’t appropriate for us to be in contact
anymore. Lose my number.”
Nolan didn’t take my words seriously. He gave a short laugh.
“The marriage is just me helping Brielle out. It’s a legal technicality, Sienna. It’s just a marriage on paper to clear her family’s debt.I’ll file for divorce once the dust settles. Other people don’t know that, fine, but why are
you acting like it’s real?”