Secret Love Ended Before His Wedding Chapter 03
Yesterday, before I boarded the train home, I had asked him three times.
I asked if he wanted to use this chance to tell my parents about us.
His dark eyes rested on me, and he smiled lazily.
“Are you that desperate to marry me? I didn’t know you were in such a rush to be a wife.”
I pretended to be mad and swatted at him.
He caught my wrist and pulled me into his arms.
Then he patted my back as if he were soothing me and laughed softly. “All right, stop pouting. When the time
is right, I’ll tell them.”
For the past five years of our secret relationship, I had looked forward to the day he would finally go public with us.
I had wanted so badly for everyone around us to know.
I, Sienna Vale, was Nolan Mercer’s girlfriend.
I didn’t make a scene, not because I didn’t care.
I simply didn’t want it to turn ugly.
I didn’t want myself or my family to become the biggest joke in the neighborhood.
“Nolan, my mom’s stomach is bothering her. She asked me to pick up some medicine, but I don’t know what
she usually takes. Come with me?”
Brielle walked out of the hallway with my mother beside her.
She was smiling brightly.
When she said “my mom,” it came out so naturally, so familiarly, as if she had said it a thousand times
before.
Nolan pressed his lips together and didn’t continue our conversation.
Then he left the complex with her.
Watching their backs disappear, my mother suddenly sighed.
“I used to think you and Nolan might end up together. I didn’t expect the person he liked to be Brielle. Good
thing I never tried to. Otherwise, it would be so awkward now.”
I pressed my lips together and said nothing.
She went on, “When you date in the future, you should learn from Brielle. No matter how busy Nolan is, if her family needs him, he drops everything and comes back.”
“Then look at you. I really don’t know what kind of man you were seeing before. Every year, we invited him to dinner, and every year he said he was too busy…”
My mother kept complaining.
But my mind had gone completely blank.
It was as if the world fell silent in that moment.
I couldn’t hear anything.
Every holiday season, I would ask Nolan if he wanted to come home with me.
He would always say, “Sienna, my company just got off the ground. I’m swamped. When things slow down,
I’ll go with you.”
He said he was busy with work.
He said he had business trips.
I believed him. I had never doubted him once.
But the truth was that every time he turned me down, it was because he was with another woman.
“Mom, do they come back often?”
Bitterness filled my chest.
My voice came out rough.
“Of course. Last month, on your birthday, Brielle’s mom slipped and hurt her leg. Nolan came back and
handled everything. He found her the best orthopedic specialist and stayed at Brielle’s house for several
days to help take care of her.”
At those words, I suddenly remembered.
On my birthday last month, Nolan had taken a call, then tossed my birthday gift to me as if it were an afterthought.
He said, “Something urgent came up at the company. I have to handle it myself, so I’ll be away on business for a few days. Don’t be mad. I’ll bring you something when I get back.”
Before he left that day, I had asked him one question.
Was work more important, or was I?
He looked at me for a long moment and said, “Sienna, we’re adults. Don’t ask childish questions like that.”
Naively, I had thought the only choices in his world were me and work.
I never imagined there was someone else on that list.
Work.
Me.
And Brielle.