He Married Her While I Waited at the Altar, I Called My Mother While She Called Me Back Chapter 02
“Stella, open the door! I’m here to grab some things.”
At noon the next day, Hailey was standing at the door.
She was wearing a cream-colored knit dress, her long hair draped over her shoulders, holding two
iced coffees.
I opened the door, and she slipped into those pink slippers and walked in.
Her movements were so natural; she didn’t even have to look for the living room spotlight switch.
That switch was hidden behind a corner decorative panel. It took me a week to find it when I first
moved in.
She curled up on the couch and placed the coffees on the table.
“I got you an Iced Caramel Macchiato, half sweet. Julian said you don’t like things too sugary.”
I didn’t take it.
“What are you here to get?”
“Just some clothes to change into. It’s a bit inconvenient for Julian and me to stay at the hotel right
now.”
She smiled, stood up, walked into the master bedroom, and opened the closet.
As she passed the nightstand, she casually picked up the picture frame.
It was the only photo Julian and I had together.
I had begged him for a long time that day before he reluctantly agreed to take one, keeping a straight face the entire time.
Hailey stared at the photo for two seconds, then placed the frame face down on the nightstand.
“I guess you won’t be needing this anymore, right?”
I walked over and flipped the frame back up.
She tilted her head, looking at me with a hint of cautious probing in her tone.
“Stella, do you still not know?”
“Know what?”
“Julian said your engagement was just a formality. His grandmother hasn’t been well and kept pressuring him to settle down, so he just played along to appease her.”
Just played along to appease her.
Three years ago, when I cut ties with my family to marry him, he had told me, “Stella, I’m here for
you.”
He made me quit my Management Trainee job in Bayview City to come to Silverstone and help him
with his startup.
I threw a $300,000 offer into the trash.
He said we would build our future together, and everything would be ours.
I said okay.
He said money was tight and asked me to cover the company’s operating costs for a while.
I said okay.
All those “okays” had turned into “just playing along” in his eyes.
Hailey pulled a stack of clothes from the closet and noticed my floral dress buried at the very
bottom.
“This dress is so old. You still keep it?”
“I bought it in college.”
“No wonder.”
She packed up her things and was about to leave, pausing by the door of the guest room.
“By the way, Stella, it’s best if you start packing your stuff. Julian said we’re officially moving back
in next week.”
I looked at her.
She quickly waved her hands.
“I’m not kicking you out! I just don’t want our things getting mixed up; it’s a hassle to sort out
“Julian said you’re super reasonable and definitely wouldn’t take it the wrong way.
When she crouched down to change her shoes, I noticed a silver bracelet on her wrist.
That bracelet was supposed to be in my jewelry box on the vanity.
It was a birthday gift from my mom when I turned eighteen.
“Where did you get that bracelet?”
She looked down at it, her tone incredibly innocent.
“Julian gave it to me. He said he found it at a flea market. Pretty, right?”
He had even taken the silver bracelet my mom gave me to give to someone else.
And when he gave it to her, he called it a “flea market find.’
I stood there, motionless.
Hailey opened the door, then turned back with a smile.
“Oh, right, Stella, Julian is going to cancel the authorized user card you have. He can only have one
authorized user on his primary account, and he needs to set one up for me.”
“I’ve been the one paying the bills on that card.”
“Oh, really? Well, thank you so much for that.”
She took two steps with her iced coffee, then turned around again.
“Julian wanted me to tell you that he remembers everything that’s happened lately and will make it
up to you.”
“But you’ll have to wait a little bit. We haven’t even paid the deposit for our honeymoon hotel yet.”