The Fiancé’s Romantic Wedding Plan Was for My Best Friend Chapter 07
Grayson’s tentative smile froze.
Before he could speak, the elevator down the hall opened.
Eloise stormed out. Her face turned sickly green at the sight of us.
She marched up and slammed her purse into Grayson’s chest. “Grayson, you told me you were in Portland on business. This is your business?! Lying to me to sneak around and see her!”
“If I hadn’t followed you, how long were you going to keep this from me?! Answer me!”
Eloise was unhinged. She kept swinging. The metal chain on her purse scratched Grayson’s forehead, drawing blood.
He grabbed her wrist. “Enough!”
That only made her notice the tattoo on his collarbone.
She stared. “You got a tattoo for her?! Grayson, since when are you a lovesick puppy?!”
Her screech echoed down the hallway. I turned to go inside. But Eloise’s gaze locked onto me, eyes turning vicious.
“Odette, you disappeared for a while, didn’t you? Why didn’t you stay gone? What’s with the hot-and-cold act?!”
She lunged for my collar. Grayson held her back. “Eloise, I said enough!”
“Take your tantrums out on me, but leave Odette out of it!”
Eloise’s eyes went red. “You-you’re calling me crazy? Say that again-”
She couldn’t finish.
Her chest heaved. Another asthma attack hit. She crumpled into Grayson’s arms.
Once again, the drama ended with Eloise in the hospital.
That night, I slept soundly. But the next morning, my doorbell rang.
I opened it. Grayson.
Still in yesterday’s clothes, haggard, bloodshot eyes, hoarse voice. “I’m sorry about yesterday. On behalf of
Eloise.”
I took a deep breath. “Save your apology. Take her and get out of my life for good.”
“I’m doing fine now. Don’t make me move again.”
Grayson said a hoarse okay. “Odette… is there really no chance for us?”
My answer was final. “No.”
Grayson hung his head. A few seconds later, his shoulders started shaking. “I don’t understand… Odette, you
were willing to die for me. Why can’t you forgive me even once?”
This was the second time I’d ever seen Grayson cry.
The first was when I took that knife for him and bled out in his arms.
But I’d never blamed him for that accident.
The moment I jumped in front of him, I did it willingly. Ready to give everything, including my life.
“Maybe because back then, I never imagined that after losing the ability to have children for you, I’d become the woman you said no other man would want,” I sighed.
“Grayson, you devalued me that much. I can never go back.”
“So please, stop coming back into my life.”
At those words, Grayson broke down completely, covering his face, crying like a lost child.
His phone rang.
After thirty seconds, he wiped his face blankly and picked up.
The voice on the other end was loud, panicked. “Hello, is this Mr. Harper? This is St. Andrew’s Memorial
Hospital.”
“Ms. Winter woke up, couldn’t find you, and had a complete breakdown. She’s sitting on the hospital windowsill. She says if you don’t come back, she’ll jump. Police are on scene. Please return immediately to
help talk her down…”
He looked at me dazedly, as if he hadn’t understood a word.
My response was to close the door in his face.
Whatever happened between Grayson and Eloise was no longer my concern.
A day later, I saw the aftermath on the news.
Grayson rushed back to the hospital. He and Eloise struggled. She pulled him out the window with her.
Thankfully, the fire department had inflated an airbag below. They both survived.
But a fall from that height left Grayson with traumatic brain injury. He fell into a coma. Eloise broke her spine and was permanently paralyzed.
Online, people sighed over the irony. Once the world’s most envied sweethearts, now tangled in tragedy
I turned off the news. My heart was strangely calm.
Like the end of a story. The love and pain that once consumed me had finally, completely faded.
What lay ahead was a future. Bright, fresh, and entirely my own.