His Engagement Was My Final Goodbye

Chapter 3

The next afternoon, I'd just finished the final on-site inspection when the wedding planning company called.

"Ms. Rose, the bridesmaid rehearsal has already started."

I hung up straight away.

Half an hour later, Ethan and Lucas blocked the entrance to the medical examination center.

"Margaret is coming to watch the rehearsal tonight, too. The old lady knows you're Adrian's closest friend, and she wants to see you by Vivian's side."

I shot back.

"So I'm supposed to stand there and watch her marry my boyfriend?"

Lucas frowned.

"A wedding doesn't mean there's actual love between them."

"Then what does it mean?"

Both of them fell silent at once.

Finally, they pulled up a video of Margaret.

The old lady was lying in a hospital bed, her voice very soft.

"Emily, dear, stay with Vivian on her wedding day, won't you?"

Vivian knew exactly which buttons to push to leave me with no way to say no.

I ended up going.

I only went to drop the old lady off at the rehearsal venue.

The banquet hall was in the middle of testing the stage lift.

The second Vivian spotted me, she pinned a bridesmaid corsage onto my shirt.

Click. I ripped it off right there.

"I'm not doing this."

The wedding planner smiled and explained, "Vivian specifically arranged for you to walk up from the secondary stage with her."

"Adrian will be waiting for you both on the main stage." Lucas even joked from the side, "This is great, actually. You never had a formal ceremony with him, right? This counts as going through one with Adrian."

The whole roomful of staff snickered.

A bridesmaid who didn't know me whispered, "Is she Adrian's ex-girlfriend?"

Vivian corrected her immediately.

"Not an ex-girlfriend. Adrian said she'll always be family."

The girl looked at me with an even weirder expression after that.

Vivian's eyes curved into a smirk, and she leaned in to murmur so only I could hear,

"I get the wedding with him, you get the day-to-day life. No one loses out."

I tossed the corsage right at her feet.

"You can mess around as much as you want. That's your business. I'm not playing along."

Adrian showed up right then and glanced at the corsage on the floor.

"What's wrong now?"

Vivian shook her head quickly.

"It's nothing. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."

Adrian snapped, "No one's forcing you, so why are you pulling that face?"

I was suddenly so drained I didn't even have the energy to argue. I handed Adrian the apartment key and the studio share transfer documents.

"I'm giving you back your key, and I'm withdrawing my shares. Don't contact me for anything from now on."

Adrian's face fell instantly. "Emily, how long are you going to keep acting out?"

"I'm walking away entirely. How is that acting out?"

Vivian's eyes welled up with tears right away. "This is all my fault!"

She grabbed her engagement ring and tried to yank it off.

"Fine, I'll give it back to you! Both of you can stop worrying about me!"

The ring was clearly loose on her finger, but she tugged and tugged and couldn't get it off no matter what.

Adrian grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Enough!"

He turned to look at me, his face going icy cold for the first time ever.

"Emily, stop pushing her."

I stared at the whole messed-up scene. It was completely ridiculous, but a dull, throbbing ache still squeezed my chest tight.

"Relax. That'll never happen again."

I turned to leave.

But Vivian suddenly chased after me and clamped down on my wrist.

"You tell me first, are you leaving because of me?"

I wrenched my arm free. "Let go!"

She stumbled back two steps, and her eyes flicked to the secondary stage as it slowly descended. The next second, she fell backward from the momentum of my yank.

"Ah!"

Everyone lunged toward her instantly. Adrian moved faster than anyone else, catching her firmly in his arms.

The sudden release of her grip sent me stumbling backward. My high heel sank right into the newly opened gap in the lift platform. The ground vanished under my feet, and I went tumbling straight down into the machinery pit below.

My right hand shot out on instinct to break my fall. The descending metal guard plate slammed down right on my wrist.

Crack!

White-hot, searing pain exploded through my arm right away. Then my side crashed hard into an equipment bracket. I curled up in the pit, the agony so bad that black spots dotted my vision.

All the commotion was up above me. Everyone was panicking. Someone yelled that Vivian had hit her head, and someone else screamed for them to rush her to the hospital.

I lifted my head just in time to see Adrian scoop Vivian up and bolt out of the banquet hall, with Ethan and Lucas flanking them on either side. Not a single one of them looked back. Not even once.