Chapter 1
In the fifth year of taking care of my paralyzed boyfriend, his legs had finally started to recover.
Just as Elijah and I were preparing for our wedding, the ex-girlfriend who had caused his paralysis came back with a child.
For her and the child, he postponed the wedding again and again.
That day, I was holding the wedding proposal, planning to ask for his opinion one more time.
Instead, I accidentally overheard one of his friends trying to persuade him.
“If she finds out Yvette’s child is already registered under your household, Stacie might really give up on you. You should tell her the truth sooner rather than later.”
I froze where I stood.
The boyfriend who was supposed to be paralyzed, the one who was not supposed to be able to stand, was now standing by the window with an utterly indifferent look on his face.
He said, “I’ve been paralyzed for all these years, and she still couldn’t bring herself to leave me. Now it’s only a few wedding delays. My dad ran off on my mother and me when I was little. I just want my own child to have a little more fatherly love. What’s wrong with that?”
Lowering my head, I slipped off the ring from my finger, the one that had never fit properly in the first place.
Elijah, this time, I really had decided to give up on you.
The wedding had been delayed so many times that even the wedding company had already called to ask several times.
“Miss Quarles, have you confirmed the date on your side yet?”
I gently rubbed the mark the ring had left on my finger and forced the words out.
“There’s no need. Just keep the deposit.”
The wedding planner paused for a moment before replying, “All right...”
Elijah always used his paralyzed legs as an excuse, pushing the wedding from March to October. The date on the invitations had been changed again and again.
This time, I did not want to wait any longer.
Just then, Elijah sent me another long message. The screen was packed with dense lines of text, and looking at it made my eyes sting.
Out of habit, I scrolled straight to the last line.
Elijah: Stace, let’s push the wedding back another two months. I still want to wait until I can truly stand on my own again before I officially marry you.
He said he did not want me to be mocked by other people. After all, the title of “paralyzed husband” did not sound good.
The old me had actually been foolish enough to think Elijah was being considerate, and I had even secretly felt happy about it for days.
But this wedding, delayed again and again with no end in sight, had long since turned me into a joke in everyone’s eyes.
Before, no matter what he said, I would always reply right away.
But this time, I closed the chat window directly.
I could no longer bring myself to send that one word: Okay.
In this relationship, if I stopped taking the initiative, then this was where it would end between us.
Rarely, Elijah called me immediately.
“Stace, did something happen? Why haven’t you replied to any of my messages?”
Was he worried about me, or was he worried that I had not immediately agreed to what he wanted?
I dug my nails into my palm, forcing myself to stay calm.
“I’m fine...”
But Elijah cut me off right away.
“Let’s talk about the wedding later. I won’t be coming back tonight. There’s a problem with the Riverton project, and I need to go take a look.”
It was as if he had already assumed I would say yes.
“Stace, when I get back, I’ll bring you your favorite perfume.”
I stood there for a long time before I could steady myself.
Just then, Samuel Bexley came out of the office and ran into me head-on.
He hesitated for a moment before speaking. “You... you heard all of it?”
I nodded.
Then I fed the wedding proposal in my hand into the shredder.
After that, I turned to Samuel, pressed a finger to my lips, and said softly, “Don’t tell Elijah I was here. Please. For the sake of us growing up together.”
Elijah, who had said he was going away on business, came back that same night to have dinner with me.
His eyes fell on the scrambled eggs on the table, and there was a trace of impatience in his voice.
“This again? Can’t you make something else? I’m sick of eating it.”
Every time Elijah came home from a business dinner, he would be dead drunk.
And eggs helped ease his hangover headaches.
So I had made him scrambled eggs almost every single day.
In the past, he would always smile and say to me,
“Stace, only you would treat me this well.”
