I Returned On Their Wedding Date

On the day my overseas assignment ended, my boyfriend, Victor Walter, posted something on social media and quickly deleted it. The room was filled with familiar friends. The caption read, [Waiting for tonight's guest of honor.] I thought he had found out that I had changed my flight to come back early and wanted to surprise me. When I arrived at the location and entered the room, everyone fell silent. My best friend, Cynthia Haight, was the first to recover from the shock and said, "Welcome home! We've been waiting for you." Everyone ushered me into a seat and took turns toasting to my return. After several rounds, I leaned drowsily into Victor's arms and closed my eyes to fake being drunk. He pinched my cheek the way he always did and tested me, "Clementine?" When I did not respond, he draped his jacket over me. I smiled a little. Just as I was about to tease him, I heard Cynthia's voice, saying, "Victor, what are we going to do about our wedding on Saturday?" Victor let go of me and turned to pull her into his arms. "Don't worry. The wedding's still on." Their friends chimed in and reassured her softly, "Clementine won't find out. We're all covering for you. There's nothing to worry about." My body turned rigid. I only dared to open my eyes a tiny bit. Under the couch, I noticed something that had been shoved out of sight. [Victor Walter & Cynthia Haight—One-Year Anniversary.] Chapter 1 At that moment, each word hit me like a slap. Beside me, someone scoffed softly, "When Victor ran out of money and hit rock bottom, didn't she just get up and bail?" "She claimed she couldn't pass up the overseas assignment. Wasn't it just because she didn't want to go down with Victor's startup? Had Cindy not scraped together the money to bail him out, he wouldn't be here today..." They only saw it as me going abroad to build up my resume. They had no idea I had applied for the most dangerous project in Africa, simply because it paid the most. During those first few years overseas, I kept only the bare minimum for my living expenses. I sent back the rest of my salary to Victor for his startup. Worried he would not accept my money, I had no choice but to funnel it through Cynthia. It hit me so hard emotionally that my chest tightened. I instinctively curled in on myself. The next second, Cynthia frowned and cut them off. "That's enough. I know Clem better than any of you do. Drop it." Victor stepped forward and tucked my jacket around me. "Let it go. We keep her in the dark for now and figure out the rest later." Cynthia, my best friend, defended me like she always had. Victor, my boyfriend of seven years, was tender with me like he always had. I squeezed my eyes shut, barely able to tell whether what I had just heard was real or not. "It's getting late. We've got rehearsal at 9 a.m., so let's call it a night." Everyone was just about to get up when I opened my eyes and acted like I was still drunk. "Wait... who's getting married?" The room went dead silent. Victor froze for a moment, then quickly tried to smooth things over. "You must've misheard. Nobody's getting married." I didn't push it. I just used the excuse of being drunk to avoid his touch. As I got up, I casually hooked a finger around that white ribbon. A banner dropped right out in front of everyone. [Victor Walter & Cynthia Haight—One-Year Anniversary.] Victor's face changed instantly. He instinctively moved to block the banner. "Clem, let me explain." Cynthia glanced at him and shook her head. "Don't bother. She already saw it." She took a deep breath, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "Clementine, Victor and I already got married at the city hall. The wedding's the day after tomorrow—" "Cynthia!" Victor cut her off. I looked around at all the familiar faces in the room. Some guiltily avoided my gaze. Some muttered under their breath. "You already left. Why'd you even come back? Cindy was nice enough to throw you a homecoming dinner. That's more grace than you deserve." Others put on a fake facade of trying to smooth things over. "Victor's in a tough spot too. You need to cut him some slack." "They're already legally married. You're not about to go chasing after him and be the other woman, right?" "That's enough! Everybody stop." Victor's expression darkened. He instinctively stepped in front of me. "Don't you talk about her like that." I stared at his back and just felt how absurd the whole thing was. "And what about you? Do you think that I shouldn't have come back either?" "It's not that—" he started to reply without hesitation. However, when he saw Cynthia's eyes well up with tears, he could not bring himself to finish his sentence. "Everyone, please get out." She gave him a long, hard look without trying to argue. But I noticed that as she walked past Victor, their hands quietly clasped together, as if they were reassuring each other. Once everyone left, he crouched down in front of me. "Mrs. Haight was diagnosed with a brain tumor a year ago. It has gotten worse recently. "We're only getting married to put her mind at ease." I froze. After my parents died when I was seven, Cynthia's family, who lived across the street, raised me. For the longest time, I had seen Cynthia's mother, Jessica Haight, as my mother figure. Yet I was unaware that she had been sick for a year. "Why didn't you tell me?" Victor wiped my tears as he said, "She didn't want to get in the way of your job. "Once the surgery's over, I'll divorce Cynthia. You and I will go back to the way we were, Clem." For a brief moment, I felt a small sense of relief. "I'm tired. I want to go home." Victor paused briefly before saying, "The house hasn't been cleaned in a while. Let's just stay at a hotel tonight. I'll stay with you." Chapter 2 I still insisted on going home. The moment the elevator doors opened, an eye-catching "Just Married" sign plastered across the door came into view. Victor paused mid-step and moved to block me. "Mrs. Haight comes by every now and then. It's all for her to see. "Let's just go back to the hotel, okay?" I ignored him and pressed my finger on the fingerprint lock. [Access denied.] I tried again, and it failed again. This was the house my parents had left me, yet I could no longer get in. "We changed the lock a while back. I just haven't gotten around to adding your fingerprint yet." Victor avoided my gaze and pressed his finger on the lock. The door unlocked. Two pairs of couple slippers sat in the entryway. On the shoe cabinet was a Polaroid photo of Cynthia in pajamas, hugging Victor from behind while he cooked. There was a note below it. [Day one hundred of our marriage.] Victor's face went pale, and he reached out to cover it. But I had already seen the wedding photo on the living room wall. My heart started to pound faster. I pushed him aside and rushed to the second bedroom. Sure enough, my parents' memorial portrait was gone from the wall. In its place was a wedding photo of Victor and Cynthia. Beneath the frame, two holes my father had nailed into the wall were still visible. My mind went completely blank. "Where are my parents' photos?" He avoided my gaze. "I'm asking you. Where are my parents' photos?" "It didn't feel right having a memorial photo in the newlywed bedroom. So, I put it away for now." I burst into the storage room and dug out the box at the very back. My parents' belongings had been shoved inside carelessly. There was a crack on my mother's side of the photo. I touched it, and the glass cut my fingertip. Victor panicked and grabbed my hand. "Don't touch it. I'll take care of it for you." I flung his hand away hard. "Get off me!" Suddenly the door lock clicked, and Cynthia walked in like she owned the place. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed the shattered glass on the floor. Victor was rummaging through every cabinet but could not find the first-aid kit. He had no choice but to get up and say to Cynthia, "Cindy, stay with her. I'm going to run downstairs and grab some stuff from the pharmacy." When the door closed and his footsteps faded into the distance, she crouched down and slowly brushed the broken glass off the memorial photo. She then said softly, "Clem, you shouldn't have come back." I caught my breath and looked at her in disbelief. "You don't actually think Victor married me just because my mom got sick, do you? "Sure, he signed the papers to keep my mom happy. But what about him sneaking into my bed every night, wanting to try every position? Was that for her too?" My ears started ringing. I gripped the photo frame, and blood dripped through my fingers. "Why? I've always treated you like family." "Then you should've stayed even further away from my husband." She looked at me and continued, "This is mine and Victor's house. What are you even doing here?" "This is the house my parents left me!" "My family took you in for twenty years. Don't you think you owe us?" My body stiffened. Back then, the Haight family became my legal guardians and took control of the savings and compensation money my parents had left behind. After I turned eighteen, I never stopped sending money to them. Seeing that I stayed quiet, she followed my gaze to the memorial photo and laughed. "The first time Victor touched me romantically was in your parents' bed." She picked up a shard of broken glass and slowly traced it down the crack across my mother's face. "They kept staring at us the whole time. It was a total mood killer. So I had Victor take the picture down." That was the last straw. I snapped and slapped her with all my strength, sending her sprawling to the floor. Just then, Victor burst through the door, dropped the bandage, and helped her up. "Clementine, have you lost your mind?" I could not even be bothered to explain. It felt pointless. "Move." I walked around him and packed my parents' memorial photos and belongings into a suitcase. He grabbed the handle and held it in place. "Clem, cut it out. Apologize to her." My breath was trembling as I pried his fingers off. "Victor, we're done." "Before the wedding, get her and yourself out of my house. "This house belongs to the Revelles." Chapter 3 I dragged my suitcase toward the elevator. "Clem!" Victor tried to run after me, but Cynthia grabbed his sleeve. He stopped and said to me, "Go to the hotel first. I'll come find you later." After I got to a hotel, I accepted Travis Mercer, the realtor's lowest offer, and signed the listing agreement. The buyer, Harry Copeland, was paying in full and put down a deposit on the spot. Just then, I received a text. [You there yet? It's not safe for you to be out there alone. Send me the address. I'm coming to find you.] I hesitated for a moment, but I still sent the hotel location. [Stay in your room and wait for me. Don't go anywhere.] Back in my junior year of college, I had gotten stranded in the suburbs during a storm. I had received these exact same words from him. At the time, Cynthia looked down on him. Every time the two of them met, they ended up fighting over me. When she learned the mountain roads were closed, she blocked his way. "You're going to get yourself killed if you go out there now!" He pushed her aside and rushed over through the rain for three hours. When he found me, he was soaked to the bone. Yet all he cared about was wrapping his jacket around me. That night, Cynthia called him a lunatic the entire way back. But after that, she never once told me to break up with him again. I stared at his message the whole night. The next day, I was jolted awake by a frantic knock on the door. "Clementine, open the door!" Just as I opened the door, several people barged in. "You're already all over Cindy's husband. Now you're stealing her wedding ring, too. Have you no shame?" "Why are we even wasting our breath on her? Just search the place!" I stood in front of the suitcase. "If any one of you touches that, I'm calling the cops." "You're the one who stole something, and you're going to call the cops? Who do you think you're scaring?" Someone reached out to flip open the suitcase. Victor blocked them with one arm. "That's enough. Clem's not a thief. "Just let them take a look. That way they'll shut up about it." I called the police and gave the hotel address and room number anyway. Cynthia's expression shifted slightly. "Clem, we're all friends here. Why get the police involved—" Before she finished speaking, she suddenly covered her mouth and rushed into the bathroom. The door was left open. Stifled sounds of dry heaving kept coming out. Cynthia braced herself against the sink and froze for a moment. A folded test report slipped from her pocket. At the same time, the "missing" wedding ring fell out, too. It hit the tile, spun a few times, and stopped at my feet. Victor did not even look at it. He only bent down and picked up the report. [Intrauterine pregnancy. Eight weeks.] The words "eight weeks" sent me right back to two years ago. The doctor told me at the time that I had just suffered a miscarriage. Across a six-hour time difference, Victor stayed up with me all night with tears in his eyes. On the screen, his eyes were red from crying as he coaxed me over and over. "Clem, it's okay. I'm right here. "We can always have another baby." Before that voice could fade from my mind, Victor had already pulled Cynthia into his arms. "Cindy..." His voice trembled, and his eyes were full of delight. Only when he remembered that I was still there did his smile freeze. Holding back my emotions, I picked up the wedding ring and handed it to him to see his reaction. "I found the ring." He was holding her hand and did not let go. The others came over after searching the other rooms. "It's not in the suitcase—" The moment that person saw the ring in my palm, he sneered, "Still going to say you didn't steal it? We caught you red-handed!" I turned to the bedroom and saw the videotape my parents had left behind was snapped in two, with the tape tangled around the soles of their shoes. That was the last footage of my parents from before I turned seven. I dropped to my knees to pick it up. My fingers trembled as I started sobbing. Just then, someone knocked on the door. "Police! Open up!" Victor shielded Cynthia behind him. Ignoring my tears, he said softly, "The ring's been found, and I'll pay for whatever you lost. But Cindy just found out she's pregnant, and Mrs. Haight is sick. If this gets out, it won't do anyone any good. "Just tell them you grabbed the ring by mistake while you were drunk." Chapter 4 All Victor did was defend Cynthia. The moment the door opened, the police stepped in, and the crowd swarmed the entrance. "That's her! She's the one who seduced someone else's husband and stole from us!" The police were blocked at the entryway, trying to take down the details. Cynthia let out a sigh. "Just let it go. Stop giving Clem such a hard time." She walked up to me and snatched the wedding ring from my hand, tossing it aside. "Keep the ring. It's yours—" As she spoke, her heel pressed down on my father's memorial portrait. I instinctively reached out to protect it. My palm slammed straight into the broken glass, and the pain sent cold sweat down my spine. Cynthia took the chance to stumble back, screaming as she dropped to the floor. "Cindy!" Everyone rushed over at once. Victor knocked me aside and pulled her into his arms. I crashed hard against the wall, and my vision went black for a moment. Cynthia's parents happened to arrive at that exact moment. Seeing her on the floor, they walked right past me. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" I steadied myself against the wall, wanting to explain everything to them one last time. "Mom, Dad, I—" Cynthia cut me off right then as she said through her tears, "Clem, just because you hate me, it doesn't mean you can hurt the baby..." Jessica's expression darkened. She turned and slapped me across the face directly, without asking for any explanation. "Don't you dare call me Mom! "If I'd known we were raising such ungrateful trash, I would've left you to rot!" Victor steadied Cynthia and looked at me disappointedly. "I already explained everything about the wedding. You're the one being impatient. "Look at the mess you've made. Clementine, is this what you wanted?" I looked at him, and the last trace of feelings in my heart vanished. Only hatred remained. I said through gritted teeth, "You saw the ring fall out of her pocket with your own eyes." His expression stiffened, and he hesitated. Cynthia clutched her lower belly and let out a soft cry of pain. He immediately looked away and handed the purchase receipt to the police. "That wedding ring is worth two hundred thousand dollars. We're pressing charges!" A few friends chimed in and identified me as well. In the end, the police told everyone to go to the police station and cooperate with the investigation. I bent down to pick up the shattered memorial portrait. The glass dug in deeper, and blood dripped down through my fingers. As I passed Victor, he raised his hand slightly, as if wanting to reach out to me. But in the end, he pulled Cynthia tighter into his arms. I kept explaining myself until dawn. In the next room, the people who had once been closest to me kept telling the same lie. Finally, the police returned my phone. "There isn't enough evidence right now. You're free to go, but stay reachable." When I walked out of the police station, the sky was just beginning to brighten. Nobody had texted me. The only thing blowing up my phone was a wedding group chat I had been added to by accident. [The bride is getting her makeup done!] [Picking up the bride at 10 a.m. sharp!] In the photo, Cynthia's parents were gathered around her, adjusting her veil. I left the group chat and opened my boss' chatbox. [I'll take the long-term overseas position you mentioned.] Before boarding, Travis sent a voice message. "Ms. Revelle, there are wedding decorations all over the house, and the people are refusing to vacate." On the other end, someone shouted angrily. "Nobody's touching our house!" The next second, Victor's call came through. "Clementine, did you sell the house?" The airport announcement rang out right after. "Now boarding for Meridova. All passengers, please proceed to the gate." There was silence on the other end of the line. A moment later, his tone turned flustered. "Clementine, where are you going?" I did not answer. I hung up on him and ended the call. By the time the plane landed in Meridova, I saw messages and calls flooding my phone screen.