They Discussed Parameters At My Wedding, I Discussed My Exit Chapter 09
I let out a short, humorless laugh.
“You bailed on every appointment at City Hall, Reid.
You ran out of our ceremony with Sloane. In what
world does that mean we’re legally married?”
“No!”
He shook his head.
“We’ve known each other for over twenty years. You
can’t just walk away from that.”
“Tessa, you’re lying. Tell me you’re lying.”
I stared at him, my voice dead calm. “Twenty years,
and you never once made me feel like I mattered.”
“Time doesn’t mean anything if there was never
anything real behind it.”
“Turns out the three of us are better off apart.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t need your wedding anymore. But you’re
welcome to come to ours, if you want.”
I looked him up and down.
“But if you’re planning to show up looking like this,
don’t bother.”
Every last bit of color drained from Reid’s face.
People used to say Reid didn’t feel things the way other people did.
But whatever hit him in that moment broke something
that wasn’t going to heal.
He’d had everything once: the career, the person who
loved him without conditions.
And he’d treated all of it like it would always be there.
Until it wasn’t.
But I no longer cared what he was thinking.
I straightened Emmett’s scarf. Neither of us looked at Reid again.
We got in the car and drove away.
Back home, Emmett tied on his apron and headed for the kitchen.
He washed strawberries, started a pot of beef stew, and
made the chicken and rice casserole I loved.
While it simmered, he folded the laundry, piece by piece.
The apartment smelled like clean laundry and
something warm on the stove.
My aunt had set us up on a blind date a month earlier. I’d only agreed to go because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
But Emmett surprised me: good–looking, easy to talk to, genuinely kind.
But the thing that really got me was something he said.
He’d smiled, this quiet, easy smile, and said, “I just
want a simple life. Someone to come home to.
Something real.”
Something in my chest loosened for the first time in years.
Emmett carried over a bowl of stew. “Here. Try this.”
I took a sip and immediately hissed. Way too hot.
He leaned in right away. “Careful, careful. It just came off the stove.”
“Emmett.”
I glanced out the window.
Reid was still standing there.
He looked like a man with nowhere left to go.
I snapped a photo and texted the building’s security.
“This man isn’t a resident. Don’t let him onto the property again.”
Emmett read over my shoulder and laughed.
Our eyes met, and I laughed too.
A moment later, Emmett was staring at me softly.
I looked up from my bowl. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” he smiled.
I took another sip. “It’s perfect.”
Some time later, I was scrolling through my phone when a message came in from a former coworker.
A link to an article. “Where Asteron’s Former Star
Research Duo Are Now.”
I opened it. Sloane looked like a different person- gaunt and worn down. Things clearly hadn’t gone well.
She’d bounced between jobs and couldn’t hold one down. She was selling courses for some online
education company now.
The article devoted much more space to Reid.
After he resigned, he’d stayed in Northlake. People
kept spotting him around the city.
He’d spiraled into heavy drinking.
A few days before the article was published, he’d been rushed to the hospital.
He didn’t make it.
I scrolled to the end and closed the article.
Emmett was on a business trip, but he kept texting me ideas for our wedding photos, one after another.
He kept calling me his wife, over and over, begging me to FaceTime.
After a call that left my face warm, I stepped onto the
balcony and let the breeze wash over me.
I looked out and noticed something.
The snow outside had melted long ago.
The breeze smelled like fresh grass and damp earth.
Spring had arrived.