He Sent Me Home With His Buddy. Bad Idea, Ex! Chapter 07
Seren’s first gift to Dorian was a simple handmade scrapbook
she had poured her heart into.
Dorian had smiled when he received it, genuinely delighted.
After that, Seren often gave him presents. Some were
handmade, while others were things she had saved for months to buy.
Perhaps she believed each gift could bring them closer and
make the differences between them matter less.
But beside the expensive gifts Dorian received from everyone
else, hers seemed too modest to display.
So he kept them all in a large box.
But when Dorian opened the familiar drawer, the box was gone.
Where’s my box?” he shouted.
The housekeeper looked confused.
*Sir, I haven’t been inside your study.”
Only one other person was allowed into that room.
Celeste.
Dorian called her and demanded an explanation.
“I threw it away.” Celeste admitted, her voice trembling. “You
said I could come and go from your study whenever I
wanted…”
Dorian realized he had still been too lenient with her.
But regret couldn’t bring Seren’s gifts back. They had been
the only things she left behind for him.
The house didn’t count. Celeste’s belongings had taken it over long ago.
That day, Dorian ordered the staff to clear all of Celeste’s
belongings out of the house.
Only then did he realize how little remained of Seren’s life. there.
He stared at the place where she used to grow flowers.
The flower bed was gone, leaving only a faded patch of earth.
He would never see Seren crouched there tending it again.
Dorian became obsessed with getting Seren back.
He began pressuring the Thornes from every direction.
determined to force Evander to give her up.
The pressure drove Conrad into such a rage that he collapsed
Dorian was ordered back to the hospital. As soon as Conrad
regained consciousness, he began berating his son from the bed.
“What the hell is your problem with the Thornes?”
Dorian remained silent.
Conrad’s face flushed with anger.
“Haven’t you seen what Evander has already done to Beckett?
Do you want the same thing to happen to you?”
“You’re staying home until the wedding. Stop causing trouble
for this family!”
“I’m not marrying Celeste.”
Then who are you going to marry?”
Dorian answered without hesitation.
“Seren.”
Conrad struck him across the back with his cane.
Dorian grunted, and Blythe winced at the sight.
*Dorian, please be reasonable. Seren is Evander’s fiancée.”
I’m not talking nonsense. I’m serious.”
Conrad’s lips trembled with rage.
“You call that serious? You loaned her out to all those men,
and now you’re preparing to marry Celeste!”
“That was a misunderstanding.”
“Everyone in Bellgrave knows Seren’s reputation is ruined.
You can’t marry her, and I won’t allow it!”
The damage Dorian had done to Seren’s reputation was now
being used to keep him from marrying her.
Still unwilling to admit he had been wrong, Dorian insisted,
“I’m going to marry her.”
Blythe looked at him reproachfully.
You were the one who canceled the weddings. What right do
you have to regret it now?”
Dorian swallowed against the tightness in his throat.
She was right. He had brought this on himself.
He and Seren had four chances to marry, and he destroyed every one of them.
Every reason he had given, from problems with the venue to
his grandfather’s death to his busy schedule, had been an excuse.
Şeren had been the only one naive enough to believe him
every time. She even comforted him, saying it was all right
because she could wait.
And what had she received for waiting?
Dorian moved Celeste into their home. He loaned Seren out
to other men. Then he publicly announced that Celeste was his fiancée.
Dorian closed his eyes against the pain.
“I was wrong. I’ll make it up to her.”
“You don’t have that chance anymore.” Conrad said coldly.
“Seren and Evander are getting married in two weeks.”