Chapter 3
"What are you talking about?" James frowned, eyes blazing. "Are you losing it, or is this some new trick to get my attention?
"Lydia, don't think I don't know you. You'll never walk away from me—not even for a second."
James smirked and yanked me right in front of the wedding dress.
He breathed against my ear. "Take a good look. This is my little surprise just for you."
The wedding dress was gorgeous.
If James had truly prepared this for me, I'd probably cry from happiness.
I stood before the wedding dress, gazing at it for a long moment.
Then my eyes caught the letters "SR" stitched inside the dress.
SR. Sophia Reed.
A bitter laugh escaped me. I immediately hauled the wedding dress into the storage room.
Passing by the study, I heard James and his friends gaming online—their voices booming through the door.
"Let's say Lydia stole the wedding dress and make her strip it off right there in front of everyone," one suggested.
"That'd be wild! She'd never show her face again."
"Let's line up some more games. This is going to be a blast."
They were scheming about how to humiliate me.
James didn't even try to stop them—if anything, he was amused.
"But James, what if Lydia catches on?" one of the guys snickered.
"Yeah, what if she just bails on us?"
James snorted, "She'll never find out. And even if she did, she doesn't have the guts to disobey. If I kicked her out, she'd crawl right back, begging me to let her in."
I dropped my gaze, mentally counting how much longer I had to stick around.
Dr. Lincoln had already booked my flight. Just three more days, and I'd be on that plane—finally starting a new chapter.
The next morning, James brought me to check out the proposal venue.
We had just stepped inside when his phone rang. Without a word, he ducked out.
The emcee was struggling to salvage things.
"Mr. Carter couldn't make it today, but he's put his whole heart into this—tomorrow, he'll have this entire venue covered in ten thousand roses. He said he wants you to be the happiest woman on earth," he gushed.
He kept piling on dramatic speeches, but all I felt was how ridiculous it all was.
All that theatrical effort James poured into this proposal—it was never about my dreams.
He only wanted me on display, humiliated and broken.
"Is everything all right, Ms. Sanders?" the emcee asked, his tone careful.
"It's perfect," I replied with a cold smile. "This proposal is going to be quite the spectacle."
On the day of the proposal, James arrived at the estate right on time.
He expected to see me anxiously waiting, but when I wasn't there, he frowned in irritation.
"What's Lydia playing at?" James muttered, clearly annoyed.
A voice grumbled beside him, "James is proposing, and she can't even be on time? How dare she?"
"What if she's on to us and just ditched?" another guy said.
"Don't be ridiculous!" James snapped, eyes blazing. "She wouldn't miss this for the world! Unless she's dead!"
After half an hour, his patience was gone.
Whenever he summoned me before, I never dared to be even one second late.
"Go find her," James growled, his face dark. "Get Lydia here, right now—dead or alive!"
"Mr. Carter..." The housekeeper rushed in from Carter Villa, hands shaking as he held two boxes. "Mrs. Carter had these delivered and said you should get them right away. I... I think she might already—"
James tore the boxes open.
Out spilled the wedding dress, covered in "SR" written over and over in black marker.
And right behind it fell the divorce papers, my signature clear as day.