They Switched My Groom—So I Kept Him Chapter 09
I blocked them before they could answer.
Lying in bed afterward, I realized I didn’t feel as devastated as I’d expected.
But carrying everything in my head kept me awake long enough that I overslept the next morning.
I was hurrying toward the door with my bag when Ryan’s mother stopped me and pressed a wrapped sandwich into my hand.
“I packed breakfast for you. Eat it on the way.”
The sandwich was warm against my palm.
For some reason, that warmth made my eyes sting.
When I got to work, my coworkers stared at me in surprise.
“Claire, didn’t you get married yesterday? You’re already back at work? Not even one day off? You’re unbelievable.”
Someone else laughed.
“Did you at least bring us wedding favors?”
Too much had happened the day before. I’d completely forgotten.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Ryan.
I put little boxes of wedding chocolates in your bag for your coworkers. You can give those away.
Don’t touch the chocolate in the inside pocket. That’s for you in case your blood sugar drops.
The day before, while I was waiting for him at the salon, I’d gotten dizzy when I stood up too quickly because my blood sugar was low.
I hadn’t realized he’d noticed.
I opened my bag.
Sure enough, there was a bag full of small boxed chocolates.
Everyone smiled and congratulated me when I handed them out.
No one knew what kind of disaster had unfolded in a hotel ballroom the day before.
At noon, another message from Ryan arrived right on time.
Eat lunch. I ordered something for you. It’s downstairs.
I stared at the message.
How do you even know where I work?
Your company logo is printed on that canvas tote you packed. I saw it last night.
I had no response to that, so I went downstairs to get the food.
Mia, one of the interns, teased me when I came back.
“Marriage really changes people. Claire actually eats lunch on time now.”
When I got buried in work, I had almost no sense of time.
By the time I noticed I was hungry, lunch was usually long over.
I’d done that often enough to wreck my stomach.
Sometimes the pain got so bad I could barely reach for medication.
That evening, Ethan was waiting outside my office building when I got off work.
He looked like he’d been standing there for a while. Sweat beaded across his forehead under the afternoon sun.
“We need to talk.”
My grip tightened around my bag.
“No, we don’t. I said everything I needed to say yesterday.”
He frowned.
“Was marrying someone you barely know just because you were angry really worth it?”
“Yes.”
I looked up at him and answered without hesitation.
“He and his family treat me well.”
Then I smiled coldly.
“At least better than my own parents, who always chose Sophie over me, and better than the man who used his vanity plate to tell Sophie he loved her.”
At the very least, Ryan had given me a way out.
Even if we separated one day, I already had a signed divorce agreement that would let me leave cleanly.
Ethan had no answer.
But he still refused to give up.
“Does he know about your face blindness? Is he really okay with having a wife who might walk right past him on the street and not recognize him?”
Ryan answered the question himself when he walked up with bright ice-blue hair.
He deliberately bumped Ethan aside with his shoulder, took my bag from me, and said with annoyance, “I should’ve left earlier. Traffic was awful.”
I looked at Ethan and smiled.
“There’s your answer.”
Then my voice hardened.
“Ethan, the moment you agreed to stage a fake wedding for Sophie on my wedding day, we were over.”
He stared at Ryan for a long time.
Even after we walked away, he remained standing where he was.
Maybe in that moment, he remembered the version of himself who had once dyed his hair bright colors, willing to break school rules just so I could recognize him in a crowd.