He Chose Her Over Me So I Chose Myself Chapter 02
Three days later, my parents called Grant and me back to the Mercer house to discuss the wedding schedule.
My mother opened the guest list as if announcing a decision that had already been made.
“The people coming to the main banquet hall Saturday night are all major figures in Boston. Camille just won her academic award, so this is the perfect place for her celebration. It will have the maximum impact.”
My father nodded. “The university donors will be there, too. We can’t waste the opportunity.”
I looked at the gold-embossed itinerary on the table.
Saturday night. Main banquet hall.
That had been my wedding.
Grant paused for only a second before picking up a pen and striking out “Wedding Ceremony.”
“Then June’s wedding can move to Sunday morning,” he said. “The breakfast room is free, and it’s still big enough.”
I looked up at him.
“You’re giving my wedding to Camille?”
“We’re just changing the time and venue.” Grant sounded easy, casual. “The morning light in the breakfast room is beautiful. The photos will turn out great.”
As he spoke, he was already calling the planner to revise the invitations.
My mother tapped the table impatiently.
“Camille’s award is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A wedding can happen anywhere, can’t it? Try thinking about the bigger picture.”
Everyone was waiting for me to nod.
My nails dug into my palm, the pain sharp enough to hit bone.
And yet I smiled.
“She’s my sister. Of course she can have it. If she wants that hall, she can have it.”
Grant slipped an arm around my shoulders, pleased.
“I knew it. June always knows how to put the bigger picture first.”
That night, I opened the shared wedding folder to print the updated schedule.
A file labeled *Final Vows* caught my eye.
I meant to close it immediately, but my mouse clicked into the version history by mistake.
The earliest file name was crystal clear on the right side of the screen—
*Vows for Camille*.
I stared at the words and opened the revision details.
Grant hadn’t rewritten them.
He had simply used Find and Replace, swapping every “Camille” in the document for “June.”
He hadn’t even changed the punctuation.
Footsteps sounded behind me.
Grant walked over, glanced at the new wedding schedule I had printed, and never noticed what was on my computer screen.
“That’s more like it,” he said. “When you’re reasonable, everyone’s life gets easier. Don’t worry—the breakfast room will be decorated even more beautifully than the main hall.”
He set his phone down on the table.
The screen lit up. His wallpaper was a photo of him and Camille, standing close together and smiling at the camera.
I had asked him before why he didn’t use a picture of us.
He said it would look immature.
So it wasn’t that he didn’t know how to show intimacy.
He just wasn’t willing to show me.
I closed the vows document and calmly gathered the printed pages.
Grant took my silence for acceptance.
He had no idea that this wedding, moved to the breakfast room, would never happen.