Page 268 of Falling for the Wife

“When do you plan to marry?” I cautiously asked him while the profound distance between us felt palpable.

“I applied for a special marriage license a few days ago, which should arrive in a day or two. Once your divorce is approved, we could get married as soon as arranged.” He pulled his phone from his breast pocket, his face expressionless when he said, “If your divorce is granted within five days, we could marry the day after.” He sounded monotonous, as though we weren’t talking about marriage at all. It was like a rehearsed speech, with no feelings involved.

Pressing down the bubbling hysteria that was about to erupt, I shook my head, not agreeing with him. “If it’s granted within five days, we’ll marry on the third day after.” I was standing my ground because there were things that were important to me, and I needed to learn how to tamper those down before signing my life away to be his somewhat kept secret.

“Very well. That’s not a tough request. I can easily accommodate that.”

I’m sure you can, I quietly mocked as I plastered on a saccharine smile. “Thank you.”

“And, as for the wedding, since we are pressed with time, do you have any reservations for it taking place at the registrar’s office in Westminster?”

“No.” This was a business transaction, nothing more. He was treating it as such, and thus, any fanciful notion about fairytales was absolutely crushed. “The registrar’s office is perfectly fine. I mean, I had the grand wedding with Ashton with all the frills and grandiosity one could manage. Something simple would be more fitting the second time around.”

“Yes, your wedding had all the trappings and embellishments. Your father didn’t spare any expense for his only daughter.” His comment weighed heavily with unmistakable sarcasm.

What an odd thing to say, especially coming from him.

Licking my lips, I frowned at him. “I suppose it was lavish compared to standard weddings, but it wasn’t—”

“It was,” he immediately interrupted. “You know it was. You don’t have to be ashamed to admit that the wedding of the year wouldn’t be dubbed as such if it didn’t cost an obscene amount of money. The flowers were specifically flown in from South America, weren’t they?”

“It was one of my mother’s ingenious ideas, as was the rest.” Sure, the wedding had been beyond costly, but my father had believed then that I was only going to marry once; therefore, he hadn’t imposed a budget. “The days leading up to the wedding were such a fiasco that I was almost willing to bet it’d be a complete disaster when the final day arrived,” I said out loud, my thoughts transporting me into the past. “Chaotic though it was, everything came out beautifully.”

“As did you,” he coarsely said, sounding strained. “You looked just like I pictured you would—breathtakingly enchanting, as if you just stepped out of my dream and came to life.”

Was that a compliment? Did he really used to dream of me that way …in a wedding dress?Yes. The old Reiss would have. It brought immeasurable sadness as I thought of the wasted love he had for me—his love that I could never get back.

Pasting on brave smile, I played his compliment coolly, like it didn’t affect me greatly. “The society magazine photos surely didn’t capture anything breathtakingly enchanting, not as far as I can remember.”

His eyes zeroed in on me, the emerald greens pulling me in. “Possibly, but I can’t attest to that since I never saw the magazine.”

“Oh.” I was beyond confused. “We only released those photos for the feature, but I wasn’t aware that there were more floating around.”

“Who said that I saw it from the media?”

There was a long pause while I stared at him hard, brows furrowing, as if I was trying to solve the solution to world hunger. “But, if you didn’t, then …”

The pin dropped.

I vehemently shook my head, scoffing in protest. “You can’t possibly mean … it’s just not…”

His face hardened, seeming carved of stone. “Is it really, Ava?”

He was toying with my mind because he was twisted enough to like seeing me uncomfortable.

“It’s just not, Reiss. I mean,I don’t see why?” I was almost screeching at him with my body sitting halfway off the sofa, clearly ready to argue with him.

He gave me a lasting look, casually shrugging before his gaze dropped, perusing the table that sat between us. “I don’t know…” he murmured to himself before he raked a hand over his hair, looking more confused by the second. “Maybe because I wanted to really see it for myself. Maybe because I needed to hear you give your vows to be his wife. Maybe I needed another reason to stay away from you forever.” He seemed like his thoughts were far away, recalling that very day.

“At first, I convinced myself I needed some type of closure from you since we parted in such an awful manner, and then I could leave in the middle of the ceremony. But, when I saw you emerge from the car … looking exactly as I had pictured you … I would constantly get these dreams of you walking down the altar towards me. Seeing you look that way, something violent happened inside me, and all I wanted was to stop you from marrying him.”

Dear Heavens. How could I truly delude myself after hearing him say these things? I wanted to beg, yet again, for another try, but I was far too scared of being rejected once more.

Swallowing the hard ball of hurt that felt like it was stuck in my throat, I was almost in tears as I asked him one vital question, “What stopped you?”

“You were standing in the aisle, ready to walk down as they fixed your veiled train. Your hands were almost white as you gripped your bouquet. The choir started and everyone in your wedding entourage went about their positions, waiting for their time to march down the aisle. It was then that I saw you gaze towards the altar, seeking his eyes, as if you needed strength or maybe encouragement that he was madly in love with you. He nodded, smiling at you, and you smiled back as if everything had suddenly become okay. Any protests or notions I had then disappeared. So I left and never looked back.”

But I didn’t even recall doing that. Maybe I had. All I could remember from then was how nervous I had been and how much I hadn’t wanted to be there. For weeks, I’d had nightmares that were so vivid they never failed to leave me in tears. It would always be Reiss, telling me to follow his heart, and I would eventually find mine. Funny how our subconscious were both giving us signs—omens—we did nothing about. Well,Idid nothing.