It was unusually quiet at the Hudson estate in Westbridge.
No employees moved. There were no wedding decorations left. As if cleaning the place of heartache, everything had been removed with merciless efficiency.
Michael stood on the front steps in the late afternoon sun, his hands clenched at his sides. His tuxedo jacket was long gone, and the once-crisp white shirt he still wore was now wrinkled, his tie stuffed into his pocket. He hadn't slept. He hadn't said anything.
So far.
Slowly and hesitantly, a sleek black car rolled up the driveway. The engine hummed like an unwanted visitor as it came to a stop ten feet away.
Heather stepped out.
"You disappeared. No call. No message. Just silence." Heather swallowed. "I… I'm sorry." "Sorry?" He stepped closer. "Do you know what it was like standing there, thinking something had happened? That you'd been in an accident, or kidnapped? I called every hospital in the city, Heather. She was wearing a loose sweater and jeans, her face bare, makeup wiped away. There was no veil, no glamour—just the woman who had broken him standing on his doorstep, arms crossed tightly over her chest.
"I understand," she muttered.
"Do you?" His voice broke. "Because none of that is worse than the truth." You were unwilling to marry me.
Heather looked downward. "I was unable to."
"Why?" He made a demand.
She paused.
due to the fact that I was with someone else. since I have been deceiving you. since I'm not the woman you believe me to be.
However, she responded, "Because I'm not ready."
Michael blinked.
Her voice trembled as she went on. "I made an effort to make myself be. I convinced myself that all of my fears would be resolved if I married you. However, it won't. I believed that I loved you enough to become the person you desired, but I am unable to do so."
With bitterness in his voice, he repeated, "You 'thought' you loved me."
Heather shut her eyes. "Yes, I do love you. However, you don't need me.
The pain turned into something colder as Michael gazed at her. "So why have you been with me for so long?"
"Because you had faith in me," she uttered quietly. And I wanted to believe in myself in the same way for a while. However, it never happened as it should have.
Michael's hands fell to his sides as he stepped back. "You allow me to plan our future, then. You gave me hope that I had at last found tranquility. while you were searching for the way out."
Heather's eyes filled with tears. "This isn't how I intended it to end—"
"However, it did," he yelled. "And you get to leave like it was a bad match now?"
She gave him a heartbreaking look. "Staying this long was a mistake. But marrying you and lying every day would have been a bigger mistake.
The world seemed to have changed under Michael's feet. All of his beliefs about her, love, and loyalty broke like glass.
He didn't shout. He didn't plead.
He simply turned and made his way back to the door.
He stopped when he got to it.
"One day," he said without looking back, "you'll realize what you gave up. But by then, I won't be waiting."
Then he disappeared into the house, leaving Heather alone in the driveway, the silence around her heavier than the ring she had never worn.