We Both Silently Chose to Leave Without a Word

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On the day of the wedding, a filthy vagrant burst in to stop it.

He grabbed a fistful of my gown and screamed for everyone to hear:

You slept with me for three years, and now you think you can just walk off and marry into money? Dream on!

Kayla Sullivan is a used-up slut who takes what she wants and throws men away. Whoever marries her is cursed for eight lifetimes!

My strapless gown tore, and I nearly spilled out of it.

In the space of a few minutes, my scandal was all over the trending lists.

After the vagrant was hauled away, John Donaldson's female friend looked at me with a smile.

"It was just a joke, Kayla. You don't mind, do you?"

"A vagrant crashing the wedding of a wealthy man's young bride. Doesn't the contrast make it kind of funny?"

John slid an arm around my shoulders and coaxed me softly.

"Lois Morton just likes to joke around. There's no malice in it. Don't hold it against her."

Two weeks ago, Lois lured me out to the suburbs late at night and I was nearly assaulted, and John said she meant no harm.

Six months ago, Lois spiked my cup with industrial alcohol and sent me into the ICU with acute anaphylaxis, and John said she was only trying to liven things up.

Every time, for John's sake, I bit down and swallowed it, no matter how much it cut into me.

And now, with a filthy lie being spread about me, John was still asking me to be gracious.

"This joke did go a little far. I've already warned her."

"Kayla, I promise, nothing like this will ever happen again."

I said nothing. I reached up and took off my veil.

Their wedding-crashing stunt was a joke.

But my leaving was real.

...

Catching the movement, John's expression stiffened for a moment.

He settled the veil back over me, his lowered voice full of soothing.

"When we're home I'll make Lois apologize to you. Let's just get through the ceremony first. Everyone's watching."

My eyes slowly reddened, and my voice shook as I demanded:

"She smeared me as a slut in front of everyone, and one apology afterward is supposed to make it all go away?"

In that moment of chaos earlier, I'd glanced at my phone.

Nine of the ten trending topics were people calling me a public bus trying to claw my way into money, and the last one said John and Lois were the better match.

Lois stood to the side and spoke up with exaggerated flair:

"So nothing will satisfy you unless I kneel and apologize? Fine, fine, fine. For my friend, I'll sacrifice myself just this once."

She made a show of starting to kneel to me, and John caught her at once, his voice helpless.

"My parents treat you better than they treat their own son. If you kneel, they'll skin me alive."

Meeting my reddened eyes, John's expression turned irritated.

"You know how Lois is. She cares about face more than anything. If I set the record straight now, isn't that a slap in her face?"

"You're the young Mrs. Donaldson. Who would dare talk about you? Be good. Let's keep the ceremony going."

Without waiting for an answer, he pushed the ring onto my finger.

The next instant, a searing pain exploded from my fingertip and spread through my whole body.

Seeing the blood between my fingers, Lois clapped a hand over her mouth in a panic.

"Oh no, oh no, I put the super glue on the wrong ring!"

"I was going to have John wear it. A ring he couldn't take off, to remind him he's a married man and to stop fooling around with me every day."

"John, are you even a man? You actually let your own wife suffer in your place!"

The glue set fast, and when the ring was wrenched off it took a chunk of skin and flesh with it.

John's face finally changed, and he grabbed my wrist to pull me toward the door.

"Kayla, I'm taking you to the hospital."

I fought through the pain and shook his hand off.

"No hospital. And no wedding either."

Doreen Donaldson let out a cold laugh.

"A little scratch and she's already putting on airs? People from nothing really can't rise to the occasion."

Seven years ago, Doreen had also thrown a sky-high check at me, forcing me to break up with John.

"Plenty of people want to marry up. But ambition too big is just stupidity."

Faced with that humiliation, John had torn the check to shreds with his own hands and sworn there would never be anyone but me in this life.

And now, John looked at me, his tone cooling.

"Kayla, don't say things in anger."

He drew me into the lounge and gently dressed the wound.

Lois came over, and suddenly her arm hooked around John's neck, pulling him hard against her chest.

She teased:

"Where's this other face been hiding? When you were giving me that oil massage, you weren't half this gentle."

"I cried and begged you to stop and you wouldn't. Good thing we're not a couple, or you'd have worn me out till I couldn't get out of bed!"

John laughed and pushed her off.

"How could you ever compare to my wife?"

Once the wound was dressed, John handed me the backup gown.

"I'll wait for you outside."

He stood, and set the diamond ring on the table.

"It doesn't matter that the gown was ruined. My Kayla will be the most beautiful bride there is."

On our first anniversary, we'd gone to a little handmade shop together and made matching couple rings.

The silver band was cheap, but I'd treasured it for a long time.

And now I looked at the giant diamond on the table.

I reached out and swept it into the trash can beside me.

John or the ring.

I didn't want either of them anymore.

I changed out of the gown and went back to the wedding home alone.

John Donaldson had a real gift for business, but he couldn't draw to save his life.

Even so, he'd insisted on designing our wedding home himself, down to the custom-made furniture in every room.

I'd ached seeing the dark circles under his eyes from all the work, but John had looked at me, serious:

"Kayla, this is our home. I want to build our future with my own hands."

He said our home was the one place he could go to weather any storm.

And now I pushed the door open.

Streamers and balloons all over the floor, bottles knocked on their sides, spilled liquor soaking into the wood until the boards had swelled at the edges.

On a banner half torn from the wall, a few words were scrawled crooked.

Congrats, John, welcome to the grave that is marriage

The whole place was trashed.

While I stood there dazed, one of John's buddies posted to his feed.

In the picture, Lois Morton was wearing the backup wedding dress, arm looped through John's, the two of them toasting the guests together.

Somebody threw a fit and bailed, good thing Lois stepped up. Women are like clothes, brothers are your own flesh and blood.

If you ask me, they should just make it real. Same background, perfect match!

My head swam, and without thinking I grabbed the arm of the sofa beside me.

A scrap of black fabric dropped by my foot.

A three-piece set of lingerie, the straps torn clean through.

Something in my mind snapped, and a wave of nausea rolled over my whole body.

I bent over, retching hard, the bitter bile coming up until it felt like it would come up bloody.

John walked in, saw the scene, and his face changed:

"I'm sorry, Kayla. Lois said the wedding home would be easier, a good spot for the bachelor party"

He reached out to pat my back and settle me, and I shoved him off, breaking down, my voice raw:

"What did I ever do to make you treat me like this!"

His eyes landed on the black fabric on the floor, and his face went a shade paler.

He opened his mouth to explain, but when he saw my face streaked with tears, his expression suddenly went cold.

"Kayla Sullivan, do you really have to make a thing of this?"

"One party and you lose it like some shrew. What happens after we're married? You can't take a single joke. Do you have to live so exhausted?"

The accusations came down on me all at once, and I froze where I stood.

John held the lingerie up in his hand and looked at me, disappointed.

"Yes, it's Lois's, but she only took it as a forfeit after she lost a game. All the guys turned around and shut their eyes. Nobody crossed a line."

"Lois was worried you'd mind, so she even booked a cleaner to come. I told you a long time ago she doesn't mean any harm, and you wouldn't believe me."

"It was like this before, it's like this now. Everyone can roll with it. Everyone but you."

He paused, a trace of regret in his face.

"Maybe they're right. We're not from the same world."

The color drained from my face, and the pain spread through my chest.

Back then, to be with me, John had had every one of his cards cut off by the family.

I hadn't wanted him at war with his own people, so I'd worked to make myself worthy of him.

The etiquette I didn't know, I drilled myself in. They liked their games, so I forced myself to be the bigger person.

John said he loved me, the person, and nothing else mattered.

So it turned out he'd never once thought I was worth anything.

My voice came out hoarse:

"Let's break up"

John suddenly reached out and pulled me into his arms.

"But I love you. Kayla, I've been patient with you, but you can't keep testing that patience over and over."

I fought to push him off, and he only held me locked against him.

"I already had the trending posts taken down. Kayla, I told you I'd handle it. I won't let you be wronged."

I don't know how long it was before John let me go.

Before he left, he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.

"There are still a few last things to wrap up from the wedding. Tomorrow, I'll bring Lois over to apologize to you."

The door slammed shut.

And with it, everything I still felt for John was gone too.

But there was no time to grieve for myself.

John appeared in the doorway with Lois beside him.

His voice was hot with anger, none of the old gentleness left in it.

"I told you I'd handle it. Why did you have to be so stubborn!"

I stared at him, lost, and he threw his phone in front of my face.

Only then did I see it. The trending page had blown up.

Someone had exposed that a week ago Lois had deliberately lured me out to the suburbs, hoping I'd be assaulted so she could take my place and be with John.

And every single thing Lois had ever done to me before had been dragged out too.

"Lois Morton, bully" and "the manipulative other woman" were the top two trending topics.

Lois looked at me, her eyes rimmed red.

"I'm not like you girls with all your little schemes. If you have a problem with me, just say it to my face!"

The look John gave me now held disappointment.

My voice came out hoarse.

"I didn't do this"

John cut me off before I could finish, his voice cold.

"You're going to go live and clear it up. Say it was all your own doing, that it had nothing to do with Lois."

I looked at him, unable to believe it.

Half a month ago, Lois had used John's name to lure me out to the suburbs late at night, saying there was a surprise.

I'd gone, happy, only to be pinned down by a masked man.

I fought with everything I had, ready to take him down with me, and only then did he get scared enough to let me go.

When John found out he flew into a rage and, ignoring their history, went after Lois in revenge.

John was the one who'd said he would never let me be hurt again.

And now he was ordering me to smear myself.

He gently wiped the tears from my face, his voice cruel in its tenderness.

"Kayla, your mom's letter is still with me."

My breath caught.

My mother was sick for years, and her greatest wish was to see me have a home of my own.

In the end she never got to.

At the very last, with the strength she had left, she wrote me a letter and told me to open it on my wedding day.

It was the last piece of her I had.

I'd developed severe anxiety over it, dreaming I'd lost the letter, seeing my mother's disappointed eyes.

John was the one who'd offered to lock it in his safe and keep it for me.

And now he was using my trust to threaten me.

I wept, my voice breaking.

"So if I clear it up, you'll let me go?"

John's body went rigid. In silence he pulled me in front of the camera.

A prepared script was shoved into my hands.

"I'm Kayla Sullivan. It was all my own doing. Lois Morton is innocent"

But after I'd said it to the camera, John wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him, burying his head against my neck.

"Kayla, you and I are meant to be tangled up together for the rest of our lives."

"I've already hired a professional team to plan a wedding of the century, to make up for the ceremony we never had."

"Everything you've suffered, I'll spend the rest of my life making up to you."

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my lower belly, and I felt wetness spread beneath me.

White-faced, I turned to John for help.

"Take me to the hospital"

But Lois, eyes red, grabbed John's arm.

"The security footage shows someone threw red paint all over my place, and they left a funeral photo of me at my door!"

"I'm too scared to go back"

John's expression turned grim.

"Don't be afraid. I'll go with you and take a look."

I tried to grab the hem of his clothes, and he shook me off.

"Lois has been hurt this badly because of you, and you still want to throw a fit!"

The moment the door closed, I saw John slip off his coat and drape it gently over Lois's shoulders.

My vision went black, and I passed out completely.

I woke up in a hospital.

The doctor handed me my chart.

"You're still young. You can have other children."

For a moment I couldn't move, and then the tears just came.

My phone rang. It was someone from the cemetery.

"Ms. Sullivan, we've had a lot of rain lately, and the hillside near the cemetery has had serious landslides. Your mother's grave may need to be relocated."

My heart felt like a big hand had closed around it.

I couldn't give my mother an easy life while she was alive, and now I couldn't even give her peace in death.

I made it out of the room on shaky legs, and there they were, a pair of figures I knew too well.

John stood there with a few boxes of medicine in his hands, murmuring gently to Lois.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you and the baby safe."

Something in my chest lurched, and my legs gave out under me.

On the day I lost my child, Lois was pregnant.

The cramping came back low in my belly, like countless needles driving in.

John turned, saw me, and froze.

"Kayla, what's wrong?"

He rushed over and pulled me up off the floor.

I clenched my teeth and shook my head.

"I want to go see my mom."

When my mother was alive, John visited her regularly, always coaxing a smile onto her face.

After she died, he went with me every year to pay respects, swearing at her headstone that he would take care of me for the rest of my life.

John went still, then slowly remembered that today was the anniversary of her death.

Guilt spread across his face.

"I'll come with you."

We'd barely gotten into the car when Lois squeezed in after us.

"I'm coming too. Might as well meet this guy's future mother-in-law."

I wanted to send her away.

But the miscarriage had left me too weak to get the words out.

John opened his mouth, closed it again, and finally just stepped on the gas in silence.

We reached the cemetery and watched the workers dig the grave open.

I held the urn against my chest and couldn't hold back the sobs.

John rested my head on his shoulder.

"Your mother wouldn't want you this upset."

Lois laughed under her breath.

"Don't rush. You'll be down there keeping her company soon enough. You can cry all you want then. Save your tears for now."

"That's enough!"

John snapped it out. Lois pursed her lips.

"Fine, fine, my mistake. Let me hold the urn for you, so the two of you can cry in each other's arms."

She yanked the urn out of my hands, and then her foot slipped and she pitched over backward.

Crack.

The urn hit the ground and split apart.

A gust of wind swept through and carried the gray-white powder up into the sky.

My eyes went red in an instant. I threw myself at Lois and clamped both hands around her throat.

"You did that on purpose!"

Pain tore through my body.

John flipped me off her and checked her over, frantic.

Then he looked at me, his eyes full of fury.

"Lois didn't mean it. You could've just picked it up!"

He saw the cuts the broken stone had left on me, and his eyes tightened.

Lois got to her feet and ground the ashes into the dirt under her shoe.

She scoffed.

"She's dead. Hanging on to ashes is just feeling sorry for yourself."

She kicked the ashes and dirt together into a rough heap.

"I broke your mom's urn, so I'll give her a grave to make up for it."

John looked at me, his voice heavy with disappointment.

"Lois had better have your apology within three days, or you deal with the consequences."

He took Lois by the hand and walked off without looking back.

And I knelt there, shaking, gathering up what little ash was left.

I cried until I had no voice.

A week later, at the wedding, John stood at the end of the aisle in a custom-tailored suit.

The doors of the hall swung open, but it wasn't the bride who walked in. It was a delivery courier.

"I have a package from Ms. Kayla Sullivan to give to you. It needs a signature in person."

When he saw what was inside, John froze where he stood.