The Wedding Was His, the License Wasn't

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The night before my wedding, someone sent me a VIP resort hotel room key card.

The room number was the same one where Xavier had proposed to me.

I thought it was a romantic surprise he'd prepared for me before the wedding.

But when I pushed open the door, I saw him naked, tangled with a woman on the bed.

After Xavier finished, he casually pushed the woman out of his arms.

He lit a cigarette and smiled carelessly through the smoke:

"I didn't want to keep hiding it from you anyway. I wanted you to find out early so I wouldn't have to explain after the wedding."

He flicked the ash and added:

"Don't worry, you're still my only wife. You've been with me for ten yearsyou won't find anyone else to take you now!"

"Tomorrow everything goes as planned. The wedding ceremony is yours, but the marriage certificate goes to her."

He thought I'd at least ask why, but I just quietly removed the engagement ring from my finger, set it down, and left.

The next day, Xavier waited for me at the church in his groom's suit.

I didn't run. I walked right up to him on the arm of his sworn enemy, waving the marriage certificate in my hand:

"The wedding ceremony is yours, but the marriage certificateI gave it to him."

"She's here, she's here, the bride is finally coming out." Quite a few reporters had already gathered outside the church.

"Miss Olivia, how do you feel on your wedding day?"

"Miss Olivia, what do you think about the wedding of the century that Mr. Xavier prepared for you?"

I didn't say anything and got into the car under the bodyguards' escort.

Xavier stood on the steps in his white groom's suit, wearing a smile that said everything was under his control.

This morning he called to say he'd had sex seven times last night, his body couldn't take it, he needed to catch up on sleep, and couldn't come pick up his bride.

He was certain I would come.

Xavier's friend Matthew was the first to whistle: "She still came!"

He nudged Xavier with his elbow, his face full of suggestive amusement:

"Xavier's got the magic touchpartying the night before the wedding, and the bride still shows up in her wedding dress. What do you call that? That's what I call proper training!"

Another friend chimed in:

"No kidding, the way he went at it in bed yesterday, anyone else would've been wrecked, but Xavier can still stand here as the groom. Gotta respect that."

Several of them laughed, and Xavier's lips curved slightly.

His tone was casual: "Olivia's been with me for ten years. Besides marrying me, who else would want her?"

He glanced down at the engagement ring I'd taken off yesterday:

"Throwing a little tantrum is normal. But in the end"

He paused, his voice confident: "She'll still walk up to me and put her hand in mine."

Matthew gave him a thumbs up.

The car door opened, and I stepped out in my white dress.

Sunlight fell on the wedding gown, refracting into scattered sparkles.

A flash of amazement crossed Xavier's eyes, and he sincerely commented:

"Olivia looks so beautiful in a wedding dress!"

But before he could touch my hand, his vibrating phone pulled his attention away.

He looked at the name on the screen.

His lips unconsciously curved upward, and he stepped aside to answer it.

"What's wrong? Didn't I tell you to call later?"

A lazy, coquettish voice came from the other end:

"Xavier, I'm flying abroad this afternoon. So I made an appointment to register our marriage in ten minutes. Can you come to City Hall? I want to get the marriage certificate before I leave."

"Ten minutes?" Xavier chuckled softly, "That urgent?"

After hanging up, Matthew came over: "Who was that?"

"Windsor." Xavier put his phone in his pocket, his eyes brightening,

"She's flying abroad this afternoon and insists on getting the certificate before she leaves. She's being so sweet I can't say no."

Matthew raised an eyebrow: "What about the wedding here"

"What's the rush?" Xavier didn't seem concerned, "The wedding ceremony takes an hour or two. I'll just go to City Hall first, it's a ten-minute thing.

You know Windsor's personalityif I don't humor her, she'll actually cry at the airport."

Matthew wisely didn't say more.

Xavier walked toward me, put his arm around my shoulder, and had the nearby photographer raise his camera:

"Come on, take a picture of me, for the memories."

Click. Done.

He glanced at his watch, "Alright, that's it for now. I have to go or I'll miss the appointment."

He turned and strode toward another car.

"Xavier!" I stood where I was and called out to him.

He paused and looked back at me.

His expression still carried that careless confidence of someone who had everything under control.

"If you leave today," I said word by word, "I'll replace the groom at this wedding."

He froze for a moment, then laughed with contempt and certainty:

"Replace the groom? Where would you find one? You think life's a TV drama?"

"Everyone in Seattle knows you're mine."

"Of course, if you really have the ability to find someone who dares marry you, I wouldn't mind letting you"

He opened the car door and tossed back a casual quip:

"Stop making a scene. Be good and wait for me to come back. Those other women, I know my limits, okay?"

The groomsmen behind me exchanged glances.

Matthew chased after him: "Xavier, you're really leaving"

"You guys hold down the fort. It's not like I'm not coming back."

Xavier closed the car door, his voice carrying a hint of impatience,

"Windsor's too hard to deal with. I don't want to make trouble for myself."

The car started and drove off.

I stood where I was, the hem of my wedding dress lifting in the wind.

The photographer beside me held his camera, standing awkwardly. No one spoke.

I looked down at my empty ring finger on my left hand and slowly curved my lips into a smile.

Xavier, go ahead, go get your certificate.

This multi-million dollar wedding of the centuryI'll gladly accept it.

I lifted my dress and walked into the church.

Guests were seated, the officiant was in position, and the wedding march was playing.

Everything was perfect, except the groom wasn't there.

Matthew caught up to me with a forced smile:

"Olivia, Xavier has an urgent matter. He'll be back soon. Just sit for a bit."

Another groomsman, Edward, also came over: "Right, right, Xavier always knows what he's doing. It's your big day today, he'll definitely be here soon."

"Exactly, Xavier never drops the ball on important things."

Several of them chimed in, making "the groom ran off" sound like he'd just gone to pick up a package.

I glanced at the clock at the front of the church. 10:40 AM.

"Okay, I'll wait for him." I calmly sent them away.

Matthew visibly relaxed and quickly had people bring me tea and water.

I'd wait. But who I was waiting for was none of their business.

This wedding had been hyped for three months.

Most of the groom's important relatives were present.

I looked around, my gaze falling on every detail.

The white rose waterfall by the floor-to-ceiling windows, the crystal bead curtains hanging from the dome.

Even the font on the guest place cards was specially designed by a designer he'd hired.

Xavier was the type who, when he did something, did it to perfection.

He was like that when he pursued me, and the same when planning the wedding.

He'd made this wedding the talk of the town, the stuff of every woman's dreams.

Yet even his infidelity was equally extreme.

No room for negotiation, no explanations.

In his logic, treating someone well and hurting that same person never conflicted.

And I only had one option: "accept it."

In the dressing room, my best friend Barbara, who'd flown from Australia to be my bridesmaid, held my dress train with an indignant expression.

"Is Xavier sick in the head? Running off to get a marriage certificate with another woman on his wedding day? Did his brain get caught in a door?"

She huffed and sat down beside me, tugging at her bridesmaid dress:

"I thought he was just talking. But even if it's true, did it have to be today?"

Her voice carried a fire of indignation on my behalf:

"When you two were planning this wedding together, he searched every flower shop in the city just to pick the perfect bouquet for you. When you tried on wedding dresses, his eyes got red faster than yours."

"I was so jealous of you I got sour and beat up my clueless boyfriend!"

She paused, her voice dropping: "Who could've imagined he'd turn around and do something like this?"

I didn't respond, just looked down at my phone.

On Instagram, Windsor had just posted a new update.

The photo showed men's shirts and women's lingerie scattered on the floor.

[Someone said he'd only come for ten minutes, but ended up not wanting to leave~]

She'd deliberately tagged the locationand it wasn't City Hall.

Mutual friends were already commenting: [Windsor, are you trying to piss someone off?]

Windsor replied: [Whoever's standing around in a wedding dress with no groom to wait for can get mad!]

I expressionlessly took a screenshot.

"Olivia, stop waiting!" Barbara snatched my phone away. "Look at this! What kind of person is this?"

"You came back from graduating in England for him. Do you know how angry your parents were?"

"Xavier was nothing back then, and you still dared to make a ten-year bet with your parents! Now you've lost everything."

"If it weren't for you working day and night all these years helping him with proposals, bringing in investments, secretly using your identity as the shipping magnate's daughter to get his projects off the ground, could he have achieved what he has today?"

"And he turns around and gets cozy with the investor's daughter!"

"I really never saw ithe can fake it so well, faking it until the night before the wedding to let you discover he was sleeping with someone else!"

"I can't believe he came to an open room with someone else!" Barbara got more upset as she spoke, her eyes reddening: "Olivia, stop waiting. You should live for yourself for once!"

"Barbara, thank you for coming today. As for Mom and Dad, after the wedding, I'll go back and admit defeat."

Willing to bet means willing to lose.

Today was the day I'd accept the price of losing that bet.

After comforting my best friend and myself, I walked toward the balcony at the end of the hallway for some air.

Just as I was about to push the door open, I heard several men's voices inside.

The groomsmen were hiding there smoking.

"Wait, Xavier's really not coming back?"

"He said Windsor's clinging to him, he can't get away. He told us to stall."

Matthew exhaled smoke, "How long do you think Olivia's temper can hold out?"

"Look at her todaywedding dress on, red carpet walked, groom ran off, and she didn't even furrow her brow."

"A wife like that, what more could a man want?" Edward sighed, "Xavier really doesn't know how good he has it."

"Xavier's got other things on his mind right now. That vixen Windsor has him wrapped around her finger."

Several of them laughed.

Then someone made a video call: "Xavier, you finally picked up. Olivia's still waiting. It's not right for you not to come back, is it?"

Ambiguous sounds came from the other end of the phone.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" Xavier's voice carried impatience and the hoarseness of desire, "I can't come back. Just take care of the relatives and friends."

"Okay, okay, Xavier, you do your thing." Matthew said with a sleazy grin, "Olivia's way easier to deal with anyway."

Before he finished speaking, I pushed open the balcony door. The smiles froze on their faces.

Matthew hid the phone behind him, "Olivia."

I looked at them, "The wedding starts in three minutes."

"What are you doing hiding here?"

"There are over three hundred guests sitting out there. Are you going to make them wait? Or let them watch this farce?"

As soon as I finished speaking, several of them burst out laughing.

"Olivia, stop making a scene." Edward laughed while waving his hand, "Three minutes is enough? Xavier's not that fast. He can't make it..."

"It's enough."

I calmly interrupted, then turned and left.

Only then did Matthew remember the video was still on. He glanced at the screen:

"Xavier, Olivia says the wedding starts in three minutes. You better hurry."

Xavier's low laugh came through the phone, carrying the laziness of unfinished pleasure:

"Three minutes?"

"Does this woman have some kind of misunderstanding about me?"

A woman's giggle came through the receiver, softly saying something.

"Xavier." Matthew asked quietly, "So..."

The other end was silent for two seconds, then Xavier's impatient voice came through: "Go ahead and help me hold down the scene. I'll come over when I'm done here."

As he spoke, a woman's coquettish sound came through in the background.

Matthew quickly hung up the video call.

Several of them hastily stubbed out their cigarettes, straightened their suits, and walked out of the balcony.

When they caught up to me, Edward said quietly:

"Olivia, after all these years, we all know about you and Xavier. He does care about you in his heart. Men, you know..."

I didn't look at him or respond.

Actually, until yesterday, I still didn't want to believe he'd fall into the same trap of loving the new and abandoning the old.

Windsor was an investor's only daughter, fresh out of college.

Ever since they met once at a celebration banquet, his eyes hadn't been right.

At the time I thought I was being paranoid.

After ten years together, if I didn't understand him, I wouldn't have persisted this long.

So I chose to believe through many ambiguous moments, many late nights with no WhatsApp replies.

I didn't believe that we, who'd finally made it through the hard times and were about to start a family, would lose to a girl fresh out of school.

But he gradually grew eager to tear off his mask, becoming more and more outrageous.

No longer hiding it, even deliberately letting me find out.

Then packaging his betrayal as a favor:

"Someone as outstanding as me, how could I have only one woman? But my heart is yours. No one but you can be Mrs. Xavier."

He expected me to be grateful.

Barbara was righthe could fake it so well.

Faking it until the day before the wedding to finally tear off that last layer of disguise.

Using that cruelest method to make me see with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, what exactly he thought of me.

Faking it until I had no way out.

"Olivia, walk slowly down the aisle later, okay? We'll be behind you to hold down the scene."

"Right, right, Xavier said once he's done he'll come over. You just go through the motions first."

They thought I was just going through the motions at the wedding.

Thought I'd walk down the red carpet alone in my wedding dress, stand before the priest, waiting for a groom who might never show up.

Then smile and say "I do" to an empty groom's position.

This was the script Xavier left for me.

The groomsmen stood on either side of me, faces still wearing that "everything's under control" smile.

The church doors slowly opened, and someone stood in the backlight.

Then everyone's smiles froze.

Xavier had a cigarette and buckled his belt.

"You're really leaving?" Windsor sat on the bed wrapped in sheets, her face full of displeasure,

"You promised to stay with me all day. I only agreed to postpone getting the certificate because of that, and now you're leaving?"

"I have to go." Xavier picked up his jacket, "She only gave me three minutes. If I don't go now, with her temperyou know"

"What temper?" Windsor pouted, "Isn't she the most understanding?"

"Understanding is one thing, but today's different." Xavier checked himself in the mirror, straightening his shirt collar, "The wedding of the centuryI promised her that."

"Then why did you come here?"

"Didn't you insist?" Xavier smiled, walked over and pinched her face, "Be good, wait for me to come back tonight."

Windsor swatted his hand away and turned around: "When will the certificate thing be postponed to?"

"We'll see." Xavier answered perfunctorily, picking up his phone from the nightstand.

The screen lit up. WhatsApp messages were exploding.

All from the friend group, voice messages one after another. The last one was a video from Matthew.

He frowned and randomly clicked it open, his eyes widening sharply.