I Stumble Upon My Girlfriend's Wedding

Six years into our long-distance relationship, I've finally saved enough to buy a house. I want to surprise my girlfriend, Madeleine Petty, so I secretly travel to the city she's living in, planning to propose. When the receptionist hears that I'm looking for Madeleine, she beams and hands me a box of wedding favors. "You're here to drop off a gift, aren't you? Our CEO, Ms. Petty, is getting married today, so these favors are for you." I'm just about to explain that the Madeleine Petty I'm looking for is just a low-level employee when a familiar figure steps out of the elevator—Madeleine's college roommate, Tara Diaz. Seeing her dressed in a bridesmaid's gown, I ask her in earnest, "Who's getting married today? Why didn't anyone tell me?" Just then, Tara's phone rings, and my childhood best friend's voice crackles through the speaker. "Why aren't you here yet?" Sid Beale huffs. "Madeleine and Richard's wedding is about to start! The bridesmaid can't be late!" Chapter 1 Jeremy's POV Tara Diaz's expression shifted from nonchalance to sheer panic as she instinctively hid her phone behind her back. "Is Madeleine getting married today?" I asked. Her silence was answer enough. I didn't even know what emotions were churning inside me. I only heard myself say, "Take me to see her. We were together for ten years, after all." The pain in my chest was agonizing, as if someone had carved it open. We'd been together for ten years—four years of dating in person and six years of a long-distance relationship. I'd brought up getting married more times than I could count, but she always used distance or the fact that her promotion prospects were bleak as an excuse to say no. She once told me, "Jer, I'll only marry you when we can afford a house in Shoreville." So I'd worked myself to the bone, and finally, I'd saved enough. I'd come here planning to surprise Madeleine with the news, only to walk straight into this instead. The whole way up, Tara looked like she wanted to say something but kept stopping herself. It wasn't until we reached the ballroom on the third floor that she, after much debate, finally said, "Maybe… we shouldn't go in." I pushed open the heavy doors, and the soft swell of romantic music came drifting out. On either side of the entrance were photos of Madeleine Petty and another man, documenting their relationship from the day they met until the proposal. Every milestone was meticulously framed and displayed. Mixed among them were photos with friends, and even my childhood best friend, Sid Beale, was in them. I quickly did the math and realized that their relationship spanned a full five years. Looking around the ballroom, nearly everyone there was a mutual friend of ours. And even among the groomsmen were my best friend, Sid, and several of my closest buddies. As it turned out, everyone knew. They knew that Madeleine had never been some low-level office worker, and they knew she was getting married today. I cross-referenced the timeline in my head. When Madeleine had been vacationing overseas with Richard Morris, I'd been drinking until I nearly vomited blood at a business dinner trying to close a major deal. While they were taking grand, lavish wedding photos in Gulenburg, I'd been pulling back-to-back shifts at the company for weeks, working so hard I nearly collapsed. Yet, no one had told me any of this was happening. I could almost picture it now. To my face, they pitied me for working so hard, but behind my back, they sneered at how I didn't know my limits. While I agonized over whether I should spend 20 dollars on a discounted jacket, Richard's wedding suit alone had cost tens of thousands of dollars. The wedding favors Madeleine casually handed out were each worth over 10,000 dollars, yet she'd always pretended to be broke whenever she was with me. The more I thought about it, the more unbearable the pain in my heart became. It wasn't until the bride and groom came down to make their rounds to toast their guests that Madeleine finally noticed me. Her expression finally registered a slight change. Richard looked at me in confusion. "This is…?" "A college classmate," Madeleine answered nonchalantly. I stared at her in disbelief. Yet, her gaze remained firmly fixed on Richard. Richard smiled and clinked his glass against mine. "Since you're Madeleine's classmate, you've definitely got to have another drink with us. Thank you for coming today." A bitter laugh escaped me. Ten years together, and Madeleine wouldn't even admit who I really was. Suddenly, my phone chimed with a text from her. "I'll explain everything later. Just be good for these next few days." The next second, a non-disclosure agreement landed in my inbox. The gist of it was that if I ruined her marriage to Richard, I'd be liable for massive financial damages. And what made my blood run cold was that I'd somehow already signed my name on the document. Chapter 2 Jeremy's POV Richard noticed my odd behavior. "Are you alright?" he asked. I forced a smile. "I'm fine. It's just my first time seeing Madeleine love someone this much. I'm a little surprised." Their hands were tightly intertwined, fingers locked together perfectly. Yet, in the ten years I'd been with Madeleine, she had never once reached for my hand first. Richard smiled. "She's usually quite fierce. She's only a tad more gentle around me." No, being "a tad more gentle" was an understatement. She treated him with the utmost gentleness. The giant LED screen in the ballroom cycled through 100 sets of their wedding photos. Over the past decade, Madeleine and I had barely taken any pictures together. And even when we did, she would ask me to delete them. But the woman on the screen smiled, made playful faces, and the tips of her ears even turned red when Richard kissed her on the cheek. Just then, Madeleine asked Richard quietly, "Do you want to take a break? You got hurt yesterday." "I'm fine," Richard replied with a smile. Then, he turned to me. "Oh, and that's another one of her good qualities. She's really attentive and caring." Unfortunately, her attentiveness had never once been directed at me. Whenever one of my migraines got so bad that I couldn't even get out of bed, I could never reach Madeleine. She was always busy with work, only returning my calls the next day. And the next time it happened, she'd continue to overlook me yet again. I had always believed that she was just that kind of person—someone who wasn't good at expressing herself—and so I kept making excuses for her. She forgot every anniversary because she didn't care for formalities. She overlooked my emotional needs because she was too busy with work. Today, the truth finally hit me. She had simply saved all her tenderness and romance for someone else. I didn't know how I made it through the reception. It was only after I returned to my budget hotel room that I realized tears were streaming down my face. When Madeleine and I first got together, we had truly been broke. I'd grown up in the mountains, so anytime I had free time, I'd take on part-time jobs. Although she was a local, she'd always claimed that her family's financial situation wasn't great either, and we'd often work part-time at the same store. After we started dating, she always insisted on paying whenever we went out. While other couples spent their time figuring out where to go for fun, she and I spent every day figuring out how to save money. That was why I'd never once suspected she was a wealthy heiress. The year we graduated, she said her family had found her a job, while I moved to a different city. During all those years apart, she stayed up late working overtime every day, all just so she could save up enough money for us to get married. My heart ached for her, and all I wanted to do was shoulder some of that burden. Every time she complained that her supervisor had cut her commission again, I'd transfer half of whatever I'd earned from my part-time jobs to her. Those years were exhausting and hard, but I was incredibly happy. So happy that even after seeing the truth with my own eyes, I still found it hard to believe. Chapter 3 Jeremy's POV That night, Madeleine knocked on my hotel room door. She got straight to the point. "Rick and I… It's an arranged marriage between our families. In families like ours, a lot of things are beyond our control." Instead of responding to that, I asked, "When did I sign that NDA?" Her eyes darted away from mine. "Three years ago." My mind went blank. That had been the year I'd worked harder than ever, obsessively saving every penny. At one point, I'd pulled an entire week of all-nighters and nearly collapsed at a bus stop. When Madeleine called, she noticed something was wrong with my voice. She rushed over that very same night to see me, bringing a stack of documents with her. "It's an NDA for a new project at my company. It needs a family member to sign as a guarantor," she said. I blinked at her. "But we're not married yet." She looked at me and said with absolute certainty, "Isn't it just a matter of time anyway?" Overjoyed, I'd signed my name without a second thought. But while I assumed that she'd finally included me in her future, she was already planning to marry another man. A flash of reluctance and pity crossed Madeleine's eyes. "As long as you behave yourself, you can still stay by my side. I won't mistreat you. You can pick any house you want, and I'll give you 100,000 dollars every month." I looked at her in disbelief. "You want me to be your…" I couldn't even bring myself to say the word. Madeleine, however, clearly didn't see anything wrong with it. "Haven't you always said your job is exhausting? Staying by my side will be a lot easier than—" Before she could finish, my eyes filled with tears, and I gave her a hard shove. She knew full well that my own mother had fallen into severe depression precisely because she'd been forced to become another man's mistress. Madeleine knew that was the one thing I loathed above all else, yet she acted as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world. Her expression darkened, but when she saw the tears in my eyes, her voice softened. "Jer, think it through. Look at the life your mom had to live all those years. Do you really want to end up living the same life? At least I won't abandon you like your dad did your mom." Not wanting to hear more, I threw her out of my room. … The next morning, however, Mom's phone call arrived. "How could you do something like this?" she roared, absolutely furious. "How did I end up with a son like you?" Only then did I discover that someone had secretly photographed Madeleine coming to my hotel room, written an article about it, and posted it all over social media. The headline read, "Wealthy CEO Caught Keeping a Lover Fresh Off Her Wedding". The comments were filled with insults and accusations. Someone had even dug up my phone number and Social Security number, and an avalanche of abuse came crashing down on me. Mom continued yelling through the phone, "Jer, how did you turn into this kind of person? You clearly know the thing I hate most in the world is a homewrecker!" "Mom," I desperately tried to explain. "I didn't—" "You're still lying!" she snapped, her voice turning shrill. "If there's nothing going on between you and Madeleine Petty, why would she have gone to your hotel room?" I had no way to explain that. My only option was to post evidence online proving that I wasn't a homewrecker. For a moment, public opinion became divided, but just as quickly, my post was reported and taken down. Not long after, Richard, with Madeleine in tow, came to see me. "Let's talk, Jeremy." Chapter 4 Jeremy's POV "I'm sorry for all the trouble the online backlash has caused you," Richard began. "On behalf of my friends, I sincerely apologize. "But your post has caused serious problems for both the Morris and the Petty families. We need you to go live and admit that you're the other man in this relationship." Mom's angry yells were still echoing in my ears, and now Richard was handing me a knife, demanding that I drive it into my own heart. "And if I refuse?" A hint of coldness surfaced in his eyes. "Have you forgotten the NDA you signed with Madeleine? Do I need to remind you how much money you'll have to pay in damages if you ruin our marriage? If you make a public apology on a live stream, I'll personally give you another 500,000 dollars." "Fine," I said. "I'll apologize." The moment the live stream began, people flooded in to curse me out. The corners of my mouth curled into a bitter smirk. "I'm sorry. I apologize for not swallowing my anger and refusing to suffer this injustice silently. "I should've just happily watched my girlfriend of ten years marry someone else. So what if I was cheated on? It's not like it's the end of the world." Within seconds, #RichardMorrisIsAHomewrecker skyrocketed to the top of the trending search results. Flustered and enraged, Madeleine immediately ended the live stream. "You grew up in the mountains, Jer," she said with a cold sneer. "So you probably don't understand the rules of the game in our circle." A sudden chill ran down my spine. "Do you still remember how the whole internet cyberbullied your mother back then?" She pulled out her phone, tapped it a few times, and turned the screen toward me. It was a screenshot of an old web page from over a decade ago. The headline was glaring. "College Professor Exposed as Wealthy Businessman's Mistress, Publicly Attacked by Wife". "If this starts circulating online again, do you think your mother could survive another round of cyberbullying?" she asked. I begged Madeleine to leave Mom alone. She was already suffering from depression, and if she went through this again, it would kill her. A trace of reluctance flashed across her eyes, but she pressed the "Send" button anyway. "You caused Rick so much harm. You have to pay the price!" "No! Don't!" I turned desperately to Richard. "I'm sorry. I was being immature. I beg you, please spare my mother!" But within seconds, the old scandal stirred an absolute uproar on the internet once again. It had taken everything Mom had to crawl out of that dark abyss back then, only to be dragged right back into it. Seeing me on the verge of breaking down, Richard finally smiled. "Go live and apologize to me, Mr. Garrett. Then I'll forgive you." Left with no choice, I could only start another live stream. This time, even more people flooded in to hurl insults at me. Madeleine's expression softened. "Your mother will be fine," she said, trying to comfort me. "I've already arranged for people to keep an eye on her." After saying that, she stepped outside to answer a phone call. Once she was gone, Richard turned to me. "Aren't you curious how we found out about what happened all those years ago?" Right then, Sid stepped out of the shadows. My mind went completely blank. As it turned out, he was the one who had provided Madeleine and Richard with all the information. "Why would you do this to me?" Sid just smiled. "I'm doing this for your own good, Jer. Madeleine has always loved Richard. What kind of man keeps clinging to another man's wife?" Sid Beale had been my best friend since we were kids. Back then, his mother had refused to let him go to high school, instead wanting to send him to work at an illegal factory. I was the one who paid his tuition so that he could stay in school. Even when he'd chosen to hide Madeleine's wedding from me, I had never blamed him. But never had I imagined that he'd be the one to push me into the abyss with his own two hands. As the security guards arrived to kick me out, Richard yelled out after me. "Oh, one more thing. The people Madeleine arranged to keep an eye on your mother? I've already dismissed them." His words hit me like a bolt of lightning. I frantically called home, only to receive news that Mom had jumped off a building. Despair after crushing despair made it impossible for me to breathe. My limbs went ice-cold, and my vision blurred. Through my hazy vision, I saw a text message arrive from Madeleine. "I've already deleted that post, and I've had people clean up all of the online backlash. Rick won't make things difficult for you anymore. We can still go back to the way things used to be." I simply turned on the live stream again. Ignoring the endless stream of insults filling the screen, I walked step by step to the edge of the river. Then, I jumped. "There's no going back, Madeleine," I thought to myself. … Third-Person POV At the same moment, Madeleine was with Richard at a birthday dinner when she happened to come across the live stream showing Jeremy jumping into the river. Richard glanced at it and said, "He's probably just trying to grab attention." The knot in Madeleine's chest loosened. Yes, that was much more likely. Jeremy wouldn't do something that foolish. The very next second, her assistant, Kathy Montgomery, stumbled into the banquet hall in a panic. "Ms. Petty! It's bad! Mr. Garrett really jumped into the river!"