Chapter 13
Ryder finally came to his senses a little and quickly tried to explain.
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“Elle, I just want to find out why she suddenly moved away. Give me a little time…” Elle completely lost control of her emotions.
She raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face, tears forming in her
eyes.
“You said you’d loved me for eight years, and now YOU’RE the one running from the altar! You claimed you only saw Autumn as a buddy, but you’ve been sleeping with her for YEARS! Ryder, is ANYTHING that comes out of your mouth the truth?!” In an instant, everyone fell silent.
Ryder’s parents stared at their son in disbelief.
Elle’s father, who had been waiting nearby, turned red with rage. He slapped Ryder so hard he stumbled, then took his daughter and left.
No one tried to stop them.
Ryder fell to the floor, his face swelling, head spinning, blood trickling from his lip. Yet he seemed not to feel the pain, staring blankly as the Winters family walked
away.
Until they completely disappeared behind the door, he didn’t say a single word to make them stay.
Was he unable to speak, or did he not want to?
Even he didn’t know.
The wedding that hadn’t even begun was already over.
That evening, the Winters family returned all the engagement gifts and announced they were cutting ties with the Caldwells.
The Caldwell living room, still decorated with wedding symbols, looked festive but felt like a tomb.
Ryder sat alone on the couch, staring out the window at the dark, empty Sullivan house.
His mind flooded with memories of Autumn.
When they were five or six, holding hands while swinging in the garden. When they were ten, him posing as her model while she sketched his portrait. As adults, their kisses and embraces…
They had been intimate friends for eighteen years, then became secret lovers. overnight.
Lovers–such an inappropriate word.
Yet Ryder could only use that term to describe these five years.
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She wasn’t his girlfriend, but what they did went far beyond friendship.
The casual “I like you” and “I love you” whispered during sex had, without him realizing, carved themselves into his heart.
He’d told the lie so many times that he gradually began to believe it himself.
He just hadn’t noticed until now.
Only after completely losing her did Ryder finally understand his own heart. Yes, he had liked Elle.
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But during her years away, that attraction had slowly morphed into an obsession: The unattainable fantasy had blinded him, making him think his feelings remained unchanged.
Yet as time passed, he’d actually fallen for Autumn.
That’s why he got angry when she distanced herself, why his heart raced when she admitted her feelings, why he panicked when he learned she was gone.
Between having Elle and losing Autumn forever, Ryder couldn’t accept the latter. If forced to choose, he had only one answer:
He needed Autumn by his side.
He couldn’t imagine what his life would be like without her.
Who would he share a good whiskey with? Who would laugh at his weird thoughts? Who would understand his rambling stories that he had to repeat a hundred times before anyone got them?
The only person who truly understood him was across an ocean, completely out of reach.
Just thinking about it made Ryder shudder.
So when he heard that the Winters were calling off the engagement, his first reaction was actually relieff.
Meanwhile, his parents still hadn’t recovered from their shock. They stared at him for a long time before finally gathering the courage to ask:
“Elle said that you and Autumn…”
After hiding it for so long only to have the truth come out this way, Ryder didn’t know how to face his parents.
After a long silence, he simply nodded in response.
His parents felt like the air had been sucked from the room. They took a deep breath and looked at him with incredibly complex emotions.
“How long has this been going on? Why didn’t you tell us? If you were dating
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Inu 24 Apr
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Autumn, why would you get engaged to Elle? Did Autumn decide to move away because of you?”
“How could you be so foolish? Our families have been friends for decades! If you two were truly in love, do you think we wouldn’t support you? How could you do this to Autumn? To her parents?”
Ryder’s mind was in chaos. He had no idea how to answer.
The room fell silent again.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally collected his thoughts and spoke up. “This is entirely my fault, from beginning to end. I’ll go to Barcelona tomorrow to apologize to Autumn.“*
His parents sighed heavily, their voices full of resignation.
“After what you did, Autumn must have left because she was heartbroken. Her parents probably don’t even know about this yet. What good will it do for you to go alone? We’ll all go together and properly apologize to their family!”
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