Chapter 70—A Small Meeting

Astrid’s POV:

I have been talking to mom about the wedding. Yes, I am finally getting married. But, my heart says that I should meet Noah once before marrying him.

No, it is not like he is some harm. But, I just… I just don’t want it to be so weird and awkward at my wedding. I want it to be happy.

So, my mom messaged and called him to pay a visit. He agreed after quite a long nagging. Guess, he hates me quite a lot now.

“Everything would be fine Astrid” mom consoled me seeing my tensed face.

“I hope mom” I replied and went to change into something good.

I wore some jeans and a top and applied a little makeup. I Hope it just looks natural.

The doorbell rang at the exact time we gave him to come. My heartbeat raced to the top. I felt like it was gonna explode. I kept myself stable. It is not gonna be easy seeing him after all the time and mostly, talking and… marrying.

He entered the house, and I was in the kitchen. He was visible to me, but he possibly hasn’t seen me. He is looking so handsome and so well mannered.

I took a deep breath and entered the room. His gaze went from his feet to me. His eyes locked with mine for a pretty second.

“I’ll leave you two—” mom was interrupted by both of us.

“Nope, we are good!”

“Nope, we are good!”

I can’t believe we both spoke even the same words. I broke the contact first while I could feel his gaze still on me. I went back to the kitchen and brought some juice. I served the juice glass on the table and as I was going, he stopped me by my wrist.

“Astrid” he spoke, and I looked up at him. “I am leaving”

“What?” I was barely audible.

“I can’t be here. But I will be on the wedding day” he spoke and turned around to leave.

“Stay, Noah, I wanna talk to you” I finally spoke.

He turned and looked at me. “About?”

“Things” I looked down. “A lot of them”

“I don’t think this is the best time” he looked sideways.

I noticed mom has already left the room.

“Then when?” I questioned as we were getting married a week later.

“After our wedding”

“What?” I can’t believe it. “Why after the wedding? I wanna solve everything before”

He looked at me and pulled me close with my wrist. The tray fell from my hands.

“Because I am doing a favor to you by marrying you and you don’t ask me things then” he didn’t look in my eyes but sideways. “So, after the wedding”

I can’t believe this.

He is doing a favor?

Like I am some burden to him?

“I didn’t ask you for any favor” I spoke as I felt my self-respect getting at risk. “Don’t do any”

He took my face in his hand. He caught my chin in hand quite painfully. “I will because you made me suffer a lot. It is time for payback”

I stood there frozen as he left the house.

I was in my room. I didn’t tell mom anything about what happened. I just said that during talks, the tray fell, and everything went normal.

But nothing went normal.

What is going on?

Why did he say that?

What did he mean by that?

Payback?

How?

I did hurt him. I accept that… and I should probably pay back for that anyway. I can’t live with this guilt, so I will rather take my punishment. You know, guilt is the most ruthless and silent killer. I don’t wanna die with guilt, I’d rather take what I deserve for it.

But still, I didn’t get what he meant by that, and how will he take his payback by marrying me? Will he hurt me? He can’t do that… no, he can’t.

I trust him, and I will marry him.

I went to my bed and sat down. I took out my phone and went through our chats. How happy we were. And now? I don’t know what is going on… but we are not what we used to be anymore. And what hurts is that I am the one at fault. It's so much of a fault that I can’t even think of how to ask for forgiveness. I don’t know what happened that day, but I know I should have given him a chance. I didn’t because I was too blinded by the pain and hurt. Maybe I wouldn’t even have been hurt if I had just let him explain his side. But time has flown and now, now he’d not even wanna explain that. I am a complete fool to lose someone like that in all this mess.

I didn’t think much. I shouldn’t, I know I can trust him, and this is the only way to make amends. Even if he ever hurts me, I will take that as a punishment, and it will help me lessen the guilt. He said that I made him suffer so much. I should suffer too, that is only fair.

Although, I can’t think of any way that I’ll suffer if I marry someone like him.

Someone who was ready to marry me just because some bad guy was marrying me, even after all that shit happened and he suffered because of my mistakes.

God, I just don’t wanna hurt him anymore.

I hope this marriage results in his happiness