Chapter 204 I Suggest You Go See a Doctor

Chapter 204 I Suggest You Go See a Doctor

Ember's POV

The wedding was set for two weeks out. Zane had handled everything himself, down to the last detail. The venue was a private estate owned by the Sawyer family. Over two hundred invitations had gone out. My wedding dress was a custom piece flown in from Milan.

After what happened at the last wedding, my parents quietly pulled me aside and told me to think it over carefully. But even then, they clearly leaned toward Zane over Asher. Zane was good to me, good to Evelyn too — so much better than that cold, unreadable man from the Blackwood family.

"Ember, I just want you to make a choice you can live with," Laura said, adjusting my veil backstage. Her eyes were getting red. "And even if you end up regretting it, even if you want to walk away from him someday, I'll take care of you."

I looked at myself in the mirror and pulled the corners of my mouth into something that barely passed for a smile. Evelyn was hugging my leg beside me, tilting her face up. "Mommy, are you happy?"

I touched her head. "I am."

She tilted her head to one side, and since I said so, she didn't ask again.

The weather was perfect on the day of the wedding. I stood at the far end of the flower aisle in my white dress, holding a bouquet of lily of the valley, watching Zane smile at me from the other end.

It looked almost exactly like last time.

I walked toward him, step by step. The hem of my dress swept across the petals scattered on the floor, making a soft, whispering sound. But halfway down the aisle, something felt off. I couldn't explain it. The whole room was too quiet.

I looked around, a little confused. The guests were all there. Victor and Laura were dabbing their eyes in the front row. Evelyn was waving at me in her little flower girl dress. Penelope stood at the bridesmaid's spot, eyes red. But my gut kept telling me something was missing.

The officiant cleared his throat and was just about to begin the vows when one of the groomsmen suddenly rushed up to the altar, leaned close to Zane's ear, and said something with a look of panic on his face.

Zane's expression shifted immediately. His voice dropped low, barely in control. "What do you mean he's gone?"

The groomsman lowered his voice further, but I was close enough to catch fragments: "...grabbed... locked in the basement... got out..."

Before I could even process that, my phone buzzed urgently inside my bouquet. I answered it, and Penelope's voice came through, deliberately hushed. "Ember, check your messages right now. I forwarded something from Asher."

After our fight in his office that day, I'd blocked Asher on everything. I hung up and went straight to my messages. The first was a screenshot Penelope had forwarded. The second was a confidential document.

I opened the screenshot first. It was a conversation between Asher and Zane's assistant. Asher had confronted the assistant over WhatsApp, asking how much he'd been paid to steal the bid proposal. The assistant admitted it was two hundred thousand dollars, and said Mr. Sawyer had promised another three hundred thousand once everything was done.

I stared at those words, and felt the cold spread all the way to my fingertips. I slowly lowered my phone and looked up at Zane standing beside me.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You bribed my assistant." I looked at him without any warmth.

The smile left his face completely.

"You're the one who leaked the bid."

The whole room went silent the moment the words were out of my mouth. Every guest froze. Zane looked at me and saw the coldness in my eyes. He knew there was no point hiding it anymore.

"Yes." His voice was quiet, like it was meant only for me. "I did."

There was something stuck in my chest. I couldn't tell if it was anger or disappointment. My eyes were burning. "Why."

"Because of you."

"You said you loved me."

"I do love you." He held my gaze. "That's exactly why I couldn't stand watching you stand beside someone else." He paused, took a slow breath, and when he spoke again his voice was so calm it was almost cruel. "Leaking the bid was Chloe's idea. She came to me and suggested we work together. She'd help me get you. I'd help her get Asher. I didn't care what she was after. All I cared about was getting you back. I didn't care what it took."

I stared at this man in front of me, and I could barely recognize him. Was this really the Zane I'd known my whole life? In my memory, he was gentle and steady — someone who cared for me without ever pushing me. But the wall covered in my photos, the information he'd stolen, the Hart Group bid he'd personally leaked — all of it was telling me something I didn't want to accept. I had never really known him at all.

"Chloe gave me something else too." He pulled up an encrypted folder on his phone. "Videos of you and Asher together. Photos of him carrying you into a hotel room. She kept sending them to me, one after another. Every time I looked, it tore me apart. I couldn't sleep. Ember, do you have any idea what it feels like to watch the person you love be with someone else?"

I gripped the bouquet tighter. "You love me, so you hurt me. You love me, so you destroyed everything I worked for. You love me, so you bought off the person I trusted most and let someone take the project I cared about most."

"That's not love, Zane. That's just bitterness. That's just a warped need to possess me. That's just you not being able to stand losing to Asher. You never understood what love actually means." I turned to leave.

"Ember." He called my name quietly.

My steps slowed for just a moment, but I didn't turn around.

"If you're wondering how I ended up like this," Zane said from behind me, "I think it's because I've been sick for too long. Too far gone. Nothing can fix it now."

"But you're the only thing that ever helped. So I wanted to clip your wings and keep you with me forever. Ember, we've known each other too long. I don't want us to end up strangers. Just come back and finish this ceremony with me. Everything that happened before — I'll act like none of it ever existed."

"Zane, I'm grateful for everything you've done for me over the years. But..." I paused. "This wedding can't go on." I couldn't forgive the harm he'd done in the name of love. But I also found I wasn't in a position to keep pointing fingers, because part of who he'd become had something to do with me.

I gathered the hem of my dress and turned to face the guests. "The wedding is cancelled. I'm truly sorry you all came out here for nothing."

I finished the apology, stepped down from the altar, and said a few quick words to my parents — asked them to stay and help keep the guests settled. Then I picked up my skirt, walked to the heavy doors of the venue, and pushed them open alone.

Sunlight poured in all at once. I squinted against it.

Someone was standing just outside the door.