A Saint I Cannot Keep

Whatever excitement I'd had about the wedding evaporated. I hadn't expected Winona to blow up like this. I thought my request was reasonable, but I couldn't understand why she was acting so defensive."Winnie, no husband in the world would be okay with his wife visiting her ex alone. I'm already compromising by saying I'll go with you."She looked increasingly frustrated. Then, she stamped her foot."I don't care what you think. I'm going whether you like it or not, and you're staying here."She seemed to realize her attitude had been too harsh and softened her tone."Liam, I just want to see Julian one last time. If you're there, he'll feel uncomfortable. Besides, tomorrow I'll be your wife. Don't you trust me?"I knew Winona. She only softened her tone like this when she was trying to appease me. But her insistence on not letting me go only fueled my suspicions.I stared at her intently and said, "Our wedding's tomorrow. Just be back early."Her eyes lit up. She threw her arm

I tore down all the wedding decorations in the room and notified everyone that the wedding was canceled. The banquet would go on as planned, but we'd be celebrating my single life instead. After that, I turned off my phone to avoid my family bombarding me with calls.At 11:00 am, Winona still hadn't returned. It seemed there was no need to spare her even the last bit of dignity. When I arrived at the wedding venue, Margaret Sullivan, Winona's mother, stormed forward to confront me. She was so close that I could feel her spit flying."Liam, what is the meaning of this? You turned a perfectly good wedding celebration into some singles party? You need to pay my family another half million for this embarrassment, or Winnie's not going to forgive you."I frowned and took a few steps back. Margaret was the type who favored sons over daughters. When we discussed the wedding, she had demanded an outrageous sum of one million in cash. I used to tolerate her crap because I wanted to marry

Winona's face turned deathly pale. Her eyes widened with panic."Liam, that's not what happened. Please try to understand. How can you just deny everything we've had these past five years?"Before I could respond, someone rushed up and slapped himself hard across the face."Liam, this is all my fault. I shouldn't have returned to the country or told her about my cancer. I also shouldn't have asked her to help fulfill my dying wish. If you're angry, take it out on me, not her."Winona, who had just been professing her love for me, now focused entirely on Julian. She instantly grabbed his wrist and spoke frantically."Stop! You're not feeling well. How can you do this to yourself?"Then she turned to me with an accusatory look. "Liam, I brought Julian here to clear things up. Look at him, he's so worked up he's hitting himself. You don't have to keep dragging this out."From the moment Julian showed up until now, I hadn't said a word or laid a finger on him. He was putting on th

Winona completely broke down when she saw Clara. Tears were streaming down her face."No. You two are working together to trick me, just to make me give up on him, right? I can prove I wasn't lying. This is Julian's cancer report. He really is sick. I was just trying to help him fulfill his last wish," she said, handing me a medical report.I was still too stunned to react, so Clara took it instead. She glanced at it and let out a short, mocking laugh."He's pulled this scam on more women abroad than I can count. When that stopped working, he came back here to try again. And you actually fell for it."Her words hit Winona like a freight train. She stood frozen while I stared at Clara because I'd had no idea about any of this.Clara calmly pulled out her phone and showed us a foreign news article. The headline read, "Man Fakes Cancer Diagnosis to Deceive Multiple Women."The photo of the suspect was unmistakably Julian. It turned out he had returned to the country to escape prosec