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หน้าหลัก / The Vows Were Never Mine / Chapter 4 I Gave Her the Wedding

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Chapter 4 I Gave Her the Wedding

ผู้เขียน: Jean Sea
By the time the ceremony began, everything looked as if nothing had ever gone wrong.

The giant screen displayed only our wedding photos.

Lawrence stood beneath the flower arch, his eyes rimmed red.

Whispers drifted through the audience.

"Mr. Croft really loves his bride."

"He looks like he's about to cry."

With my father at my side, I walked down the aisle one step at a time.

When I reached Lawrence, the officiant began. "After ten years together, they've finally arrived at this moment. Today, the groom has chosen to speak his vows in his own words."

The room filled with applause.

Lawrence accepted the microphone.

He looked at me, his voice rough with emotion. "Jasmine, I always thought you'd be by my side forever. So I forgot that I could hurt you, too. You're the only woman I ever wanted to marry."

The room fell silent.

The emotion in his eyes did not look fake.

"I was wrong to delete those videos last night. I was afraid everyone would see how much you'd sacrificed for me over the past ten years. I was afraid they'd think I didn't deserve you. Jas, give me one more chance. From now on, I'll never put anyone ahead of you again."

The entire room held its breath.

I looked at the ring in his hand.

For that brief moment, I admitted that I wavered.

I had wasted ten years on Lawrence. Ten years was long enough that even the faintest glimmer of hope could make me hesitate.

Just as the ring was about to touch my finger, the giant screen suddenly changed. An unlisted surprise presentation began to play.

"Jas."

The moment my mother's voice came through the speakers, my whole body stiffened.

She appeared on the screen, sitting in a hospital bed.

"I'm so happy today. Lawrence is a good man. Don't carry everything by yourself anymore. Learn to let other people share your burdens. Like Sienna…"

As soon as she finished the last sentence, the image suddenly froze.

The light faded from my mother's face, little by little.

The next second, the woman on the screen became Sienna.

"Jas, Lawrence asked me to make this video so you could have one less regret on your wedding day. But I'm really so jealous of you. Jealous that you're the one marrying Lawrence. Jealous that you're the one who gets to be his wife. Jealous that your mother can still walk you down the aisle in her own way."

She smiled through her tears.

"Lawrence, congratulations on your wedding. I hope you'll be happy. It doesn't matter that I'm not the bride standing beside you today. If you think of me once in a while someday, don't feel guilty. Because I know the most special place in your heart will always belong to me."

The entire venue fell into stunned silence.

Some of the guests were already wiping away tears.

Hazel's eyes were red as she choked back a sob. "That poor girl… She's always thinking of everyone else."

I clenched my fists and glared at everyone in the room.

How dare she.

A mechanical voice sounded almost immediately. "Surprise uploaded from Sienna's account. Approved by Lawrence. Approval time: 11:47 p.m. last night."

Slowly, I turned to look at Lawrence.

He stood there, frozen.

The ring slipped from his hand and rolled to the hem of my gown.

"Jas…" His voice trembled. "I thought… I thought it was just her way of saying goodbye."

I looked at him. Then I laughed.

"So you knew she was going to say goodbye to her love at my wedding. And you let her do it using my mother's face. You approved it anyway."

The words flew out of Lawrence's mouth before he could stop them. "I just didn't want to humiliate her."

The murmurs in the audience grew louder.

Sienna ran onto the stage in tears. "Jasmine, don't blame Lawrence. I'm the one who couldn't let go. The one Lawrence really loves is you."

Lawrence stepped toward me, reaching for my hand. "Jas, don't listen to her. I'll have her leave right now."

I stepped back before he could touch me.

Then I slowly removed my veil and placed it in his arms. "Lawrence, you wanted to spare her the embarrassment. Fine. I'll help you."

His eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

I bent down, picked up the ring from the floor, and placed it in Sienna's palm. "This wedding… is yours."
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  • The Vows Were Never Mine   Chapter 10 A Scar That Won't Reopen

    Sienna's studio quickly fell apart.She rushed to Croft Group and blocked Lawrence's car outside the building, tears streaming down her face.A passerby recorded the scene, and the video spread across the internet within hours."Lawrence, you can't just abandon me. You were the one who said Jasmine's story was too depressing and would hurt your image. I only told the story the way you wanted."Lawrence stood beside his car, his expression colder than she'd ever seen. "Sienna, there has never been anything between us."Sienna jabbed a finger at his chest, her voice shaking. "You knew she was hurting, but you liked how understanding she was. You knew I crossed the line, but you liked being admired. You never wanted to choose. You just wanted everyone revolving around you."The clip shot to the top of the trending list."She's awful, no question, but Lawrence isn't innocent either.""He wasn't fooled. He wanted to have it both ways.""Jasmine deserved so much better than the last

  • The Vows Were Never Mine   Chapter 9 Too Late to Make It Right

    The next morning, property management called to tell me that a Mr. Croft had collapsed outside the entrance to my building.My father frowned. "Do you want to go downstairs and check on him?""Dad, have property management call 911. I'm not a doctor."Around noon, Lawrence woke up and sent me a flood of messages."Jas, I stayed up all night thinking. I always thought you would never leave, so I kept waiting for you to be the one to give in.""It's not that I didn't love you. I was just too used to being loved by you."I set my phone aside and went back to organizing the study.The room was filled with Lawrence's things.His early business proposals. The speech he wrote after his first failed investor pitch. Even the branding materials from Sienna's studio in its early days.I sorted through every file one by one.Anything connected to projects I had worked on, I scanned and archived.That afternoon, my lawyer told me that several of Sienna's clients had reached out on their

  • The Vows Were Never Mine   Chapter 8 Some Things Cannot Be Replaced

    The next morning, the story was still trending.Sienna's studio released a lengthy statement.She said she had grown up without a sense of security, so she treasured Lawrence as family.She claimed the hidden wedding clip had been recorded long ago and was only meant to be a private farewell. The system had accidentally played it during the ceremony.At the end, she apologized to me.Every word sounded sincere.The attached photo showed her lying in a hospital bed with an IV in the back of her hand. Lawrence sat beside her, gently tucking the blanket around her.It was a beautifully staged picture.Warm lighting. A quiet hospital room. His lowered eyes, full of tenderness.It looked like a love story that had finally found its ending.The comments quickly turned in her favor."She has already humbled herself this much. What else does the bride want?""Childhood sweetheart stories really are heartbreaking.""The way Mr. Croft looks at her doesn't seem like he has no feeling

  • The Vows Were Never Mine   Chapter 7 Settling the Score

    When I got home, I walked straight to my bedroom.In the mirror, my makeup was still flawless, and my hair was still pinned up perfectly.Judging from my face alone, anyone would have thought I had just returned from a beautiful wedding.But the smear of dirt along the hem of my dress had torn a hole through every bit of that dignity.I reached behind me for the zipper. Halfway up, it caught.In moments like this, I used to instinctively call for Lawrence.He was still the first person I thought of even after the countless times he impatiently said, "Can you not handle something this simple yourself?"I stood in front of the mirror and slowly raised my arms.The zipper scraped across my knuckles. It hurt. But little by little, I managed to pull it down myself.My phone had been vibrating nonstop.Lawrence had called more than a dozen times. I did not answer.A few minutes later, he sent me a message. "Jas, Sienna is awake."I stared at those words for a long time.He was s

  • The Vows Were Never Mine   Chapter 6 A Love Story Rewritten

    The wedding car was parked outside the hotel's side entrance.White roses decorated the hood, their blooms sagging under the rain.Flowers that should have been surrounded by applause and congratulations now clung to the car, soaked through, like the punchline to a joke no one knew how to end.My handwritten welcome card sat on the front passenger seat. "Welcome to celebrate ten years of love with Lawrence and me."I stared at those words until my eyes began to sting.Ten years.Just two simple words on a piece of paper.But I had spent an entire decade pouring myself into them, little by little.My father opened the car door. "Let's go home first."I got in, my wedding gown pooling around my feet.The white fabric was stained with rainwater and dirt, the layers spread across the floor like a dream that had been torn apart.I opened my hand.The pearl on the hair clip was cracked. A thin fracture ran from the edge all the way to the center, like a tiny wound.A dried speck

  • The Vows Were Never Mine   Chapter 5 The Answer I Didn't Need Twice

    "Jasmine, please. Don't do this on our wedding day."Lawrence kept his voice low, as if he were still trying to protect the last scrap of my dignity."I know you're upset, but you can't seriously be calling off the wedding."There was even a hint of certainty in his voice.He was too used to me coming back. So used to it that even after I took off my veil and placed the ring in Sienna's palm, he still thought I was just throwing a tantrum."We've come this far." He looked at me, his brow drawn tight. "The guests are here. Both families are here. Are you really saying the wedding's off?"Lawrence stared at me, his eyes bloodshot.I lowered my gaze to his hand.Ten years ago, he had held on to me the same way.That was the year his startup failed. He had locked himself inside his tiny apartment and refused to see anyone.It rained all night.I stood outside, knocking until my knuckles turned red while carrying his favorite food.When he finally opened the door, he was unshave

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