홈 / The Promise I Reclaimed / 챕터 1 - 챕터 10

The Promise I Reclaimed의 모든 챕터: 챕터 1 - 챕터 10

10 챕터

Chapter 1

The wedding program continued, and the officiant's cheerful voice carried across the ballroom."Now, groom, you may embrace and kiss your bride."Before the sentence was finished, Derek Halstead lifted Vanessa Pryce's veil and leaned in to kiss her.It looked as natural as though they had rehearsed it a hundred times.I watched in silence.Nora's expression darkened instead.I caught her before she could rush onto the stage and shook my head gently."Don't."She turned toward me, furious."Elise, how can Derek do this to you?"You waited seven years for this wedding. You designed the venue yourself, chose every detail yourself, even glued every crystal onto the escort cards by hand."How can he hand the whole thing to Vanessa just because of some old reconciliation voucher?"She was right.I had waited seven years for this wedding.Even Nora, who lived overseas, knew how much it meant to me.Yet Derek, who had walked through those seven years beside me and once knelt bef

Chapter 2

After seeing Nora off, I returned to the dressing room and changed out of my wedding gown.Before the enormous mirror, white fabric flowed through the light and shadow, the rose embroidery along the train almost alive.Derek had flown overseas to have that dress custom-made.It was one of the few gifts from him that had ever felt truly thoughtful.The day I tried it on, he had said, "You're the rose in my heart. Marry me, and I'll make sure you spend your whole life in bloom."I believed him then.I thought ten years of love had finally brought me to the moment everything opened into flowers.I had not realized the bloom would last only an instant.I lowered my eyes, removed the gown, and turned away.As the dressing-room door closed, the gown slipped to the floor and the embroidered roses disappeared beneath layers of white fabric.I was about to leave the reception early when a burst of laughter near the exit forced me to stop.At the center of the crowd, Derek and Vanessa

Chapter 3

A notification appeared almost immediately."Your cancellation request has been received. Confirmation will be completed shortly."I locked my phone and went straight home.Then I started packing.The large house was filled with things Derek had given me over the years.Jewelry, designer bags, custom dresses - more than I could ever have needed.To be fair, Derek had not always treated me badly.He planned our anniversaries carefully, kept track of my cycle so I never had to ask, and brought me warm food whenever I worked late.Five years earlier, when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, the cost of surgery kept me awake night after night.Derek secretly arranged her transfer to a better hospital room and paid the medical expenses while pretending the support came through a charitable foundation.Then Vanessa came back.His love began to shift.No.Maybe shift was the wrong word.Maybe it simply returned to where it had always wanted to be.I shook away the memory.

Chapter 4

Because it was a holiday weekend, every nearby hotel was full.I sighed and decided I would simply leave the next morning.Feeling thirsty, I walked into the living room and found the entire place transformed.The sculptural floor lamp was gone, and the woven mat I had made by hand had been replaced with an expensive silk rug.Vanessa, wearing a low-cut nightgown, sat on the couch while telling Rosa, the housekeeper, to remove our wedding portrait from the wall.The crystal frame was heavy. Rosa's hands slipped, and it crashed down.The frame shattered with a sharp crack.Broken glass scattered across the floor between Derek and me like a line dividing two lives."Vanessa, are you okay?"Derek rushed out of the study at the sound, passed me without hesitation, and pulled Vanessa protectively toward him."I'm fine. It's just the wedding portrait..."Vanessa glanced at the broken frame, then looked at me apologetically."Elise, I'm sorry. I just thought hanging a wedding port

Chapter 5

"What is it?"Vanessa had waited on the bed for a long time while Derek did nothing except play a video.She had been about to make the first move.But when she approached him, the expression on his face frightened her.Derek's hand trembled around his phone.He stared at the notification as if he could not understand the words."Your civil-marriage appointment with Elise Marlow has been canceled."Canceled?Elise canceled it?His first instinct was to assume I was throwing another tantrum.Anger surged through him, and he yanked the bedroom door open."Elise, what kind of stunt are you pulling now?"No one answered.The living room was empty.A few seconds later, Rosa stepped out of the kitchen and spoke nervously."Mr. Halstead, Ms. Marlow left a little while ago with her suitcase."The anger on Derek's face froze. He instinctively moved toward the door, but Vanessa followed him."Derek, did Elise leave because she doesn't want me staying here? Is she trying to force

Chapter 6

Derek drove street after street, but he could not find me anywhere.I was not at my office or at the place where we had gone on our first date.He even had his assistant call every hotel they could reasonably identify, but there was no reservation under my name.By dawn, orange light touched the eastern sky.Driving without direction, Derek somehow ended up at Maple Lantern Park, where he had first asked me to date him.Back then, he had just broken up with Vanessa and was drinking alone when he ran into me on a late-night run.I stopped and handed him a granola bar from my pocket."Drinking on an empty stomach will hurt you. Eat something first."He looked at my flushed face and suddenly asked, "You like me, don't you?"The direct question made me turn even redder.But I met his eyes instead of looking away, my answer embarrassingly sincere."I do. I've liked you for a long time."The stars were bright that night, but to Derek they were nothing beside my eyes.His heart h

Chapter 7

Outside Brookhollow County Courthouse, I looked down at the certified marriage certificate in my hands and felt a strange, steady sense of peace.My parents had divorced when I was very young, and I had spent years moving from place to place with my mother. More than anything, I had always wanted a home.I looked at the certificate and quietly read the names printed there.Elise Marlow. Callum Everard.Two names side by side.They looked unexpectedly right together.Callum had been my childhood friend.We grew up together and had once been almost inseparable.In high school we attended different schools and gradually drifted apart.On the day we graduated, Callum suddenly found me and confessed his feelings.His father wanted him to study overseas, and he said he did not want to leave with one regret hanging over his youth.But by then I was already dating Derek, and I did not want to hold Callum back, so I turned him down.He gave a bitter smile.Then he handed me a handw

Chapter 8

My words were cold and sharp in a way Derek had never heard from me during all our years together.In his mind, I had always been gentle, patient, and willing to forgive whatever he did.He had forgotten that I once had edges too.Derek stared at me in shock. A night without sleep caught up to him, and pain tightened across his face.Still, he refused to believe I had truly left him.He laughed stiffly, his voice rough."Stop joking. It isn't funny."If you were breaking up with me, why would you come to the courthouse?"Are you still angry because I gave Vanessa the ceremony? Relax. I already told the planner to arrange another wedding. I promise..."I cut him off."Derek, I'm not joking. I came to the courthouse to marry my husband."Callum looked almost absurdly pleased every time I called him that and no longer seemed interested in the punch Derek had thrown.Before I could say more, Callum smiled and held up our certificate."Mr. Halstead, right? Look carefully. Elise

Chapter 9

After that day, Callum worried that something else might go wrong and set our public wedding for the following week.I thought he was joking.A wedding was not something most people could organize overnight.Venues, schedules, vendors, design plans - normally all of it required months of preparation.But Callum had already prepared everything.The pink diamond in my ring had taken him three years of auctions and private sales to acquire.The venue was Summit Glass Hotel, a place I had tried and failed to reserve three separate times.He had drawn the original design for my gown himself, then spent a year working with an overseas couture designer to have it made.Even the beverage list carried a note in bold letters: no orange juice.Nora came again for the wedding rehearsal.She held up the train of my dress, her eyes even redder than mine."Elise, this is the wedding you were supposed to have. You deserve something this good."I hugged her and said nothing because I knew I

Chapter 10

Derek strode toward the stage, dropped to one knee, and held up a ring."Elise, I was wrong. I never should have handed your wedding to Vanessa, and I never should have let the boundaries between us become what they did. But I love you."I'm asking again. Choose me. Let me spend the rest of my life making up for everything."Callum's face darkened and he stepped forward, but I stopped him."I'll handle this. It won't take long."Callum looked at me anxiously but eventually stepped back.I turned toward Derek.One week apart had made him look thinner, and the suit that once fit perfectly now hung loosely from his shoulders.Under his pleading gaze, I took the ring from his hand.The diamond flashed under the lights, and I could still see the E and D I had once had engraved inside the band.It was the same ring he had taken from me and placed on Vanessa during the stolen ceremony.I gave a humorless smile and threw it back at him."Derek, you keep saying you love me. But ever

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