All Chapters of He Moved His First Love In, I Called Off the Wedding: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

1

Early the next morning, my advisor emailed me back and told me to report to the research group in three days.It was the same day as the wedding.It started raining on the way home.By the time I got there, my hair and my clothes were soaked through.Dante was on the phone with Camille and did not notice me. "It's overcast today. When you land, go straight down to the parking garage. I've sent someone to pick you up."Weather like this gives you headaches. You can't be out in the wind at all."He only noticed me standing in the doorway after he hung up, and he frowned at me. "How did you get this wet? Change before you come in."I did not answer him. I asked something else instead, on purpose. "Did you know I get headaches in this weather too?"Dante went blank for a second, then let out a tired sigh. "There's so much going on with the Family. How am I supposed to spend all day fussing over you?"Take responsibility for yourself."But a minute ago he had been telling Camille to stay ou

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My chest seized up.Dante glanced at me and explained, "Vivian picked the rings."Camille's mouth curved. "So she knows you like pink diamonds."It figures. Girls from ordinary families pay closer attention."She stepped forward and took my hand, her voice gentle. "Vivian, don't worry. Dante and I are in the past."It's just hard not to think about back then when I see rings I recognize."In the first design, I had chosen emeralds.My mother used to say the color was like my eyes.Once the first version was settled, Dante looked at the finished piece and said pink diamonds suited me better.I was a little sorry about it, but there was a sweetness in my chest.Before that, I had always assumed he was marrying me because the Family pushed him into it.But he had stepped in to choose the ring himself, and it made me believe this marriage held a place in his heart too.Looking at it now, he chose pink diamonds purely because Camille liked them.There was only one explanation for why the ri

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The hotel manager told me someone else had taken over the booking and asked me to come in and sign the paperwork.When I got there, I still felt dazed for a moment.A staff member handed me a new plan. "Ms. Kerr, you told us the wedding was canceled, but Mr. Moretti sent over a new plan yesterday."I flipped through a few pages.In the new plan, the hydrangea walk had been swapped for the pink roses Camille liked.The bride-and-groom photo session had been changed to a three-person photo with Camille.She had also added over thirty of her high school classmates to the guest list.I looked at the plan for a long time without saying anything.I could hardly tell anymore whether this was my wedding to Dante, or Camille's.I handed the plan back. "The venue has already been transferred. There's no need to change anything."While the staff member was deleting the video for the big screen, he clicked play by accident.On the screen, Camille was in a wedding dress, crying as she looked into t

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I did not reply. While I was packing, I found that all the certificates and trophies I kept in the study were gone.Camille's stuffed animals were sitting where they used to be.I searched for a long time before I dug them out of the trash bin outside the house.The certificates had been torn to shreds. The trophies had been smashed to pieces.I carried the pieces inside and fit them together bit by bit, and I could not put together one whole certificate.There was no surge of hatred in me, no urge to sob. There was only a dead stillness.These were honors I'd earned in college, and they were important proof of my academic record for graduate school. I needed to show them to my advisor, and now they were gone.I called Dante.It took three calls before he picked up. I could hear Camille laughing in the background."What is it?"My fingers shook around the phone. "My certificates and trophies from college. Why were they all destroyed?"Dante's tone was offhand. "Camille wanted somewhere

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As the plane cut through the clouds, everything outside the window was white.When I landed in New York, my advisor came to the airport himself.His hair was gray, and when he smiled the creases at the corners of his eyes were full of warmth.I kept my head down and apologized. "I'm sorry, Professor Whitfield. The originals of my certificates were destroyed. All I have are the copies and the confirmations the school reissued."He nodded as if it hardly mattered. "It's all right. I care more about what a student can do in the lab."And I believe you wouldn't lie to me."The weight on my chest finally lifted.After three days of settling in, I officially joined the group.The lab was huge. Everywhere I looked there were instruments I did not recognize.Breathing the air in that room, I felt something rise in me.Professor Whitfield told me to start on a senior student's project to learn the procedures.Ethan pushed a thick stack of lab notebooks across the desk to me. "Start by sorting a

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Through the curtain of rain, holding his umbrella in one hand, he walked up to me.After a brief shock, I quickly regained my composure. "So you came after all."I had thought seeing him again would make my hands shake, my throat close up.But right then, with the wind driving the wet into my bones, all I wanted was to get back to my room and change."You aren't hard to track down."His tall frame blocked my view. "You left on the day of the wedding. I spent the whole day thinking it over. I knew you'd been angry those few days."When you still weren't back after two days, that's when I found out you'd canceled everything and moved across the country."I looked at him. "What are you here for?"Dante frowned, and I saw that familiar impatience in his eyes.It was the same look he'd worn countless times before, the one that said I was making a scene over nothing.He caught my arm. "There was important business with the Family then. I couldn't get free."It's handled now. Come back with m

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I pulled my hand back. A red ring circled my wrist, burning hot.I changed into dry clothes in my room, made a cup of hot tea, and sat by the window.From there, I could see the black Bentley still parked down in the rain.The next day I went to the lab as usual.Dante was standing in the hallway. His hair had been neatly styled again, but he still looked terrible.When he saw me, he did not put a hand on me. He spoke in a voice worn down past exhaustion. "I'll give you one day to pack."I did not answer. I went around him and out.For the next two days, he waited downstairs at my building.He did nothing. He just stood there.Every time, I acted like I did not see him.Dante showing up did not throw off my rhythm. I ran my experiments and wrote my reports the same as always.On the fifth night, it rained in New York again.It was almost eleven when I came out of the lab.From a distance I saw that black figure downstairs at my building again.The rain had soaked him from head to foot.

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Dante looked stung by that. He clenched and unclenched his fist.I gave Ethan an apologetic look and told him to go on ahead.Dante took a few seconds to steady himself before he spoke again, with a deliberate arrogance in his voice. "Vivian, you think you're the only one who gets a new life?"The Family has already lined up someone else for me to marry. She has an impeccable background, a gentle temperament, and she's much easier to keep happy than you."He said it with his eyes locked hard on my face, like he was waiting for a reaction.I did not show a thing. "Do what you want."Who you marry has nothing to do with me."His expression froze.I stepped around him. "I'm going."Dante's voice came from behind me, louder. "Vivian."I did not turn around.He went on, "If you want to come back to Chicago after you graduate, I'll wait for you."I stopped, and my voice was flat. "What would you be waiting for?""I don't need you to wait for me, and I don't need any promises from you."All I

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