The Runaway Bridegroom: A Text on the Night Before

The day before our wedding, my fianc entirely skipped the rehearsal.

Later that night, my phone buzzed with a text from him.

[Sophie is pregnant. The baby is not mine.]

[But I need to get a marriage certificate with her first. Her hyper-conservative family will disown her if she has a child out of wedlock. I have to give the baby my name on paper.]

[We need to postpone our wedding for three years. Do not contact me during this time.]

[Figure out a way to explain this to our parents. Whatever you do, do not ruin Sophie's reputation. Just tell them you got cold feet.]

I stared at the glowing screen. My fingers moved mechanically, typing a single word.

[Okay.]

It was the truth, anyway. I really did not want to marry him anymore.

Almost immediately after his text, his childhood best friend posted an update on Instagram.

It was a picture of two hands intertwined, wearing matching platinum bands, forming the shape of a heart.

Inside the heart rested an ultrasound scan. Seven weeks pregnant.

The caption read: [He said he would give us a home.]

The comments section was flooded with mutual friends congratulating them, saying they finally made it official, promising huge wedding gifts tomorrow.

Not a single person mentioned me.

It was as if tomorrow's wedding had always belonged to the two of them, and I was just a ghost who had never existed.

A bitter smile touched my lips. I double-tapped the picture to like it.

Then, I left a comment.

[Wishing you a lifetime of happiness together.]

My comment blended perfectly into the sea of blessings. It did not stand out at all.

But less than a minute later, my comment was deleted.

My phone rang immediately. Lucas's voice came through the speaker, dripping with impatience and irritation.

"Valerie, what is your problem? Are you trying to cause a scene?"

Words completely failed me.

"I am not causing a scene. I was genuinely wishing you both happiness."

But Lucas was completely deaf to my sincerity. He was entirely convinced I was out for blood.

"Give me a break. Do you think I do not know your true intentions?"

"Everyone knows tomorrow was supposed to be our wedding! You jumping in with that passive-aggressive comment was just a calculated move to make Sophie look like a joke!"

"Apologize to her right now! She has been crying non-stop because of what you wrote!"

Through the receiver, I could hear the faint, pathetic sound of a woman sobbing.

"Forget it, Lucas! It is my fault for asking you to help me. I will just book an appointment tomorrow and terminate the pregnancy! So what if I can never be a mother? It is better than being branded a homewrecker!"

Lucas's tone instantly melted into something sickeningly sweet. He began coaxing her like a fragile child.

"Sophie, stop it. You are not a homewrecker. Once we sign those papers tomorrow, we will be legally married. A real, recognized couple!"

"Do not listen to her thoughtless garbage. If anyone dares to mock you, I will ruin them!"

Sophie only wailed louder.

"But what about Valerie? Her heart must be breaking! I should really just get rid of the baby so your wedding can go on..."

Lucas's voice grew even softer, laced with frantic worry.

"Sophie, please. I already worked everything out with her. She just has to wait three years and she will get exactly what she wants. It is not like I am disappearing forever."

"Please stop crying. You are going to upset the baby."

"And if you ruin your beautiful eyes, how are you going to be the most gorgeous bride tomorrow?"

A watery giggle finally broke through Sophie's tears.

Lucas let out a heavy sigh of relief. When he addressed me again, his tone was slightly less hostile.

"Valerie, why are you staying quiet? Apologize to Sophie right now."

My nails dug into my palms. I hated myself for having the momentary weakness to comment on her post.

But I had done nothing wrong. Why should I be the one to grovel?

"And if I say no, Lucas?"

He froze for a second before his voice spiked in disbelief.

"Valerie, if you keep throwing this tantrum, things are going to get very ugly! Sophie is pregnant. Her hormones are all over the place, and you are deliberately making her cry. You are being completely unreasonable!"

"Fine, if you will not apologize, you can make up for it with your actions. Call all our friends and relatives immediately and tell them you are the one who backed out!"

As if terrified I would refuse, he abruptly ended the call.

Seconds later, a text popped up.

[Valerie, I am begging you. Stop making a scene. I am just signing a piece of paper with Sophie. It means absolutely nothing. Delaying our wedding is just my way of making sure you get the perfect, dream wedding you deserve at a more suitable time.]

A suitable time.

Those familiar words stung my eyes until they watered.

What exactly was a suitable time?

I had listened to that exact excuse for eight years. I had waited nearly three thousand days and nights for him to marry me.

And my reward was watching him become another woman's legal husband.

Lucas, I am done waiting.

Because we are completely unsuitable for each other.

Suddenly, the message disappeared. He unsent it.

A new one arrived.

[I had to unsend that. It is not good for Sophie to see it. She is pregnant and overthinks things easily. Just do what I asked. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you after these three years!]

A dry laugh scraped its way up my throat.

I stared at the screen for two minutes. Right on cue, he unsent that message as well.

So, was he lying to me or lying to himself?

If he was purely helping Sophie out of the goodness of his heart, why was he so terrified of her seeing his promises to me?

If the child in her belly truly was not his, he was certainly going to extreme lengths to protect her.

But what if the baby was his?

I shook my head, forcing the sickening thoughts away.

I casually typed the word 'Okay' and hit send.

A red exclamation mark bounced back at me.

He had already blocked me to appease his new bride.

Good.

It did not bother me. I opened Instagram, crafted a brief post announcing the cancellation of my wedding, and hit publish.

My phone immediately blew up. My notifications were a flood of shocked questions.

Not wanting to drag out the drama, I stuck to Lucas's script. I replied to a few close friends saying I simply felt it was too early to settle down.

My friends flooded my inbox, calling me an absolute fool.

"Valerie, Lucas is not that broke college kid who lived in a basement anymore. He is a successful tech founder now. Women are throwing themselves at him! If you cancel the wedding, you are basically wrapping your man up in a bow and handing him to someone else!"

I did not reply to any of them.

Because Lucas was already someone else's man.

Shortly after I posted my announcement, Sophie sent me a picture of their freshly signed marriage license via a direct message.

Her tone was dripping with smug victory, disguised as gratitude.

[Thank you so much for the assist, Valerie! Lucas and I were originally going to the courthouse tomorrow, but he wanted to cheer me up, so he pulled some strings and got it done tonight!]

I did not dignify her with a response. I deleted the message and blocked her instantly.

My phone vibrated violently. It was my mother.

"Are you out of your mind?!" she screamed into the receiver. "You helped plant the tree, and now you are letting someone else eat the fruit? What are you trying to prove? When you finally decide you want to marry him, he might not even want you!"

I let out a soft, hollow laugh.

"What if he is the one who does not want to get married, Mom?"

She paused for a second before her voice grew even more furious.

"Then it means you are not doing your job right! Swallow your pride, go to him, and talk sweetly. Do not throw away eight years of your youth just to walk away with absolutely nothing!"

Eight years. I had loved Lucas for eight years. He always told me a man needed to establish his empire before starting a family.

But when he finally built his empire, bought the penthouse, and got the luxury cars, giving me a home was no longer his priority.

It was not that I had not fought for us. Fighting was just useless.

For eight years, I built his tech startup with him from the ground up. I lived in a damp basement, ate instant noodles, and swallowed my pride to tell him a million times that my only dream was to be his wife, whether we were rich or poor.

I had even terminated three pregnancies for him.

All because he claimed the timing was wrong and he could not bear the thought of his children living in poverty.

I loved him, so no matter how much it shattered my soul, I obeyed his wishes.

Just like tonight. When he said he wanted to marry his childhood friend.

In that moment, alongside the agonizing heartbreak, I actually felt a profound sense of relief.

Not getting married meant I no longer had to wait in the dirt for him to throw me a crumb of commitment.

My mother was still rambling on about how women who knew how to act fragile got the best lives. The suffocating weight in my chest suddenly vanished. I no longer felt the need to explain my pain.

"Mom, the wedding is off. I am never marrying him."

I ended the call and dialed the wedding planner to cancel everything for tomorrow.

The planner went dead silent before speaking hesitantly.

"Mr. Mercer already called to discuss this. But he told us to carefully store all the custom backdrops, the floral arrangements, and the personalized posters for three years. That is going to be incredibly difficult. Those materials are meant for one-time use."

Clarity hit me like a physical blow.

It was not that Lucas lacked the time to notify our guests. He just did not want to deal with their questions.

And he truly believed that I, much like those cheap, artificial decorations, would just sit in a dark room and wait for him for three years.

"Throw it all in the dumpster," I said coldly. "Even if it could be saved, it will all be rotten in three years."

Just like his love for me. It would rot away with time.

I hung up and stared at Lucas's mother's contact name. My head throbbed.

She absolutely despised Sophie. If she found out her son had legally married that girl, she would likely have a stroke.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my banking app and wired the entire one hundred and fifty thousand dollar wedding fund she had gifted me straight back into her account.

I counted to three in my head. My phone rang.

"Valerie, why did the money bounce back to my account?"

"Mrs. Mercer, Lucas and I are calling off the wedding for now. I am moving abroad for three years."

Even though I was technically following Lucas's script, his highly perceptive mother instantly smelled blood.

"Did Lucas do something to betray you? I am going to his apartment right now! The wedding is happening tomorrow, no matter what!"

"Mrs. Mercer, the wedding really cannot happen."

But she had already hung up.

Well, Lucas would just have to figure out how to handle his own mother.

It was time for me to pack my bags and leave.

The lavishly decorated bridal suite was suffocating. Every tiny detail represented my foolish hopes for our future.

Now, they were just jagged blades slicing into my chest.

I did not have much to take. My clothes barely filled a single suitcase.

But I had a lot to throw away.

By the time I finished hauling trash bags to the chute, I realized I had missed several calls from Lucas.

I did not need to be a genius to guess he was furious I had failed to pacify his mother.

I dropped my keys on the entryway console. I grabbed the final item, a massive, heavy glass-framed wedding portrait, intending to haul it out the door.

But the moment I swung the front door open, I collided directly into Lucas.

The heavy frame slipped from my fingers and crashed onto the hardwood floor, shattering into a thousand pieces.

A sharp shard of glass sliced deeply into my ankle, sending a rush of dark blood down my skin.

Lucas immediately pulled the woman standing behind him into his chest, shielding her perfectly. He glared at me, his voice sharp with reprimand.

"Valerie, what is wrong with you? Did you not see Sophie standing right there? What if you had hurt her?"

He completely missed the blood pooling around my foot. Instead, he crouched down to meticulously brush away a microscopic speck of glass that had landed on Sophie's designer shoe.

I had no energy to watch him play the devoted husband to another woman. I gripped my suitcase handle and stepped forward.

He caught sight of the luggage out of the corner of his eye. He shot up in a panic and grabbed my arm.

"Valerie, where do you think you are going?"

Before I could speak, his phone started ringing.

I glanced at the screen. It was his mother.

He answered it with an exasperated sigh.

"Yes! I know! It is not canceled! I will calm her down! Just stop worrying!"

He hung up and turned his demanding gaze on me.

"Valerie, my mom says the wedding tomorrow has to proceed as planned."

"I refuse to upset her, so everything is back on. But I need you to be a runaway bride."

"My mother adores you. If you are the one who leaves me at the altar, she will not blame me. Then I can just tell her I married Sophie in a moment of heartbreak and spite."

My eyes widened. I stared at the man I had loved for almost a decade, completely unable to process how someone could be this utterly devoid of a soul.

But then I remembered he was already Sophie's husband.

Nothing he said or did should surprise me anymore.

Since I was leaving anyway, I figured I would grant him one final, pathetic favor.

"Okay."

Perhaps my absolute compliance finally cleared his vision.

He finally registered the shattered wedding portrait on the floor.

And then he saw my blood-soaked foot.

His eyes turned violently red. Panic washed over his face as he sprinted into the apartment to grab the first-aid kit.

The second he was out of earshot, Sophie lifted her chin, staring at me with a triumphant, mocking smirk.

"Valerie, you are truly pathetic. You know I am legally his wife, yet you still want to put on a white dress and play pretend tomorrow?"

"So what if his mother hates me? No matter how much she tries to stop it, she is going to have to watch her precious son marry me!"

"Tomorrow's wedding belongs to me! Lucas is my man!"

"And you? You will just be the joke of the century. The pathetic ex who got dumped at the finish line!"

"Do not bother dreaming about him divorcing me in three years either. Because."

She gently rested a hand on her flat stomach, her smile turning venomous.

"The baby in my belly is his flesh and blood."

I lowered my eyes to hide the sudden, violent surge of tears.

So, my instincts were right. Lucas had betrayed me.

And he treated me like an absolute idiot, expecting me to sit on a shelf for three years while he played house with his new family.

Doing the math, Sophie's baby was conceived on the night Lucas did not come home.

It was the first time in eight years he had ever forgotten my birthday. He claimed he had a critical networking dinner.

He came home the next morning, drowning in apologies.

That was the morning he proposed to me.

He promised me a fairy-tale wedding.

I had waited eight years for that ring. Pure joy had instantly smothered all my doubts and suspicions.

But that night, he forgot to lock the bathroom door while taking a shower. When I walked in to grab a towel, I saw the raw, fresh scratch marks dragging down his back.

When I confronted him, he did not even blink. He calmly explained a stray cat had attacked him in an alley.

He even pulled up a digital receipt showing he had gone to a clinic for a rabies shot.

I forced myself to swallow the lie.

But a woman's intuition is a terrifying thing. Even as I planned our dream wedding, a cold dread sat heavily in my chest. Nothing felt real.

A quiet voice in the back of my mind kept whispering that his sudden proposal was nothing more than a guilt offering.

I played the ostrich. I buried my head in the sand, too terrified to seek the truth.

But the lingering paranoia drove me to quietly track his movements.

When I caught him claiming to meet clients while his GPS sat securely at Sophie's apartment, I knew the end was coming. I was just waiting for him to finally put the knife in my chest.

So, when he skipped the rehearsal, I did not call.

When he texted me about marrying Sophie, I did not complain.

"Excuse me."

I had zero desire to waste my breath on his mistress. I just wanted to leave.

But just as Lucas stepped out of the bathroom with the medical kit, Sophie suddenly lunged forward, grabbed my wrist, and forcefully threw herself backward into the pile of shattered glass.

"Valerie, I know you hate me, but why would you push me?!"

"Ah! My stomach. my baby. it hurts so much."

Sophie held up her hand, her palm sliced open and bleeding.

Lucas dropped the medical box and sprinted across the room, his face a mask of absolute terror and heartbreak.

"Sophie, it is okay, do not panic! I am taking you to the ER right now!"

He scooped her into his arms, practically flying toward the door.

Before crossing the threshold, he stopped, turning his head to shoot me a look of pure, frozen hatred.

"Valerie, I never knew you could be this evil. Actually laying your hands on a pregnant woman!"

"If anything happens to her baby, we are completely finished."

I watched his retreating back, my voice barely a whisper in the empty room.

"We were finished a long time ago."

By the time I finished sweeping up the bloody glass, the cut on my ankle had stopped bleeding on its own.

But the gaping wound in my chest was still raw and mutilated.

A suffocating knot of anger burned in my throat. I pulled out my phone and dialed the other majority shareholders in our tech company.

When I announced I was liquidating my entire 30 percent equity stake immediately, they were practically foaming at the mouth.

I told them it was a blind auction. Highest bidder takes it all tonight.

Thirty minutes later, I was sitting in a local diner, signing a legally binding transfer agreement with Marcus, our CTO.

Marcus was brilliant and highly ambitious, but Lucas had always kept him on a short leash, paranoid about losing control.

With my shares, Marcus would instantly become the majority shareholder of the company.

I truly hoped Lucas enjoyed the little wedding gift I left for him.

My phone vibrated again. It was the wedding planner.

He sounded furious.

"Ms. Wan, what kind of game are you two playing? First you cancel, then he calls saying the wedding is back on! But everything is already in the dumpster because you told me to throw it out! What am I supposed to do at two in the morning?!"

I felt a pang of guilt for making the man's life miserable, but this was not my circus anymore.

I apologized sincerely and offered a solution.

"Lucas and I are absolutely not getting married. I will not ask for a refund for the decorations. If Lucas insists on having a wedding tomorrow, tell him he has to pay a rush fee and order an entirely new setup."

"He is going to murder me!"

"Do not worry. He will pay the invoice."

Because he was genuinely desperate to give Sophie a perfect day.

By the time I hung up, it was 2:00 AM.

I abandoned the idea of going to my mother's house to say goodbye. I hailed a cab and checked into a hotel near the airport.

The planner texted me a quick thank you, confirming that while Lucas was enraged, he had indeed wired a massive rush fee.

I smiled, set an alarm, and instantly fell into a dead sleep.

I had no idea my phone was being relentlessly bombarded by Lucas.

I ended up blocking his number and powering down my phone to sleep in peace.

Until the sound of fists hammering violently against my hotel room door woke me.

"Valerie! Open the door!"

Hearing Lucas's muffled rage, I suddenly realized I had forgotten to turn off my location sharing.

His voice was shaking with fury. My mind instantly flashed to Sophie's theatrical fall into the glass.

Did she actually lose the baby?

Or was he here to tear me apart for selling my shares to Marcus?

A second later, the heavy wooden door was practically kicked off its hinges.

Lucas stormed in, his eyes bloodshot and unhinged. He grabbed my arm and violently dragged me toward the hallway.

"Sophie lost the baby because of you! They had to remove her uterus to save her life! How the hell are you sleeping right now?!"

I struggled against his iron grip, fighting back.

"I did not push her! She threw herself backward on purpose!"

Lucas shoved me brutally into the passenger seat of his car.

"That was her only chance to ever be a mother! Do you really think she would murder her own child just to frame you?!"

He locked the doors and drove like a maniac through the empty city streets, dragging me straight into the sterile halls of the hospital.

He dragged me into Sophie's private recovery room and forcefully shoved me to the floor beside her bed.

"Apologize to Sophie! And you are going to promise to carry a child for her as compensation!"

My knees slammed into the freezing hospital tiles. Pain shot up my legs.

I tried to scramble to my feet, but Lucas clamped a heavy hand down on my shoulder, pinning me in place.

"Are you mute? Apologize to her! Now!"

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and forced out every word clearly.

"I did not touch her. If you do not believe me, go ask our neighbor for their doorbell camera footage!"

The neighbor's camera pointed directly at our open doorway. It would have captured her entire pathetic performance.

But he refused to believe me.

"Valerie, you disgust me! Do you realize what you took from her? The baby is gone, and her uterus is gone!"

"She is being merciful enough not to press criminal charges! She only wants an apology, and you are still being a stubborn bitch?"

"You destroyed her ability to be a mother. Giving her a child is the absolute bare minimum you owe her! Consider it payback for secretly selling my company out from under me tonight!"

Ah. The absolute bare minimum.

And here I thought the love of his life losing an organ would be his only concern. Yet, he still managed to rank his precious 30 percent equity right alongside her tragedy.

It proved exactly how deeply he truly loved her.

Tears of hysterical laughter pricked my eyes. I looked at the floor and whispered three words.

"I am sorry."

Lucas finally released his crushing grip on my shoulder. He tossed a legal document in front of me and ordered me to sign it.

He was utterly delusional. Did he seriously think my signature on a piece of paper meant I would actually become a surrogate for his mistress?

But I wanted to leave this nightmare immediately. I scribbled my name without reading a single line.

Lucas pulled me up by my arm, his eyes a swirling mess of conflicting emotions.

"I cannot risk you ruining anything else today. You are going to have to stay put for a little while."

"And keep your mouth shut about Sophie losing the baby."

It was not until the heavy click of a deadbolt echoed through the door that I realized he had locked me inside an abandoned hospital storage closet.

He had locked me in a cage so he could go marry his mistress in peace.

I hammered my fists against the heavy door and screamed until my throat bled. Finally, a passing janitor heard the noise and unlocked the door.

I glanced at the clock. My flight was boarding soon.

I sprinted out of the hospital, jumped into a taxi, and sped toward the airport.

Just as I was scanning my boarding pass, Lucas's mother called.

"Valerie, where are you? Why did Lucas just announce that you ran away from the wedding? Why is he standing at the altar with Sophie?!"

Before I could even answer, the loud airport intercom echoed through my phone speaker, announcing the final boarding call for my flight.

"Valerie, are you at the airport? Today is your wedding day! Where do you think you are going?"

"Mrs. Mercer, today is Lucas and Sophie's wedding. It has absolutely nothing to do with me."

Without even hanging up the phone, she turned and started screaming at Lucas, demanding to know if he had abused me.

Through the line, I heard Lucas shouting back over the crowd.

"Mom, Sophie is pregnant! You are finally going to have a grandson!"

I expected his mother, who had been begging for a grandchild for years, to burst into joyful tears.

Instead, her voice ripped through the speakers in an earth-shattering roar.

"Bullshit! That girl had her uterus surgically removed when she was eight years old! What the hell is she pregnant with?!"