He Loved Me When You Didn't

Chapter 4

Word Count: 769 | Released on: Today at 18:16

n Bart

picture of fragile innocence. She dabbed at her eyes with a delica

ound and started to rush towards the door, her steps purposefully unsteady. As she passed a low-l

d of her fall, emphasized by a sharp intake of breath, echoed in the stunned silence of the room.

napped. Panic flashed in his eyes. He lunged from the sofa, his chair scraping loudly

g, unsure how to help. Then, with a sudden, decisive movement, he scooped her up into his arms, carrying her like a fr

It was etched with a cold anger, a furious condemnation I had never seen directed

"I'm taking Kacy out of here. We won't bother you anymore. You can have your precious party all to yourself." He

ed history. He had stripped away my dignity, casting me as the villain, and then banished me from my own welcome-home party. After twenty years of shared life, of growing up together, of promises whispered under starlit skies, I was discarded, replaced, and then c

h. I pulled it out, almost automatically. Several messages, urgen

anded in A City?" th

Have you considered my offer

, everything you deserve. Five years, Kaitlyn. Fiv

he wreckage of my emotional landscape. "If you are truly

er demanded. He had continued his unwavering courtship even when I moved to London, visiting regularly, always available, always supportive, never once overstepping his bounds. His messages were always carefully

t of a past, to a man who had so clearly destroyed all that we once were? Everett represented a different fut

cisively. "I'll marry you." I hit send. It wa

Chapter End

Claim Your Bonus at the APP

Open

He Loved Me When You Didn't

Sumner Upsdell Modern

“Kaitlyn Barton POV: After three years building my family's hotel empire abroad, I came home to New York, expecting a warm embrace from my childhood fiancé, Edwin. Instead, he greeted me with a warning. He told me to be gentle with his new girlfriend, Kacy, painting me as a villain before I even knew her name. At my own welcome-home party, he let her stage a dramatic fall and then publicly blamed me for it, his eyes burning with a hatred I'd never seen. He cradled her in his arms as if she were a fragile doll I had broken. "Happy now, Kaitlyn?" he snarled, shattering twenty years of our shared history in front of everyone we knew. In his eyes, I was no longer his love, but a monster he needed to protect his new flame from. As he stormed out, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Everett Rowe, the man who had quietly loved me for five years. "If you are truly ready, I will marry you. Right now. Just say the word." My fingers moved on their own. "Yes," I typed. "I'll marry you." The moment I stepped back onto New York soil, a city I had once shared completely with Edwin, he greeted me not with a hug, but with a warning about his new girlfriend, painting me as the villain before I even knew her name. Three years abroad, cultivating my family's hotel empire, had prepared me for many business battles, but nothing for the cold, calculated betrayal that awaited me at home. He had replaced me, and then twisted our shared history, turning me into the aggressor he now needed protection from. This was not the reunion I had envisioned, nor the Edwin I remembered. My heart, which had swelled with anticipation, now froze into a solid block of ice.”