Chapter 9
In the early hours before dawn, Issac stood at his bedroom window, holding a worn engagement ring.
The ring he’d proposed to Evelyn with. They had been so close – So close to marriage.
Now he stared at the diamond in silence, for what felt like hours:
Finally, closing his eyes, he hurled the ring into the darkness.
Days later.
Returning from a hospital appointment, Evelyn saw a familiar car outside her building.
Issac leaned against it, waiting – just like he used to wait outside her dorm in college.
Hiding her medication, she approached. “Were you looking for me?”
Issac looked up, noticing how thin she’d become, how pale her face was.
His throat tightened, but he said nothing about it.
Instead, he pulled out an envelope.
Evelyn’s blood ran cold when she saw what it was.
After a long silence, his voice came from above her.
“Summer and I are getting married. I’m just letting you know. Don’t come, and don’t congratulate me.”
A dull pain spread through Evelyn’s chest. Had his hatred grown so deep that he never wanted to see her
again?
Her hands trembled as she took the invitation, lacking the courage to let him see her face.
She simply nodded. “I hope you find happiness.”
The wedding was in a week.
Evelyn submitted her resignation, which was quickly approved.
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Chapter 9
With Issac marrying and wanting her gone, even her penance had lost its meaning
Three days before the wedding.
Evelyn reviewed her assets.
Her years at Hernandez Industries had left her with substantial savings.
She sold her apartment and donated everything to children’s education charities,
Two days before the wedding.
She visited the cemetery.
She purchased the plot beside Sophia’s.
“Leave the headstone blank,” she told the administrator.
No one would visit her grave anyway.
This way, the Hernandezs wouldn’t know it was her if they saw it.
One day before the wedding.
Evelyn began her final preparations.
She had everything removed from her apartment except one large box.
Inside: their high school IDs, their first movie ticket stubs, photos together, the necklace he’d given her,
their letters to each other…
She lit a fire.
Everything she’d spent countless nights looking through, every memory, she burned.
She sat in the empty apartment until sunrise.
Today was Issac’s wedding day.
As she stood shakily, she noticed blood on the floor.
Touching her face, she realized she was bleeding…
But she didn’t care. She walked out, unsteady.
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Chapter 9
It was a rare sunny day.
Trembling, bleeding, she walked past concerned strangers without stopping, until she reached the bridge.
Below, the dark river waters promised numbing cold.
Sitting on the edge, she called the hospital.
“Hello. I’ll be dead today. Please collect my body and proceed with organ donation immediately.”
Staring at the water, blood on her face, she managed a small smile.
Finally, it would end. Evelyn felt only relief.
Today, as he celebrated new love, she would sleep beneath the waves.
This was the best ending she could imagine.
Smiling, she closed her eyes and jumped.
Goodbye forever, Issac.
Thirty minutes later, at the wedding.
Issac stood at the altar in his tuxedo, watching Summer approach in white.
His mind wandered, filled with Evelyn’s voice.
“What kind of wedding do you want, Eve?”
–
“Something simple – a big lawn with colorful balloons, just our closest friends. Sophia as my maid of
honor.”
“A Hernandez wedding can’t be simple.”
“Who says I’m marrying you, Issac Hernandez!”
Neither had imagined she truly wouldn’t marry him.
Her face filled his vision as he mechanically performed the ceremony.
As they prepared to exchange rings, his assistant rushed over.
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It’s Too Late for Your Expired Regrets
Chapter 9
“Sir, your phone keeps ringing.”
Issac frowned. “At my wedding?”
“It’s been constant. Might be urgent.”
He took the phone.
Unknown number.
It was Lucas, shouting.
Issac’s face darkened. “This better be important.”
One sentence from Lucas.
Issac went deathly pale.
The phone crashed to the floor.
The entire gathering watched in shock as the groom ran out like a madman.
Summer called after him from the altar.
But Issac heard nothing, his mind consumed by Lucas’s words:
“She’s dead, Issac. Evelyn jumped from the bridge!”
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It’s Too Late for Your Expired Regrets
