Marrying Without You

Why Make Promises You Can't Keep?

Julia, Rosalyn's grandmother, took her hand and put it on Carl's palm.

Then, she tried to shove a card between their hands as she said, "This is the wedding fund I've saved up for you. Now that you're finally marrying Carl, you can use it for whatever you need!"

Rosalyn's tears were raining, and she was afraid to look Julia in the eyes.

News of Carl's wedding must have spread everywhere, and even Julia would have seen it, but she simply presumed that Rosalyn was going to be the bride.

Turning to Carl, she squeezed his hand as she pleaded, "Please promise me you'll be good to Rosie, Carl."

"Don't worry—I'll be good to her as long as I live," he replied. "We've vowed to always stay together, in this lifetime and the next."

Four years ago, on a business trip, Carl took her up Mount Eternity where they prayed and vowed.

It was then that Carl promised he would stay with her—not just in this life, but also the next.

But that promise was already broken in this life.

As it turned out, nothing was set in stone, and promises were made to be broken.

"Please bring me to the wedding hall on the day of," Julia said.

"We definitely will," Carl smiled. "We need to pay our respects to our elders."

For once, he wasn't a haughty CEO, but just Rosalyn's boyfriend.

Nevertheless, Rosalyn felt like she had something stuck down her windpipe as she left the nursing home.

Fighting back tears, she demanded, "Why would you make promises you can't keep?"

There was no way he was bringing Julia to his wedding, so why would he tell her otherwise?

However, Carl was staring at his phone, answering Zoe's text as he answered, "No harm in keeping the old girl cheerful—she'll forget about it soon anyway."

So everything he had told Julia was nothing more than lies—whether it was loving her and being good to her, or never leaving her.

That was when he held out his phone to Rosalyn so that she could see the screen. "Zoe made supper and sent it over to my place. I'll head over—you can take a cab home."

He was perfectly calm, but he seemed to have forgotten that she was his.

She loved him, only for him to show her that being affectionate with another woman was nothing less than hurtful.

"Yeah," she replied with just one word, as she was afraid she might start crying if she said another.

Love could stop, but the pain would still be there, tearing one part from the inside.

And over the last three months, Rosalyn had suffered the worst of that pain.

As such, she wondered if Carl would hurt too, when he learned that she was marrying someone else.

Soon, Carl and his car disappeared into the endless darkness of the night.

He said he loved her, but here she was, left alone in the desolate night…

She wasn't that lovesick—she understood that Carl's love for her had faded when Zoe returned to the country.

Even though he was willing to sweet-talk her, it was probably because she was still useful to him.

Just last week, she overheard him telling a friend, "If Zoe didn't want her to organize the wedding, I would've told her to leave."

So he kept her around because it pleased his fiancee.

Rosalyn's palm hurt from clenching, and she turned to look at her grandmother's room.

The light was still on, and she could vaguely see Julia's hunched figure.

Rosalyn was an orphan—her mother had died soon after giving birth to her.

It was Julia who had taken her in and raised her—she was Rosalyn's only family.

The fact that Julia was still alive after being diagnosed with stage four cancer two years ago was nothing short of a miracle.

All Julia wanted was to see Rosalyn marry and be happy.

And Rosalyn didn't want to disappoint her.

Taking out her phone, Rosalyn texted the contact she had set as a favorite: [Would you care to marry me?]