Our Final Goodbye

He was the one who knelt in front of my father and swore he would treat me well for the rest of his life. Only then did my father agree to invest.

I let out a sigh and turned to leave. "Since you think this was leveraging favors for repayment, then let's call off the engagement."

The moment the door closed, violent arguing erupted on the other side.

The elevated roads of Alderidge were as congested as ever. I looked up at the giant screen displaying wedding photos of Adrian and me and felt nothing but irony.

Three messages popped up on my phone.

"Iris, stop making trouble. I've already had the wedding dress cleaned and sent home. Tomorrow, you'll look beautiful wearing the wedding dress I made, and you'll marry me."

"I'm calling in all the major media outlets to record this important moment of alliance between our two families."

"Iris, I didn't break the promise I made when we were eighteen."

Calmly, I pulled out the SIM card and tossed it out the car window. Along with it went my memories of being eighteen.

I would indeed be attending the wedding tomorrow.

Just not to marry him.

……

On the wedding day, Adrian listened to the mechanical female voice on the other end of the line and irritably stubbed out his cigarette.

No matter what he did, he could not get through to that number that used to pick up within seconds.

"Iris isn't answering my calls anymore."

Scrolling up the call log, he saw that that familiar number had made ninety-nine missed calls. It was the day he had accompanied Zoe to take wedding photos.

That day, Zoe had cried and begged him, saying she was about to go abroad and wanted to take some photos as a keepsake.

Putting on the wedding dress he designed himself would count as having married him once.

Looking at that face that resembled Iris by 70%, he was momentarily transported back to when he was eighteen, when he had sworn with absolute certainty to marry Iris.

Then why wasn't it Iris standing with him on the snowy mountain, taking wedding photos?

Zoe quickly noticed the change in his mood and hurriedly sent over a live video from the wedding motorcade.

"Mr. Cole, look. Iris has already gotten into the wedding car. Maybe she just didn't bring her phone with her?"

Adrian looked at the video of me dressed in a pure white wedding gown with my head slightly lowered as I smiled. There was joy in my eyes that he had not seen in a long time.

For no clear reason, he relaxed, the corners of his mouth lifting unconsciously. "Maybe." No matter what he had done before, after today, he would definitely make it up to Iris properly.

Zoe's face went pale. She opened another video that an assistant sent.

In the video, beside me sat a man with a cold, restrained presence, gently tucking loose strands of hair behind my ear.

She bit down hard in secret. "Impossible... I must be seeing things. How could Iris be with that man?"

At the entrance of the wedding hall, the media surged forward in a frenzy. The flashlights stabbed painfully into my eyes.

"Miss Warren, we heard that Mr. Cole personally designed the wedding dress you're wearing. Such deep devotion!"

"At a time when Cole Group was on the brink, the Warren family generously provided ten billion in investment. Was that out of Miss Warren's personal feelings, or from an investment standpoint?"

"What are your thoughts on today's so-called wedding of the century?"

……

I gently pushed aside the microphones and walked straight toward the center of the hall.

Adrian heard the movement and turned around. The instant he saw me, the wine glass in his hand crashed to the ground. His voice shook uncontrollably.

"Iris, why aren't you wearing the wedding dress I made for you? And this one you're wearing… who made it? Why have I never seen it before?"

I ignored the panic in his eyes and turned, snatching the microphone from the host.

Facing the cameras, I smiled brightly. "Sorry, everyone. Today, on behalf of Warren Group, I am here to clarify that the so-called ten-billion investment is completely unfounded."