My Husband Postponed Our Wedding Nineteen Times for His Mistress

When I was twelve weeks pregnant, Clayton Briggs ruined our wedding eighteen times in a row because of his cousin.

The first time, he claimed his cousin had just arrived from the countryside and didn’t know the way, so he needed to go get her. I stood there in my bridal gown and said sorry to all the guests in the hall for him.

The second time, the wedding song was only halfway through when he answered a call from his cousin claiming her heart felt uncomfortable. He walked out without even looking at me.

The nineteenth time, we finally reached the part where we were about to exchange rings.

However, in the dressing room, I caught sight of him and his cousin fully undressed, locked together, and gasping.

“Celestine Grimes is just a means to give you a child.”

“After the baby is born, I’ll abandon her and marry you properly with a lavish style.”

On what should have been the happiest day, I plainly heard about this ten-year scam!

So the love and care Clayton had shown me during those ten years were only because Verity Tanner’s heart illness stopped her from bearing children!

I stumbled away from the wedding venue and called my father.

“Dad, I’m not getting married anymore. I want to keep the baby and remove the father.”

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“Dad, I’m not getting married anymore. I want to keep the child and remove the father.”

I spoke through tears.

On the other end of the line, my father scolded me, “You persisted all the way to the nineteenth wedding, and only now you decide to keep the child and remove the father?”

I leaned against the hotel hallway wall, yet no sound came from my throat.

Dad understood that for the sake of his cousin, Clayton had already left me, three months pregnant, alone at the wedding venue eighteen times.

The first occasion, he claimed Verity had come from the countryside and was unfamiliar with the roads. A girl was pulling a suitcase and sobbing at the station, so he went to pick her up.

That day, dressed in my bridal gown, I stood in the hotel lobby, my makeup washed away by tears and redone, yet I still did not see him return.

The second time, halfway through the ceremony, Verity called, saying her heart felt uncomfortable and she was unable to breathe.

Without leaving any explanation, Clayton turned and departed. I had truly believed Verity’s illness was serious and had worried about her for an entire day.

Afterward, over and over, Verity’s heart discomfort, poor mood, and nightmares all served to call Clayton away from the wedding.

It was not that I had never wanted to make a fuss, but I endured everything.

Because Clayton had a kind of unquestioned right with me.

Ten years earlier, when my job stress suddenly intensified, I suffered abrupt memory loss.

Each morning when I awoke, my memory had been wiped clean. I did not know who I was, did not recognize my parents, and did not understand why the world functioned this way.

Even my own parents could not withstand it.

They stood beside my bed with eyes full of tears, watching me look at them repeatedly with unfamiliar eyes, and finally, they could only break down and turn away.

Only Clayton, who had been my boyfriend then, did not leave.

During that time, every morning when I opened my eyes, Clayton smiled and told me, “Celestine, I am your husband.”

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

He patiently told me everyone’s names and explained my job and my habits.

He said he was my boyfriend and that he loved me deeply.

He stayed with me while I ate, walked, and went through rehabilitation, guiding me back into society again and again.

For a full twenty-one days, I fell in love with him repeatedly.

So afterward, regardless of what he did, I was willing to give him opportunities.

Clayton also seriously explained why Verity was in his life.

He said Verity’s mother had died saving him back then; it was a lifelong debt he carried.

And Verity’s heart was weak, and she was lonely and without support, so he could not turn his back on her.

I understood his situation, so I continued to endure.

But after it happened too many times, I was already drained, because I truly longed for our wedding, and anticipation fades after being broken again and again.

Even if I was slow to notice, I could see that Verity’s feelings toward Clayton were not simple.

However, whenever I brought it up, Clayton strongly insisted they were impossible, only brother and sister.

He made vows in front of me and knelt down.

A man over 1.8 meters tall, eyes red, begging me not to walk away.

My heart weakened.

I intended to give him three final chances.

Twenty-one days of amnesia would cancel out twenty-one weddings.

I even reassured myself that it could not really be that exactly twenty-one weddings would all collapse, could it?

And the nineteenth wedding did start off surprisingly well.

But midway, when I went to the dressing room to retouch my makeup, I heard faint gasps from within. Verity spoke while crying.

“Brother, I don’t want you marrying someone else… I know it’s wrong, yet I truly can’t control my feelings.”

“I can’t have children for you. These nineteen times, stopping your wedding happened because I was too greedy.”

My eyes narrowed, and then I heard Clayton’s familiar voice.

“Are you stupid? This has nothing to do with you. And why envy Celestine? She’s merely a tool to continue the bloodline. After the child is born, she won’t matter. I’ll leave her and marry you properly in a grand ceremony.”

Verity gently asked, “Do you love me then?”

Clayton almost instantly responded, “You are the person I love most. Apart from you, there is no other.”

I stood beyond the door, my body overwhelmed by the shocking truth, not even daring to rush in and confront them.

As the sounds inside grew increasingly passionate, I could only press my hand over my stomach and flee in humiliation.

When my father saw how firm I was about divorcing, he finally agreed and arranged a lawyer for me as well, afraid I would be taken advantage of.

I turned and ran straight to the legal firm to draft the contract.

For once, Clayton stayed at the wedding, and I was the one who ran.

That night, when I arrived home, Clayton saw me and immediately questioned, “Wife, where did you go? Why did you disappear halfway through the wedding?”

I looked at his intentionally gentle expression. The love I had long grown used to and the strong hatred inside me clashed in my stomach, making me feel sick.

I forced myself to answer, “My cousin was unwell. I went to see him.”

Clayton’s expression immediately darkened.

“Cousin? How could a cousin matter more than our wedding? H How could you cancel our ceremony over another person?”

Hearing that, I found it laughable.

“My cousin saved my life. He means a great deal to me. Can’t I visit him?”

At that moment, I was still hoping Clayton would get upset like the times I had been left behind before, expecting him to feel disappointed like a normal fiancé when the wedding failed to happen.

But Clayton was only speechless for a second, then stepped forward and gently embraced me.

“Let it go. Since that’s the reason, we’ll hold it again next week, alright? Wife, I’ll prepare an even grander wedding for you next time.”

I shut my eyes in hopelessness, surprisingly not shocked by his response at all.

Clayton had always acted like this; he never showed anger or blame toward me, always kind and thoughtful.

I once thought it meant he loved me; only now did I understand it meant he did not love me.

Only toward someone not loved could a person hide so flawlessly.

With the one truly loved, all kinds of feelings would surface instead.

I weakly pushed him aside and passed him the simply concealed paper in my hand.

“Today I discovered there is a house in the dowry that hasn’t been settled yet. It needs your signature.”

At that moment, I imagined countless scenes of how I would argue with him if Clayton realized it was a divorce contract.

But Clayton did not even glance at it and casually wrote his name, then said, “Oh, right, Verity’s heart condition isn’t good. She lives alone outside, I’m not very reassured.”

“Can she stay at our place for a while? She’s in the attic now and won’t disturb us.”