The Ex He Can Never Have Back

After five years together, Jesse Swanson finally agreed to marry me.

On the day of the wedding, I was over the moon. My best friend, serving as my maid of honor, was so happy she burst into tears.

"Girl, you actually made it into that blue-blood family!"

But the wedding car never came. What I got instead was a phone call dripping with apology—a breakup call.

"I'm sorry, Addie. I fought for us, I really did. But my mother still refuses to let me marry an actress."

That day, the news exploded across Harbor City: Jesse Swanson, golden heir to the Swanson empire, had courted and discarded Adela Sullivan, the city's reigning Best Actress.

I disappeared from the public eye for three years. When I resurfaced, I was an internationally acclaimed painter with a prestigious gold medal to my name.

Camera flashes popped like fireworks. The reporters were just as ruthless as they'd been three years ago.

"Ms. Sullivan, in three days Jesse Swanson will be marrying the newly crowned Miss Harbor City, Alice Winters, in what's being called the wedding of the century. As his former flame, do you have anything to say to him?"

I let the corner of my mouth curve upward, lifted my left hand so the diamond on my ring finger caught the light, and smiled with perfect ease.

"I'm already married. I owe him a debt of gratitude for not marrying me back then."

That night, the proudest man Harbor City had ever known stumbled toward me reeking of liquor, eyes bloodshot, and blocked my path.

"Adela Sullivan, who gave you permission to marry someone else?"

……

Even after five years of dating, when Jesse Swanson said he wanted to marry me, I still couldn't believe it.

We stood on a bustling Harbor City street, and I gripped his hand so tightly my knuckles ached, desperate to confirm I wasn't dreaming.

"Jesse, your mother... she really agreed to let me into the family?"

Something flickered across his face—a flash of unease—but in the next breath, his expression hardened with resolve, and he pulled me into the bridal boutique on the corner.

There it was, waiting behind the glass display: the pristine white wedding gown I'd fantasized about a thousand times. Tiny crystals covered the bodice like a scattering of stars, so brilliant they hurt to look at.

Jesse stood before it and slowly lowered himself to one knee, his eyes full of love.

"Addie, I need you to remember something. You're not marrying the Swanson family. You're marrying me."

"Trust me. Three days from now, put on this dress and wait for me at home. I'll come for you."

In that moment, I was certain I'd heard the most beautiful words ever spoken.

Every doubt, every worry—I shoved them all aside and nodded, my heart brimming with hope.

Three days later, on a morning the rest of the world would have called perfectly ordinary, every dream I'd ever carried was about to come to a head.

I was an orphan. I had no parents. The only person in this world I could call family was Nora Dotson, my best friend, who'd grown up beside me in the same orphanage.

We'd entered the entertainment industry around the same time. I'd gone into acting; she'd become an entertainment reporter. We'd had each other's backs ever since.

When I stood before the mirror and slipped into that dazzling gown, Nora fastened the lace ties at my back one careful loop at a time. When she finally spoke, there was hesitation in her voice.

"Addie. Marrying Jesse Swanson—you really won't regret it?"

I frowned. "Why would you ask me that, Nora?"

I watched her draw a long breath, then point toward the trees beyond the villa. "Addie, do you have any idea how many of my colleagues are hiding in that banyan grove right now?"

"Every last one of them got tipped off. They're betting the Swanson family will look down on you and humiliate you, and they're out there waiting to splash your worst moment across tomorrow's front page."

"I'm only going to ask you once. If things are already this hard before it's even begun, do you honestly believe you and Jesse will be happy after the wedding?"

Nora's warning landed like a stone in my chest.

But when I lifted my gaze to the woman in the mirror, the unease slowly faded.

In all the time we'd been together, Jesse had never once broken a promise to me.

He had offered me the happiness I'd spent my whole life longing for. No matter how much ridicule or slander waited down the road, I was going to walk it with him.