I knew how much my fiancé loved me until he didn’t show up at the altar on our wedding day. The day after, I saw him signing some papers in my father’s office, without me knowing what it was about.
Brian and I went to our favorite fine-dining restaurant on the night of our sixth anniversary. He seemed very nervous, and I kept wondering why. “What’s wrong, Brian? Are you okay?” I asked, shifting a few times in his seat and looking behind me.
He nodded and forced a smile. “Yeah, sure, I’m fine,” he assured me. “It’s our anniversary, and I couldn’t be happier.”
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I smiled at his response and proceeded to look at the menu. I had memorized the menu from all the times we’d been to the restaurant, but I still glanced at it for old times’ sake. When I looked up from the menu, I got the shock of my life.
Brian was on one knee, and behind him was a group of musicians playing soft, romantic music on their violins. “Jane, darling. We’ve been together for six years, and I’m more than sure I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Brian declared. “Will you do me the honor of being my wife?” he asked.
I exclaimed and covered my mouth with my hands. “Of course I do!” I said, jumping out of my seat to give Brian a hug. I looked at the gorgeous solitaire ring Brian slipped onto my finger and realized how long it must have taken him to save up for something so big and beautiful.
The next day, I went to visit my parents to tell them Brian had proposed. My mom was delighted for me and gave me a big hug. However, my dad’s reaction was a different story.
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“You can’t possibly be happy marrying that man, Jane,” she said. “What will become of you and your children? Will he even be allowed to buy you a house? Put your children in private school?” she began to ask.
“Dad, how can you say that? Brian works a lot, and so do I. We’ll work this out together, like all married couples do,” I replied.
“Anyway, how long did it take him to save up for that ring? As if that should convince me he can take care of you. If I were you, I’d give the ring back and call off the wedding. It’s not too late, Jane. There are plenty of rich bachelors I can introduce you to, men I can truly trust with my daughter and the future of my business,” he told me.
I scoffed in disbelief, knowing my father only cared about money. I shook my head and left the house before I could say anything I’d regret.
Brian and I planned our wedding alone, with gentle help from my mom. Three months of preparations passed, and finally, the big day arrived.
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Before the ceremony, Brian couldn’t find his sister or niece. “Where are they?” he asked his mother. Reluctantly, Brian’s mother revealed that his niece, Maxine, had to be taken to the hospital for emergency heart surgery.
“Your sister has been looking for people to borrow money from,” her mother told her. “The hospital won’t start the operation without an advance, but Maxine doesn’t have that much time left. They have to start the operation as soon as possible.”
Without a second thought, Brian decided to approach my father for help. “Sir, I know this is going to sound bad, but I was wondering if you could lend me some money for my niece’s surgery. I just spent almost everything in my account on the wedding,” Brian admitted.
I decided to grab a coffee at a nearby cafe when I suddenly saw Brian looking around before entering my dad’s office building.
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“I promise I’ll pay you back within a month. I just have to make it through the month before I get paid,” he asked.
My father shook his head. “I knew you were up to no good,” he mocked. “But yes, I’ll help you, on one condition,” he told Brian.
“What condition, sir? I’ll do anything,” Brian said without hesitation.
“You don’t have to pay me back, but you have to disappear from Jane’s life. Run away and never come back,” he declared.
Brian’s heart sank when he learned of my father’s condition. However, he remembered what his mother had said about Maxine not having much time left, so he reluctantly agreed. It was his only chance to save his niece’s life.
A few minutes later, I was at the altar, crying. Brian hadn’t come to the wedding, and everyone was trying to comfort me. “What happened? We were fine yesterday,” I yelled. “Where did he go?” I kept asking, after learning from the guests that Brian had been at the church that morning.
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The next day, my father asked me to meet him at his office. I had arranged to meet him in an hour and a half, but I arrived early.
I decided to grab a coffee at a nearby cafe when I suddenly saw Brian looking around the area before entering my father’s office building. “What’s he doing here?” I wondered before deciding to follow him.
By the time I paid the bill at the coffee shop, Brian had already entered the elevator. I had a feeling he was heading to my father’s office, so I hurried to the next elevator to see what he was up to.
When I arrived, I saw Brian, my father, and my father’s lawyer in the same room. Because the glass windows were soundproof, I couldn’t hear what they were talking about. Instead, I saw my father’s lawyer hand some papers to Brian, who signed them before shaking hands with the other men in the room.
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I couldn’t help but burst in at that moment. “What is this? What are those papers and why are you here?!” I yelled.
My father had a smug expression on his face, as if he were telling me he knew this was coming all along. “Your boyfriend just agreed to never see you again in exchange for money,” he told me.
I looked at Brian with the most painful look of betrayal. “Is that true?” I said, trying not to choke on the lump in my throat that formed at hearing what my father had said.
“I’m sorry, Jane. It’s Maxine. She’s dying and needs a very expensive operation to save her life,” Brian cried. “Yesterday I asked your father for help, and he said he’d help me if I didn’t attend the wedding. I’m sorry, Jane. I can’t bear to lose my niece,” he sobbed.
“He just signed the agreement that he would never appear in your life again. If you hadn’t shown up, the papers stated that he wouldn’t be allowed to tell you the truth either. But now that you’re here, I guess it’s best you know that he substituted his relationship with money,” my father said, slamming the papers against the table.
“How could you do this to me?” I yelled at my dad. “My life isn’t a toy for you to play with! You ruined my relationship and ruined what was supposed to be the best day of my life,” I screamed.
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“What kind of father are you?! I never want to see you again,” I said before leaving his office.
I felt my knees buckle, and before I reached the elevator, I collapsed on the floor, crying. “Why?” I yelled to no one in particular. That’s when I felt Brian’s arms wrap around me.
“I’m sorry, Jane,” he cried. “I love you with all my heart, but I also couldn’t let Maxine die. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
“You’re the kindest, most selfless man I know,” I told Brian. “I know you only had good intentions. But I wish you’d told me instead of going to my dad. That way, we could still have gone on to our wedding, and we could have helped Maxine together.”
Brian nodded and sighed as he realized his mistake. “I didn’t know what to do. You weren’t at church yet, and your father was the first one I saw when I heard the news. I’m sorry, Jane,” he apologized to me.
“I understand that you don’t want to see me again, but I would like you to give me the chance to show you how much I love you. I really do, Jane,” he tried to reassure me.
“I know you love me, Brian, and I love you back,” I replied.
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That day, we decided to talk about our lives and what we could do to move forward. We visited Maxine in the hospital and paid for the operation after obtaining reimbursements from our wedding vendors. Maxine underwent the operation successfully and returned to being the lively, affectionate girl we all knew.
Three months passed, and Brian and I decided to start a new life together. We moved to another city to start over, and I decided to cut my father out of my life for good.
“I hope you understand why I had to do this, Mom,” I said when I told my mother about my decision to distance myself from Dad. “It’s for my own good. He was too toxic for me, and I couldn’t stand it.”
My mother was hurt to hear this, but she understood perfectly where I was coming from. “I’ll always be here for you, dear,” she assured me. “Please visit me and always keep in touch. I couldn’t bear not seeing you for too long.”
With my mother’s blessing, Brian and I were married in a simple ceremony attended only by my mother, his parents, a few of our close friends, and his sister and niece.
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Before leaving town, Brian and I mailed him back the check my father had written. I haven’t heard from him since. After I quit my job at the family business, he blocked my credit cards and any possibility of receiving an inheritance.
With the money I’d saved over the years, along with Brian’s, we were able to buy a small house in the suburbs. I got a job at another company, and together we worked hard to raise our three children in a loving environment.
What can we learn from this story?
- Never let money get in the way of your relationship. Jane’s father thought getting Brian away from her would be as simple as giving him money. However, when Jane discovered the truth about what her father had done, she was angrier with him than with Brian, knowing Brian was in a difficult situation that left him no choice but to comply with his father’s wishes.
- Always be honest with your spouse and overcome life’s challenges together. When Jane discovered the truth, all she wanted was for Brian to have told her the truth in the first place. That way, they could have avoided what happened at the wedding and moved on. In the end, they were able to overcome their problems and work together to save Maxine and start a new life together without her father in the middle.
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If you liked this story, you might like this one about a woman who is left at the altar for the third time and finds out that her father visited each groom the day before the wedding.
This story is inspired by the daily lives of our readers and was written by a professional copywriter. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images shown are for illustrative purposes only. Share your story with us; it could change someone’s life. If you’d like to share yours, please send it to [email protected] .
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