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“I said yes, and I thought I was the luckiest girl alive when he slipped that engagement ring on my finger.”
It hadn’t been much of a ring, but she hadn’t cared. She’d cherished that thin gold band with a stone that had been a cheap imitation—much as Johnny himself had turned out to be.
“What happened?”
How did she even answer that? Reveal her most humiliating moment? Admit that she hadn’t been good enough for Johnny to stay with her so she knew no one ever would. She sure didn’t expect someone like Justin to.
“He failed to show up for our wedding.”
How could she have been so blind to his true nature? So suckered in by the false compliments that only ever followed his tearing her down first? To his constantly borrowing money? Having her pay for things? She knew the answer, though. Grief had veiled all logic.
She looked at Justin to see how he’d taken her confession.
With a grimace, he narrowed his eyes, and his jaw worked back and forth as he processed what she’d said.
“He was in an accident?”
“That would have been easier in some ways,” she admitted. “The truth is more sordid.”
She gave a humorless laugh, recalling her utter humiliation when she’d discovered the truth.
“He didn’t show up for our wedding because after our rehearsal dinner the night before he’d cashed in our honeymoon airline tickets—” that she had also paid for “—and run off with someone he’d been having an affair with for months.”
* * *
Wincing, Justin stared at Riley in disbelief that any man could be so stupid. So callous. How did a man just not show up for his own wedding?
“I’m sorry.”
Her distaste for marriage was beginning to make sense, as was the determined expression on her face as she stared up at him.
A smudge of dirt across her cheek told the story that she’d brushed her hair back at some point during the past few seconds, prior to putting her hands back on her hips and lifting her chin in defiance at what life had thrown at her.
Her ex really was stupid to have chosen another woman. That the man had hurt her, humiliated her, made her self-conscious about her weight and destroyed her confidence in herself, made Justin
want to track him down and beat some sense into him.
Another part wanted to thank him—because had the man been smarter Riley wouldn’t be single. And, as frustrated as he was, Justin wouldn’t have wanted to have missed out on the past few months.
“Don’t be sorry,” she advised. “The woman he ran off with did me a favor. Apparently she wasn’t the first person he’d cheated on me with, nor would she have been the last.”
Her words were said with such fervor that he knew she believed what she said. Good—she should believe it. No doubt Johnny hadn’t been faithful to the other woman either.
“Once the humiliation and hurt wore off,” Riley continued, her chin still tipped upward, “I became grateful he didn’t go through with our wedding.”
Was that how Ashley had felt? Grateful that he’d called off their wedding because he wouldn’t give up his involvement with the boys? At least he’d realized the week before that what they wanted from life didn’t mesh, and hadn’t left her standing at the altar alone.
But she had felt betrayed, because she hadn’t understood how he could put the boys before her. He hadn’t been able to explain that he loved them more than he did her, and that giving back to the foster program was something ingrained within him.
“There’s something else I need to tell you,” he began, wondering how Riley was going to take his next revelation. He didn’t want to tell her—knew doing so was going to make her even more prickly—but not to tell her would be wrong.
Not that he was sure it even mattered at this point. Everything in Riley’s demeanor said she was already done with him and their relationship. What he was about to tell her would likely destroy any hope that remained.
Not telling her wasn’t an option.
“Prior to relocating to Columbia, I was engaged.”
If he’d had any doubt as to whether or not she already knew, he no longer did. Her eyes widened, shining with pure shock, and she took a step back, bumping against a tree branch.
