Gardenias And His Last Goodbye

At my own engagement party, my fiancé, Franco, abandoned me. He left me standing alone in a room full of guests to rush to the side of another woman, Katina, the one he truly loved.

He called me a gold-digger, a parasite clinging to his family's name, and accused me of faking an illness just to get his attention.

But he never knew the truth. He never knew about the secret I carried-a terminal leukemia diagnosis I received just two days before he humiliated me.

He never knew that the night he called a drunken mistake, the night he spat on with disgust, had left me pregnant with his child.

And he certainly never knew that while he was tending to Katina's fake anxiety attack, I was in a sterile hospital room, alone, terminating our baby to have a fighting chance at a life he made sure was a living hell.

I thought my death would be the end of our story, a final, quiet release from his cruelty.

But when I opened my eyes again, I was back at our engagement party, the scent of gardenias filling the air, just moments before he would walk out and shatter my life for the first time.

Chapter 1

Elana Clements POV:

The scent of gardenias was supposed to soothe me, but it only tightened the knot in my stomach. I knew Franco didn't want to be here. Not with me. My engagement party. What a joke.

He stood across the ballroom, his gaze drifting over the crowd. Not at me, his fiancée, but searching. Always searching for someone else. His coldness was a familiar ache, a dull throb I had learned to live with. It didn't make it any less painful.

I watched him, my heart a hollow space in my chest. He said he loved me, but his eyes never met mine with the same warmth they held for... for her. I knew the truth, even if I refused to speak it aloud.

Then, his phone buzzed. A sharp, insistent vibration that cut through the polite murmur of conversation. Franco' s face, usually so composed, crumpled into a mask of panic. He didn't even try to hide it.

"I need to go," he muttered, already moving towards the door. His voice was a harsh whisper, filled with an urgency that had nothing to do with me.

I reached out, my hand grasping his arm. "Franco, wait. What's wrong?"

He yanked his arm free, as if my touch burned him. "It's... complicated. Someone needs me. More than you do right now." The words were like a slap, raw and bruising.

"But it's our engagement party," I pleaded, my voice barely audible above the music. "Everyone's watching. What will they say?" My dignity, what little I had left, was crumbling around me.

His eyes, usually the color of a stormy sea, were frozen. They held no warmth, no recognition. Just a chilling, vacant stare that pierced right through me. "You always make everything about yourself, Elana," he hissed, his voice laced with contempt. "You never understand."

My heart, already bruised, shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. The cold spread through my veins, numbing me. I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. He walked away, each step a hammer blow to my chest. He didn't look back.

I watched him go, a blur of expensive tailoring disappearing into the night. Then, I turned to face my guests, my smile a brittle shield against the world. "Franco had an urgent business matter," I lied, my voice steady. "He sends his apologies."

Ellsworth, Franco' s father, watched me with a tight, disapproving frown. My mother, bless her heart, gave me a small, encouraging nod. I knew they saw through my charade, but they played along. The canapés tasted like sawdust, the champagne bitter on my tongue.

Later, my mother pulled me aside, her hand gently stroking my arm. "Elana, honey. Is everything alright with Franco? He seems... distant." Her eyes, full of worry, searched mine.

"Everything's fine, Mom," I lied again, forcing a reassuring smile. "Just pre-wedding jitters." I couldn't tell her. Couldn't add my burdens to hers.

Our families had been intertwined for generations. The Clements and the Mayers, two pillars of the community. We grew up together, Franco and I. He was the boisterous boy who' d pull my pigtails, the brave knight who' d chase away imaginary dragons. He promised me the moon and stars, a child' s oath whispered under a summer sky. Our parents, in their prosperity, had laughed and sealed our future with a playful, unspoken agreement.

But then, everything changed. My family' s fortune dwindled, swallowed by bad investments and a changing economy. His family' s wealth soared, cementing the Mayer name as a titan of industry. The playful agreement became a binding contract, a lifeline for my family, a duty for his.

I went away for college, hoping to find my own path, but fate had other plans. I returned home for Franco' s mother' s funeral. That was when I saw him changed. The boy I knew was gone, replaced by a cold, driven man, his eyes hollowed by grief. Ellsworth, Franco's father, pulled the old promise from the dusty shelves of family history. He spoke of his late wife' s dying wish, of merging our families. It was an obligation, he said. For me, it was a chance to save my family from the brink of ruin.

Franco hated it. He hated me for it, I knew. He saw me as a burden, a reminder of a past he wanted to escape. He saw me as an obstacle to his true devotion – Katina. She was the one he truly loved, the one he believed he was destined for. I was just the girl from a fading family, tied to him by a dead woman' s wish.

He showed me his disgust clearly one night, after too much whiskey. His words were poison, dripping with scorn. "You think I don't know what this is?" he sneered, his fingers digging into my arm. "You and your mother, clinging to our name, our money. You're nothing but a gold-digger, Elana. A parasite." He pushed me away, his eyes burning with accusation. "Don't think for a second I don't see through your act. You want a piece of the Mayer empire, don't you?"

After that night, we barely spoke. Weeks turned into months. This engagement party was the first time we' d really seen each other, really been together, in a long time. And now he was gone, once again, chasing after the woman he truly loved.

I stood there, alone in the crowded room, the echoes of his words still ringing in my ears. The silence where he should have been was deafening.

My smile faltered. I felt a sharp, metallic tang in my mouth. My head swam. The room tilted. Something warm and sticky started to trickle from my nose.

I needed to get out of here. Before anyone else saw.