Marrying Without You

I'll Need a Groom Too

As Zoe tried on her wedding dresses, she finally dispensed with her innocent appearance and revealed her true nature.

Sneering at Rosalyn, she asked, "So, do you finally understand your place, Ms. Jones?"

However, Rosalyn's heart was already too numb to feel anything. "What's so impressive about you, dumping Carl when he's out of luck, and returning when he succeeds?"

"So what?" Zoe shrugged, at once smug and pompous. "He loves me, so he's going to marry me. Sure, you slept with him while he overcame a dark period of his life, but he still ended up leaving you."

And that was the truth.

Rosalyn refused to play the jealous game with her or compete with their abilities to keep a man.

Instead, she asked bluntly, "Why are you telling me all this, Ms. Quayle?"

Zoe replied bluntly. "I don't ever want to see you again after my wedding."

Rosalyn suddenly burst into dazzling laughter.

She was going to leave—but she wouldn't let anyone chase her off.

So, she didn't humor her boss's future wife and instead asked provokingly, "In that case, why don't you ask Carl to tell me to leave?"

Zoe's eyes narrowed murderously. "You still think Carl loves you, don't you?"

Rosalyn snorted.

No! She no longer held any fantasies after Carl took her ring and gave it to Zoe.

"That's a beautiful bridal gown, Ms. Quayle. Your wedding is going to be perfect."

And with those words, Rosalyn stepped out of the dressing room.

Carl had already changed. He looked sharp in his dark suit and appeared soft-spoken with the frameless glasses over his nose.

Just like when Rosalyn had first met him, she wondered how there could be a man this good-looking.

Now, he looked even more handsome—he was eye candy that would send any maiden's heart racing.

But if Rosalyn could turn back time, she'd never talk to him in that bar and would keep her distance.

While she couldn't change her past, if she could choose her future, she wished he wouldn't be there in her future.

Carl walked up to her just then, pointing at the wedding dresses up front and said, "Go on, pick whichever you want."

For what? To stop his wedding?

She wasn't that childish!

"I'll need a groom too, Mr. Grant," she scoffed. "Perhaps you have one available?"

Carl's expression darkened. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Rosalyn brushed her fingers on the wedding dress fabric as she mused, "Just suddenly thought that I should get married too."

"Are you doing this on purpose? I told you—"

Before Carl could finish, the dressing room door opened, and Zoe stepped out.

Even Rosalyn paused when she saw the million-dollar dress.

She had once imagined that she would be dressed in white too, with Carl by her side.

But it was ultimately just a dream, and the bubble would always inevitably burst.

"Don't I look pretty, Carl?" Zoe asked, once again an innocent, guileless maiden around him.

"Yes. You're the fairest of them all," Carl replied.

He had told Rosalyn those same words before.

Roses don't wither in a single day—that certainly applied to love too.

And Rosalyn's love for Carl died because of his words and actions.

"Don't I look pretty, Ms. Jones?" Zoe asked Rosalyn just then and came over to pull her along. "Come on, you have to pick a wedding dress too—I'll tell Carl to buy it for you when you marry."

She had no idea what Zoe had in her hands, but she felt her arm hurting, like a needle was stabbed into her, and instinctively shook Zoe off.

Even as Zoe cried out in panic and fell backward, she didn't forget to grab Rosalyn so that she fell as well.

"Zoe!" Carl exclaimed as he came running, catching Zoe just in time.

On the other hand, Rosalyn slammed her head painfully atop the cold floor tiles with a loud thud.

The entire bridal boutique seemed to quake even as the world spun around her, and she heard ringing in her head.

Still, she somehow remembered Zoe's question—did she still hold on to hopes that Carl still loved her?

And now, she had her answer.