After Eight Years, She Left Me at the Altar for Her First Love novel · Chapter 1 of 48
Chapter 1: The Altar
Celia Wainright leaves Troy at the altar for Dane, and Troy ends it before two hundred guests, shoves her sister to the floor and swears never to marry her.
Troy Falk said "I do" in front of two hundred guests, and his voice did not shake once.
The officiant turned to the bride.
Celia Wainright stood across from him in a white gown, her hair pinned up, her face pale under the makeup.
Two weeks ago she had skipped the cake tasting with a stomach bug, and she still wasn't eating properly.
Troy had told her twice to see a doctor.
She had told him twice to stop fussing.
He was twenty-eight, she was twenty-six, and after eight years together this was the part where she said yes.
"Celia Wainright," the officiant said, "do you take this man to be your husband?"
Celia lifted her eyes to his.
"I..."
The ballroom doors slammed open.
A woman in a gray coat ran down the aisle, out of breath.
It was Dane Ostrow's agent.
Troy's stomach dropped before she said a word.
"Celia, Dane crashed on his way here! They took him to St. Bride's. You have to come right now!"
Troy caught Celia's hand.
"Don't go," he said, low. "Ten minutes. Let us finish this. Please."
Celia pulled her hand out of his.
"I have to go," she said. "Wait for me."
Her bouquet hit the floor.
She gathered her skirt in both fists and ran, and the agent ran after her.
The doors swung shut.
Troy stood alone at the front of the room, and nobody made a sound.
His phone buzzed against his ribs.
The text was from Dane.
"She picked me again. I'm the one she loves, Troy. Give up."
Troy read it twice.
The agent had said Dane was already in the hospital.
He had still found time to type that.
Dane Ostrow was the actor Celia had loved since she was a teenager.
One phone call from him, and she dropped whatever she was holding.
She had left him alone on his birthday, on their anniversary, and at their own engagement party.
Twelve years in the Wainright house, and none of it had ever weighed as much as one call from Dane.
His eyes stung.
He closed them and breathed in.
When the pain in his chest eased, what came after was quiet, and it was relief.
If she had said the two words today, he might have found the strength to keep going.
She had not said them.
Troy opened his eyes.
They were dry.
He turned and faced the guests.
"Thank you all for coming," he said, and smiled. "I'm sorry you had to see that."
A few people looked down.
"I'd like every one of you to remember this. As of today, Celia Wainright and I are finished. We have nothing to do with each other anymore."
The room broke into noise.
He was the one ending it?
Everyone here knew how badly Troy loved her.
They decided he was saving face, and he let them think it.
He walked down the aisle and out through the side doors.
"Walking away from the Wainright name, are you?"
Giselle Wainright stepped out from behind a marble pillar with her arms folded.
She was Celia's little sister, twenty-three, and she had been tormenting him since the day he moved in.
Their father had brought Troy home at sixteen, an orphan with no one, to be raised as Celia's husband.
Giselle had never forgiven him for it.
She never missed a chance to remind him he was only a guest.
Troy kept walking.
"Girls!" Giselle snapped. "Don't let him past."
Four of her friends closed ranks across the corridor.
"You schemed for years," Giselle said, "and she still left you standing there. How does that feel, Troy?"
Her friends laughed.
He had heard it a thousand times.
He had always swallowed it for Celia's sake.
Today there was no Celia to swallow it for.
"Last month your fiancé left you at your own engagement party," Troy said. "He went off with an actress. It was on the news."
"If anyone knows how I feel, it's you."
The laughter stopped.
Giselle's face went white, then red.
"You dog!" she screamed. "You're only here because we fed you!"
She swung her hand at his face, the way she had a hundred times before.
Troy caught her wrist.
Giselle yelped.
"Let go of her!" one of the friends shouted.
He shoved Giselle's arm away, harder than he meant to.
She flew backward into her friends, and all five of them went down in a heap on the marble.
Giselle stared up at him with her mouth open.
"You hit me! Celia will crush you for this!"
"Let her try. I took it from you because of her. We're done, so I owe you nothing."
One of the girls held up her phone.
"I got that on video! Apologize right now, or we send it to Celia."
Giselle recovered enough to sneer. "On your knees, live-in boy. Beg."
Troy looked at her, at the phone, at the corridor behind him.
Then he said it loud enough for the phone to catch every word.
"I'm leaving this family with nothing but what I came with. And I swear I will never marry Celia Wainright. Not in this life. If I ever do, I deserve whatever hell comes for me."
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