A Toast To A Love That Never Was Chapter 16
Melanie truly did not resent the Hart family.
After all, without them, Melanie wouldn’t be who she was now. In fact, she might have already been dragged back home and forced to marry an old man she had never met and had no feelings for back in middle school. And it would all be for a betrothal gift they couldn’t refuse.
It was the Hart family who had saved her life. Everything she did back then had only been her way of repaying that kindness.
Melanie had once felt something for Dustin. Back when Miriam suggested that Melanie become her daughter–in–law, it did fill Melanie with joy. And, when she heard Dustin say that he only saw her as a sister, she had definitely suffered.
But all of that had been buried in the past the moment Dustin drew a clear line between them.
“I just see them as my benefactors,” Melanie said.
The two of them walked as they talked, unaware that someone had been following them the whole time, listening to every word they said.
And when he heard this sentence, he froze in his tracks.
They were just her benefactors.
Dustin suddenly recalled that night three years ago, when his friends had organized a banquet to celebrate his recovery. At the banquet, they spoke of Melanie’s years of devotion to him.
“Now that Dustin’s fully recovered, Melanie has finally endured all the hardships and can see the rainbow at the end of the storm.”
“Dustin, when are you going to marry her?”
Hearing that, Dustin’s expression had turned cold back then. “I only see her as my sister.”
Thinking back now, Melanie had walked into the room not long after he said that. She must have heard it.
At the time, he had only felt that the years of his paralysis had left him too defeated and pitiful. He believed that he should be a dazzling man who was admired by all, someone who was free of any stains to his image.
So, he deliberately avoided recalling those paralyzed years and, with that, distanced himself from Melanie, who was always going to be tied to that period.
Arrogantly, he thought that as long as he remembered her kindness and gave her enough money and status, Melanie would accept it with gratitude.
He had spoken that sentence casually back then, never once considering how cruel it must have sounded to Melanie’s ears.
Even now, he heard an echo of it in her words. “I just see them as my benefactors.”
Wasn’t that the perfect retribution?
Dustin lowered his head with a bitter smile and reached into the pocket of his coat. He drew out a square velvet box. With a soft click, the box opened to reveal its contents.
It was a diamond ring. In the center of it sat a five–carat pink diamond, flanked by tiny stones that spelled out two letters, “D&M.” Dustin and Melanie..
He carefully lifted the ring out, stroking the raised letters with his thumb.
After realizing his feelings, he had this proposal ring custom–made. He never knew when he would see Melanie again, so he carried it with him all the time, hoping that he could slip it onto her finger one day.
That long–awaited reunion had finally come, but he never got a chance to show her this ring.
Three days later, the wedding invitation from Melanie and Zachary arrived at the Hart Group. Harry and the others happened to be there as well.
When the assistant came upstairs with the invitation, he pushed open the office door and saw only Harry’s group there. After a moment of hesitation, he handed it over and asked them to pass it to Dustin.
As they looked at the invitation, the men exchanged glances. In the end, they couldn’t resist the temptation and opened it.
They reassured themselves in silence, thinking it was only a wedding invitation. It wasn’t like it was a classified document.
But when they saw the name printed inside, every single one of them gasped.
Melanie? Could it be the same Melanie they had in mind?
Just then, they suddenly heard a voice behind them. “What are you all gathered around for?”
