Chapter 643
Roderick felt it would be odd for him to attend the wedding without playing a part in the preparations. It made him feel like an outsider.
“We’ll have a meal with Stella in a few days. I’ll call you then,” Eileen replied. After a pause, she added, “Who else can support me like you, my brother?”
Roderick clearly appreciated the gesture. “Don’t worry. I won’t embarrass you. I’ll buy a suit, and I won’t let Judie and Denise come.”
“It’s fine if they just come for a peaceful meal. But you know how they can be,” Eileen said, her voice tinged with guilt as she worried about straining Roderick’s relationship with Judie and Denise.
Roderick reassured her, “I understand. Don’t worry.”
After a bit more conversation, Roderick hung up and returned to his small restaurant.
He wasn’t just thinking about the suit he needed to buy. He realized he had to spruce up his appearance—style his hair, focus on skincare. He couldn’t afford to show up at a fancy hotel looking unkempt and embarrassing Eileen.
Then, a sudden thought struck him.
Despite Eileen and Bryan already having a child, this would be Eileen’s first wedding. As her brother, he felt he needed to give her something special.
If it weren’t for Eileen, he wouldn’t have opened his new restaurant.
He had managed to save up about eight hundred thousand in the past few months and had planned to buy a house before Judie gave birth, knowing that she would be upset if he didn’t.
But the house could wait. He couldn’t miss the chance to give Eileen a proper wedding gift.
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He glanced over at Judie, who was busy at the checkout counter, and made up his mind.
Eileen had initially planned to invite only the families of Jacob and Josue to the wedding. Even though she had reserved the largest hotel, the guest list remained sparse.
With the wedding arrangements in place, Eileen and Bryan took a trip up the mountain to fetch Stella.
On the way, Eileen stopped at a traffic light and turned to Bryan. “So, we are just holding the wedding ceremony? Are we not going to make it official at the registry?”
The question hung in the air, met with silence.
For Eileen, the wedding would publicly announce their union, but for some reason, Bryan resisted the idea of getting their marriage registered.
He feared that the legal bond would only deepen the pain for Eileen if he was gone.
She would become a widow, the one left to sign his death certificate and handle the funeral arrangements—it was all too much.
Bryan was frustrated with himself. He couldn’t bear the thought of letting Eileen go, yet, in the meantime, he was trying to plan for her future without him.
“Then we won’t get the marriage registered,” Eileen finally said as the light turned green. She had read between the lines during those long seconds of silence.
She hated Bryan’s patronizing attempts to protect her, but she couldn’t bring herself to confront him about it.