Claimed By My Husband's Enemy novel Chapter 129

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Chapter 129

(Eli)

I used to cry about not being included in the table. My first husband used to attend most of his family gatherings by himself. When I married him, he’d become my family. That’s why not being there was a punch to the chest. He paraded me in front of his business associates and friends, but not his family members.

Even when I was sitting at the table with his friends, I had to nod at things I didn’t agree with just to be accepted. I had to stay silent about the things I loved. I had to force myself to swallow the food I could no longer taste and perform through smiling and masking my feelings to remain relevant to all of them.

It took Landon’s betrayal to make me realize that I was chasing the wrong people and sitting at the wrong table all along. I was at the wrong seat, at the wrong place.

And today?

After so many years, I found the right table. I was with the right people. I could say with absolute confidence that I was at the right place. And at the seat that was truly meant for me, one that I didn’t have to ask or beg for. I was home.

Unlike my first wedding, I only told some of the details I liked and left it all at the organizer’s hands, believing they would know better since they could see better. I didn’t want to trust my own judgment because apparently, I’d been mismatching my and Zane’s clothes all this time while everyone mistook it as fashion.

I only found out when I asked my son to tell me the colors of the clothes we were wearing. In fact, I heard that there were kids in the dragon realm who started wearing mismatched socks and ultra bright colors, proudly declaring that it was all thanks to my influence. After voicing out my embarrassment, Lizbeth cried once again as she put labels in my wardrobe, patiently ensuring I’d be presentable when I appeared in public places because her brother simply didn’t give a damn.

I was always the most beautiful for him regardless although I recalled Alistair and my uncles wearing their sunglasses when I was around. That was before they found out about my colorblindness. After learning my condition, they sucked the colors in. I grinned at the thought. Sometimes, I deliberately wore too much just to mess with them and hear their pained groans.

Lizbeth personally took charge of my wedding, and I only found out today. She made it her mission to make this the loveliest wedding I’d ever seen. My mom described the colors while we walked. I didn’t even know it’ll be held here… in the place which her brother prepared for me.

A castle.

Who would have thought I’d have one? This was a forgotten dream. Even the ring on my finger was a part of that dream that I buried long ago after failing to meet ‘Black’. I buried him deep in my memories especially when I met Landon. I thought it was unfair and silly of me to think of someone who didn’t exist.

I only remembered about Black, about the first person I’d wanted to marry, when I saw the ring. Even without seeing its colors, I knew it all too well. I knew that oval sapphire center stone, my birth stone, including the fourteen round diamonds on that white gold band. I had it taped on my bedroom wall when I was a little girl. I used to stare at it before sleeping at night while wishing that ‘Black’ would appear and sweep me off my feet with that engagement ring.

Through the years, that dream became a fantasy. ‘Black’ himself became a fantasy, someone that only existed in my dreams. In my imagination.

Who would have known that all those dreams were part of a tamer’s gift to recognize her mate? That it was fate’s way of telling me to wait?

I paused midway, looked around, and took everything in.

Every carefully crafted and luxurious design, every flower that I was seeing for the first time, every detail, from the lights to the orchestra, spoke of Lizbeth’s loyalty to me and Creed. I felt her sincerity, her warmth, as if this was her way of welcoming me into the family. To the pack.

So, this was what had been making her exhausted. Yet, when I asked Lizbeth to look after Zane from time to time, she’d readily agree, saying she was free. I didn’t know she was hands-on in preparing everything.

“Thank you,’ I mouthed when I glanced at her.

‘Anything for you, sis,’ she mouthed back with a smile.

I heard that the flowers were rare and that they came straight from the mages’ realm. Every flower was carefully selected. All the things I ought to be doing were arranged by her. The set up was pure perfection. I was at a loss for words. If the arrangement showed me Lizbeth’s affection, the castle spoke of Creed’s devotion, of how fiercely I was loved despite the uncertainties. There were paintings of me on the wall and on the other side were paintings of our family.