The Wedding Dress Forgotten in Boston

After I was reborn, I submitted an application for an overseas visiting scholar program immediately, for one reason only: to put as much distance as possible between myself and Leo Thompson.

In my last life, I gave up my tenure-track path for him. I had his children, wore myself thin for the family, and spent my best years swallowing my own ambitions.

But when he lay at the end of his life, his final wish was to divorce me so he could be buried beside his first love, Melissa.

Even my two children knelt in front of me and begged. They told me to "fulfill" Leo and Melissa, the so-called "soulmates."

My heart turned to ash. I sank into depression and died that way.

I never expected to open my eyes again and find myself back before my wedding to Leo.

This time, I decided I would give them exactly what they wanted.

......

When the department chair, Susan Miller, received my application, she looked so shocked she spilled the Starbucks latte in her hand.

I quickly pulled a few napkins and handed them to her.

Susan didn't even bother wiping it up. She just stared at me, her eyes full of confusion.

"Aren't you getting married next month?" she asked. "You're going to Cambridge for a full year—did you talk to Professor Thompson about this?"

Just last week, I had been glowing as I showed her the wedding dress I'd ordered from David's Bridal.

Now I was talking about flying away.

It was sudden. Of course it was.

Only... Leo Thompson.

That name felt like an invisible needle, slipping lightly into my heart.

His face rose in my mind with unsettling clarity—sharp features, a high, straight nose, and that faint, constant distance in his gaze, as if he was never fully present with anyone in front of him.

He was the youngest star professor at our university, a research prodigy, and wildly popular.

The girls who wanted to ask him out for coffee could have lined up from his office all the way to the department building entrance, and he would have dismissed every one of them without a second glance.

Until he met me.

Everyone envied me for landing a man like that—an elite, brilliant, untouchable kind of man.

But only I knew the truth.

When he looked at me, he had been looking through me. He had been seeing someone else's shadow.

I lowered my eyes and spoke evenly. "This chance to go to Cambridge as a visiting scholar only comes once. I don't want to miss it. As for the wedding..."

I paused, then finished without hesitation.

"It'll have to be canceled."