All Chapters of I Stopped Waiting For You: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The car pulled up outside the Whitmore estate, and Julian Whitmore unbuckled his seatbelt."Give me five minutes. I need to go tell my mom you're here."Five minutes came and went. He texted that it wouldn't be long.At ten minutes, he said he was almost done.At forty minutes, he said to wait a little longer.I stopped replying.Through the car window, I watched Eleanor Whitmore personally come out to greet a girl in a fitted red dress. The girl stepped out of her car, walked straight to Julian, and looped her arm through his.He didn't pull away.The three of them walked inside together, laughing, and the front door swung shut in front of me. My phone screen was still lit, the last message still reading: [Wait a little longer.]Twenty minutes later, the butler knocked on the car window."You're Vera Hart, aren't you? Mrs. Whitmore would like you to come in and help — the kitchen's short-handed.""How does Mrs. Whitmore even know who I am?""The young master mentioned you.

That night, I went alone to a dinner with a few of Julian's mutual friends.I asked, offhand, "Do you guys know Camille Sinclair?"The table went quiet. Nobody answered.Watching their faces, it hit me — everyone already knew he had a fiancée.Someone, oblivious to the tension, filled the silence. "Sure, Julian's fiancée."Another friend chimed in. "He told us you were his girlfriend, even with his family pushing this arrangement on him — we all thought that was pretty sweet, honestly.""Sweet?""His family lined up a fiancée who checks every box, and he's still spending time on you? That takes something."My hands curled into fists. A cold feeling spread through me."He has a fiancée, and he still let me be his girlfriend. That's called lying."Someone let out a scoffing laugh. "Camille doesn't even seem to mind you're around. What is there for you to fight for?""Vera, you have to understand — she came first, and you came after. To put it bluntly, you're more like the—"T

Julian went to my office, and the receptionist told him I'd quit a week earlier. He asked when exactly, and she said it had been the previous Wednesday — I'd left in a hurry, and even the handover had been done remotely.He stood in the lobby and started calling everyone he could think of. Nobody knew where I'd gone.He went to find Nina Cole. She opened the door but didn't let him in."What are you here for?""Has she contacted you?""She has. But I'm not telling you anything.""Just tell me where she is. I'll go find her."Something changed in the way Nina looked at him."Julian, do you have any idea what these past three years have been like for her? Every holiday, you said you had to be with your family, so she spent them alone. When her mother died, she signed the hospital paperwork alone, handled the funeral alone, and carried the urn to the cemetery alone. Where were you, any of those times?"He opened his mouth, but nothing came out."The day she moved out, I went to

After Julian got back to Ashford, he asked Camille to meet him."I want to call off the engagement. Name your terms."Camille set down her cup and studied him for a long moment. "So you've finally decided. For her?""That's not your concern.""Fine. I want the Rivermont project, the one under your name.""It's yours.""And the villa in Westgate.""That too.""You're not even going to negotiate?""Whatever you want, I'll give it to you. But I have one condition — you stay away from her from now on."Camille laughed out loud. "Julian, she doesn't even want you anymore, and you're still shielding her?""That's not your concern."He stood to leave."You think calling off the engagement will bring her back? She's with that coffee shop owner every single day now. You think you're sacrificing yourself for her? She doesn't even know. She doesn't care."He stood there, his back to her."Don't touch her.""Why would I touch her? The way things are now hurts you a lot more than I

Once the Whitmore Group fell into crisis, Julian started chasing investors everywhere, meeting a different one every day, saying the same things over and over. Most turned him down. Some said it to his face — if you couldn't even honor an engagement, why would I trust you with my money? Others said behind his back that anyone who helped the Whitmores after they'd crossed the Sinclairs was signing their own death warrant.He worked himself to exhaustion every night, and when he came home, the lamp would still be on — the one I'd picked out. He'd lie on the couch, staring at it. Sometimes he wondered what I was doing, whether I was eating properly, whether the man I was with treated me well.One day, Arthur Whitmore called him into the study and slid a document across the desk."Sign it."He looked down. A stock transfer agreement."Sign your shares over to me. I'll carry the company from here. Get out. I don't want to see you anymore.""Dad—""You call me Dad? Where was that wh