Chapter 1

Before the wedding, my fiancé once again pulled out the role-drawing blind boxes we'd played with as kids, and had my sister and me each draw a role.

Whoever drew a role had to play it.

I stared at Jonah Carter in disbelief, but he gave my hand a squeeze.

"Don't worry, the slip that's been iced is the bride. I set it up a long time ago, just to satisfy her wish to open a blind box one last time."

I let out a breath and was just reaching in to feel for it when my mother slapped my hand away.

"This is the very last time, and you still can't let your sister have it? Fighting her over it!"

I was long used to my mother's favoritism, so I stepped back.

After my sister drew hers, I felt around inside and found the coldest slip.

Just as I was about to feel relieved that I'd drawn the bride.

Melissa Maxwell happily clutched her slip and jumped onto my fiancé.

"Yay! I got it again! A deal's a deal!"

Jonah looked helplessly at the passerby slip in my hand.

"Why is your luck always so bad? You lose, you accept it. It's just a wedding anyway. She's against marriage, so think of it as granting her wish to be a bride. In the end, we're the two who'll sign the marriage license."

Melissa reached out and took the wedding dress from my hands.

"Sis, getting married is exhausting anyway. I'll suffer through it for you!"

Grinning, she went off to change and put on the veil.

Watching the wedding dress fit her perfectly, I finally understood that this wedding had never, from beginning to end, been meant for me.

I didn't fuss and argue that it wasn't right the way I would have before.

Instead, I quietly turned around and accepted a five-year secret assignment.

From now on, I will no longer be a passerby in your lives.

Section 1

When I got home, the house was lively.

Their ceremony was already over.

My mother looked a little displeased when she saw me.

"You throw a tantrum at your sister's most important moment? Where did you run off to?"

The wedding photos sat on the coffee table—every scene, every angle something I'd gone over with the photographer again and again.

We already looked somewhat alike, and with the makeup and veil on, it was even harder to tell us apart.

Jonah followed my gaze and started to explain.

"You weren't there when the photos were taken, so she stepped in to save the shoot. She thought they looked nice and wanted to keep them as a memento. Once they're sorted, she'll take them."

I gave a small reply.

"Whatever. There are plenty of photos of the two of you in this house anyway."

Jonah faltered.

"Here you go again. The three of us grew up together. Isn't it perfectly normal to have photos like these?"

When I said nothing.

He softened his tone.

"We'll take our own photos after we sign the license—just the two of us."

Just the two of us. He'd said those words countless times.

But in the end it was always the two of them, without me.

I didn't respond, and went back to my room to pack.

Melissa pushed the door open, looking a little surprised.

"Sis, are you coming on our trip too?"

My hand paused.

Jonah rubbed his nose.

"She wants to come along, and since you already made that itinerary, one more person won't change anything."

But that itinerary was a couples' version I'd worked on for a long time, staying up many nights to make it, with a special, meaningful touch at every stop.

Back then, he'd said I was so thoughtful, that he'd absolutely give me an unforgettable honeymoon.

Before I could say anything, my mother came over, her tone unkind.

"I'm not feeling well, so she has to stay and take care of me. You two go enjoy yourselves."

Melissa smiled sweetly.

"Thanks, Mom. Take good care of Mom, sis!"

Steering me aside like this to make space for them had happened more than once.

My mother blamed me for catching my father cheating, blamed me for shattering the peace of our lives by exposing it, for causing their divorce and my father abandoning her.

So she hated me, felt I didn't deserve happiness. She let my sister change to her surname, while I was left carrying my disgraced father's surname.

After Jonah and I got together, she would swap out the love letters he wrote me and put my sister's name on them, and she would also imitate my handwriting to reject him.

At first, Jonah was furious when he found out and would argue on my behalf, and he'd keep his distance from my sister to set my mind at ease.

Later, seeing Melissa's hurt expression, he gradually began to feel guilty, thinking I was making a mountain out of a molehill, that I was jealous of how close my mother and sister were and was stirring up trouble.

By now, he'd grown used to dates without me.

He called it making it up to her.