Chapter 3

Looking at the marriage certificate in their hands, I forced a tight smile. "Congratulations. I hope you're happy."

Ethan scoffed.

"I don't want to wait another second."

"We’re having the wedding tomorrow."

"Let's go, Chloe. I'm taking you to get your wedding dress!"

He looked me up and down, his eyes filled with contempt.

As Chloe walked past me, she paused and whispered, "Some people just don't look like brides, even in a wedding dress."

"Ten years of waiting, and you're still just an outsider."

She reached up to adjust her hair.

The diamond earrings she wore caught the light, sparkling brilliantly.

I recognized them instantly.

They were heirlooms from Ethan's grandmother.

Ethan once told me those earrings would only be given to his future wife.

Yet in our ten years together, I had never once been invited to a Vance family gathering.

When I used to complain to him about it, he would just brush me off.

"Is meeting them really that important?"

"You're marrying me, not my family."

Later, I asked him, "Why does Chloe get to go on family vacations with you every year?"

He laughed.

"She grew up with us."

"My mom treats her like a daughter."

"If I actually liked her, would I even be with you?"

"Stop overthinking."

That afternoon, Ethan booked the most exclusive bridal boutique in the city.

He ordered her a custom-designed gown adorned with a hundred diamonds, each worth millions.

Chloe spitefully sent me a Snapchat video to brag.

Champagne towers, a live string quartet, a sea of roses.

Ethan knelt on one knee, gently putting the wedding shoes on her feet.

As I watched, my eyes still burned.

Not out of jealousy.

But out of pity for myself.

Pity for how pathetic and small I had been for the last ten years.

Ethan always told me that true love shouldn't be measured by money.

So, during our ten years, I lived frugally, never asking him for a dime.

The most expensive thing he ever gave me was a cheap $5 dollar-store glass bracelet.

One winter, I caught severe pneumonia. I couldn't afford the medical bills and called Ethan to borrow $300.

He didn't pick up once.

Hours later, he replied with a text:

"Babe, don't use things like this to test me."

"I hate women who use money to prove love."

"Once we're married, everything I have will be yours anyway."

He thought I was faking an illness to get cash out of him, so he turned off his phone and ignored me.

That night, I coughed up blood. To this day, my lungs have never fully recovered.

I blocked Chloe on Snapchat.

Then, I called my parents.

"Dad, Mom... I lost."

"Book my flight for tomorrow night. I'm coming home."

Suddenly, a pair of warm hands wrapped around my waist from behind.

Ethan's dark, suffocating gaze locked onto me.

"Which home are you going to?"