Chapter 1

Alexander came with me to Vera Wang to try on wedding dresses, but he was on his iPhone the entire time.

I asked him, "How does this one look?"

He mumbled distractedly, "It's nice."

"And this one?"

"It's fine. Suits you."

I let the lace veil fall from my hands and said nothing.

It wasn't until he received a kissy-face emoji from his assistant, Madison, that he left without a second thought.

I said as he walked away, "Come home early tonight. I have some good news to tell you."

He never had the patience to listen, until the day I told him:

"Congratulations. The groom is not you.”

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1

Four in the morning.

Alexander finally returned to our home on Long Island.

He pressed down on me, the scent of whiskey on his breath. His scalding hand slid under my nightgown, yet his tone was gentle:

"Maddie..."

I turned on the bedside lamp.

The desire in the man's eyes instantly soured into a flicker of disgust.

After an awkward pause, he roughly grabbed a pillow and shoved it over my face, as if he could only go on without looking at me.

But then he heard me say:

"I'm on my period."

The relief on his face was palpable as he headed for the bathroom.

The moment Alexander left, the phone he’d left on the nightstand lit up.

It was a text from Madison:

【Alex, thank you for taking all those drinks for me from those Wall Street bastards tonight.

I promise, I'll never go back to being a party girl at those members-only clubs again.

Maddie will be your personal assistant for life ^^】

Ten years ago, I confessed my feelings to him.

Alexander, who knew I had a severe allergy to alcohol, pointed to a full bottle of Jack Daniel's and said nonchalantly that if I could finish it in one go, he would agree to go on a date with me.

I traced the scar on my stomach from my perforated ulcer and pulled out the wedding invitation I had already drafted from under the pillow.

Sitting on the sofa, I waited in silence.

In less than ten minutes, Alexander was done with his shower.

The neroli scent clinging to him was the exact same as the scented candle Madison had given me.

Before I could speak.

The man lazily pulled a jewelry box from his jacket pocket and tossed it to me as if it were a charitable handout.

Inside was a pair of ruby studs.

I knew at a glance they were made from the scraps of the Van Cleef & Arpels carnelian necklace he had given Madison last month.

Seeing me shut the lid after a single glance, Alexander raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"What? Do I have to put them on for you myself to make you happy?"

"Alex, we’ve known each other for fifteen years. Don't you know I don't have pierced ears? I can't wear earrings."

Perhaps my tone was too calm. As he picked up his phone to reply to Madison, he made a rare attempt to appease me.

"Fuck. It's a small thing. I'll just take you to get them pierced tomorrow."

In the past, I would have thrown myself into his arms the instant he was willing to spend time with me.

No matter how he pushed me away, his ears flushing red, I would always leave my lipstick marks on him.

But now, I ignored the arms Alexander instinctively opened for me, calmly handing him the invitation:

"Alex, congratulations. The groom is not you anymore. You don't have to marry me now."

"Hmm? Congratulate me for what?"

The man was busy sending flirty texts to Madison and didn't even hear what I said.

Just as I was telling him to open the invitation and see the new groom's name, his phone rang.

This late at night, I didn't need to guess who it was. It had to be Madison.

The girl purred in a delicate, wheedling voice:

"Alex, I just saw a scary short video on TikTok, and it terrified me..."

Hearing this, Alexander immediately tossed the invitation aside and hurried downstairs.

Hearing the roar of a sports car from the driveway, I picked up my phone, intending to call Alexander.

But all I heard was a busy signal.

Oh, I forgot.

On the day of our engagement party.

So that I wouldn't disturb him while he took Madison to a friend's party in the Hamptons.

He had already blocked me.

Pulling myself back from my thoughts, I grabbed a trash bag and walked into the study to start getting rid of useless things.

I tore up the hundreds of love letters I had written to Alexander,

smashed the old-fashioned View-Master I gave him when we were kids and the custom watch engraved with our names...

As I was about to throw away the childhood photo of us that had been on display for ten years,

I accidentally bumped the mouse.

The computer screen lit up, and just as I saw Madison's smiling face,

Alexander, who had just left and returned, gave me a violent shove!

With a loud thud,

the back of my head slammed against the sharp corner of the solid wood bookshelf, and my face instantly drained of color.

After confirming that the small speaker Madison had given him was unharmed, Alexander shot me a sideways glance:

“Blair, from this day on, you are forbidden from ever entering my study again.”

I was in too much pain to speak, watching silently as he took the Knight family's ancestral heirloom ring from the safe and left excitedly.

Not long after, I received a video from one of Alexander's best friends:

On the Brooklyn Bridge.

In front of all his buddies, Alexander got down on one knee, holding flowers and a diamond ring, and proposed to Madison:

“Maddie, before I met you, I never believed in true love.”

“Until the moment you appeared, my thirty years of a fucked-up life finally had meaning.”

“Here and now, I humbly ask you.”

“Please, give me a chance to protect you for a lifetime.”

Beneath a sky ablaze with fireworks, Madison, with tears shimmering in her eyes, put on the ring and threw herself into Alexander's arms with a laugh.

Just as I finished watching the video, I received a location pin for SoHo House.

I knew it. Alexander and his friends were betting on me again.

They were betting on how long it would take me to rush to the club and "catch him in the act."

Betting on whether I would lose my mind in public, crying and begging him to come back.

For the past ten years, every time Alexander had bet I would cry, he had won.

But this time, I simply replied:

"Tell Alex congratulations from me."

Then I silenced my phone and went to bed.

When I woke up the next morning, I saw two missed calls.