Chapter 1

The night we were supposed to pick out my wedding dress, Ethan never showed.

When I arrived at his office, it was packed with people.

"Ethan, congratulations! Won the case and won the girl back."

"Olivia, your childhood sweetheart—she found her way back to you after all."

"So does this mean your wedding with Emma is postponed indefinitely?"

In the center of the crowd, Ethan's voice was cold. Not a trace of warmth.

"Don't compare Emma to Olivia. I can't survive without Olivia. Emma's different."

I stood outside the door and tossed the wine I'd brewed for him by hand into the trash.

Ethan, I never wanted the kind of love that threatens to kill you.

As I walked out of the firm, my phone rang. Ethan.

His voice was low, tinged with apology.

"Emma, there's a celebration at the firm tonight. Can we push back the dress fitting?"

I watched Olivia walk through the front doors and smiled softly.

"Sure. No need to go at all."

On the other end, I could hear his relief. He even laughed.

"My Emma, always so thoughtful. Pick whatever style you like. As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

I'd heard that line a thousand times.

I used to think it was trust—his way of making me feel safe.

Now I understood. It was because he simply didn't care.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Alright. I'll take care of it."

After I hung up, I canceled the dress appointment.

I didn't feel an ounce of reluctance.

I'd never once doubted my feelings for Ethan. And I'd always believed we loved each other.

Ethan and I met in a brewing room.

That day, he stood beside an oak barrel, his profile impossibly handsome.

From then on, every wine I made carried a new flavor—something called love.

I started chasing after him, bottle after bottle of my latest creations.

"Ethan, I just brewed this. Try it."

"Ethan, smell this—isn't it amazing?"

"Ethan, do you like this one?"

Every day I flitted around him like an excited little bird, chattering nonstop.

Slowly, we started talking more, drinking together.

He tasted my experiments without complaint.

And I was more than happy to be his companion in loneliness.

Until one drunken night, I said those words.

"Ethan, I like you."

That single sentence ended thirty days of ambiguity.

My love had been the driving force from the very start.

And Ethan was like a puppet without a soul.

He mechanically agreed to everything I asked. Even "I love you" seemed like something he only said because I'd said it first.

But I was too happy then. I thought that was what unconditional devotion looked like.

It wasn't until I saw Olivia that I finally understood.

For the entire three years we were together, Ethan had been searching for another woman's shadow in me.

I was nothing more than a placeholder for his loneliness.

I was about to drive away when my phone started buzzing with messages from an unknown number.

"Hey Emma, Ethan's really busy right now. Could you bring a couple bottles of wine over?"

"He specifically asked for the Heart's Memory blend."

"He's always told me your wine reminds him of me. Thank you for keeping his memory of me alive these three years."

Heart's Memory was a wine Ethan and I had created together.

I handled the technique. He handled the tasting.

I went through twenty attempts before I earned his first genuine smile.

Later, Ethan named it Heart's Memory.

He said it was the feeling of holding someone in your heart so completely that you could never forget them.

I'd thought he was describing our love, so I kept every bottle stored away like treasure.

I never imagined that the person he couldn't forget was never me.

I held my phone, hands shaking so badly I couldn't type a single word.

This one-sided love affair should have ended long ago.