Chapter 3

With Vincent's help, I moved out that very night.

When Ethan discovered I was gone, the messages started pouring in.

【I know you're upset, but you really can't pressure me like this. Marriage is a big deal. You just announce a wedding out of nowhere—I'm not mentally prepared for that.】

【Olivia, it's not that I don't want to marry you, but now really isn't a good time. Jessica hasn't been doing well lately and she needs me around. Can't you just wait a little longer?】

【Olivia, I'm serious. I'm not ready for marriage at all. Pushing me like this is only going to make me resent you.】

And so it went, all the way until the day before the wedding. I didn't reply to a single message.

But that evening, Jessica sent me a video.

I tapped it open. The screen first showed a lavish hotel suite.

The lighting was dim. White sheets lay tangled across the bed. A champagne flute on the nightstand was still half full.

Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the midnight ocean of Miami stretched into darkness.

The camera panned slowly.

Ethan appeared in the frame.

He sat on the sofa, shirt collar hanging open, hair falling across his forehead in disarray.

Jessica was curled against his chest, wearing a thin-strapped slip dress, her body draped over him like silk.

She looked drunk—but the eyes that met the camera were perfectly lucid.

She reached up deliberately, hooked a finger around Ethan's tie, and pulled him toward her, inch by inch.

Ethan didn't resist. His hand rested on her waist.

Jessica tilted her face up and kissed him on the lips.

The frame held for two seconds.

Then she looked straight into the camera. The corner of her mouth curled into the smile of a victor.

The video ended there.

Her call came in right after.

"Did you watch it? Ethan's cheating on you. If even that isn't enough to make you cancel the wedding, then you really are something else."

"If I were you, I'd be dead from rage by now. You'd fit right into the Victorian era—the kind of devoted wife who watches her husband hold another woman and keeps smiling through it all."

My voice didn't waver. "Still better than being the mistress who never gets a ring."

Jessica hung up in a fury.

On the day of the wedding, I was already in my gown.

Guests filed in one after another, offering their congratulations.

I smiled and thanked each of them.

Ethan walked in wearing a tracksuit. When he saw me, a flash of genuine awe passed through his eyes.

"I'll give you this—you picked a beautiful dress on your own."

But within seconds, Jessica appeared at his side in a formal gown, hooking her arm through his.

Her makeup was immaculate. She wore a pale pink dress.

The guests exchanged bewildered glances.

A few seconds later, murmurs rippled through the room.

"Isn't that the groom? Why isn't he in a tux?"

"Who's that woman with him? Why is she on his arm?"

"This is Olivia's wedding, isn't it? Why did Ethan bring another woman?"

A fiancé in athletic wear with another woman on his arm, while the bride stood alone in her wedding dress on the opposite side of the room—no matter how you looked at it, something was off.

Ethan ignored the questioning stares and launched into his stiff explanation.

"Let me make one thing clear. There's nothing going on between me and Jessica."

"That video you saw of us looking intimate—we staged the whole thing. We just wanted you to call off the wedding. Didn't expect you'd actually go through with it."

Jessica nodded beside him, her voice saccharine-sweet—a completely different person from the venom of the night before.

"That's right, Olivia. The whole thing was my idea. I just wanted to test how much you really care about Ethan."

"The fact that you watched that video and those photos without even flinching—your devotion to Ethan is truly admirable."

I looked at the two of them and smiled faintly.

"I don't care what you do anymore."

Ethan sensed something was off. A flicker of panic crossed his face.

"Jessica is my stepsister. Just like Vincent is my friend. They're both important people in my life."

"You can't marry me and then demand I ignore my stepsister's feelings. I told you, Jessica hasn't been well lately. I need to spend more time with her. Can't we just postpone the wedding instead of canceling it?"

"You know how much I value relationships."

"Family, friendship—they all matter to me."

"I can't just abandon my stepsister because I'm getting married."

I looked at his open, guileless expression and couldn't help but point something out.

"Ethan."

"You keep saying family is important. Friends are important."

"But haven't you noticed that your most important friend isn't by your side today?"

"Take a guess where he's going to show up."