Chapter 1

Today was our eighteenth wedding ceremony this month.

My fiancée had ditched me at the altar seventeen times before.

Every single time we reached the ring exchange, her first love would show up right on cue.

He would gaze at her with longing eyes, and she could never bear to turn him down.

Then, looking guilty, she would say to me, "Ethan, I'm so sorry. I'm just not ready yet."

And right after that, they would hold hands and walk out together, leaving me behind to face the whispers and ridicule of the crowd.

At today's wedding, her first love showed up again, right on schedule.

I lowered my head with a self-mocking smirk. Since she treated my love like garbage, I was taking every bit of it back.

Beating her to the punch, I spoke up first.

"Well then, congratulations to the happy couple!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, the guests broke into hushed chatter.

They looked Alyssa and her first love, Julian, up and down, dropping snide remarks.

Alyssa cared about saving face more than anything else in the world.

Furious, she slapped me hard across the face.

"Ethan! Are you crazy? What the hell are you saying?"

I had spoiled Alyssa rotten.

Whenever she was in a bad mood, she took it out on me—anytime, anywhere.

In her eyes, only she mattered. She never cared about anyone else's feelings, especially not mine.

I lost count of how many times she blew minor things completely out of proportion.

She would curse me out and hit me.

Then the very next day, she would cry to her mother, whining that I was mistreating her.

All I could ever do was apologize over and over.

Yet she never let things go easily. Back home, she would demand that I get on my knees and beg for forgiveness, threatening to break up with me if I refused.

Desperate not to lose her, I complied every time.

Her demands only escalated. Eventually, she made me slap myself while kneeling.

Watching me humiliated on the floor, she would pull out her phone and record it, laughing.

"Aww, look who it is," she would mock through the camera. "Who's on their knees apologizing to me right now?"

The woman I loved most crushed my dignity under her heel with her own hands.

Snapping out of the memory, I looked at her haughty face and couldn't help saying, "What? Is it wrong for me to just step aside and let true love win?"

Alyssa rushed forward, pointing a finger in my face and screaming.

"What do you mean, 'let true love win'?! How many times do I have to tell you that Julian and I are just friends? Why are you always so petty?"

"Did you even consider my feelings before opening your mouth? What are the guests going to think of me?"

"Men really are fickle. You're so selfish now!"

With that, she slammed her bouquet onto the floor.

Her words made me chuckle in disbelief. The abuser was playing the victim.

Did I really change out of nowhere?

Nothing changes overnight.

Looking back, countless moments of disappointment and grievance had quietly stacked up until they finally forced me to change.

I stared at Alyssa coldly and retorted.

"I'm selfish? Did you forget you ran out on me seventeen times? Why didn't you care about what the guests thought of me back then?"

Alyssa froze, realizing she had no ground to stand on.

She tried to backtrack, stammering, "I just... I wasn't ready yet! Why do you keep pushing me? Does making me look like this make you happy?"

It was almost funny. There probably wasn't a more pathetic guy on earth than me.

I actually tolerated my fiancée running out on our wedding seventeen times—hand in hand with her ex, no less.

Every compromise I made only earned me another stab in the back.

At that thought, my heart turned completely cold.

"If that's how it is, we're done."

"Ethan! Do you have any idea what you're saying?!" She stared at me in shock. "I'm telling you right now, even if you beg me on your knees later, I will never take you back!"

"Fine by me. Let's see who breaks first."

I turned and walked away from the circus alone.