3: 3

3

I didn't stop at a pharmacy for bandages or ointment. Pain on my skin was easier to bear than pain in my heart.

I went back to our "wedding apartment," planning to pack up and leave.

For seven years, to play the ordinary girl who matched him, the couture gowns, the designer bags, the jewelry, all of it had disappeared from my world.

I had just stuffed a few wrinkled T-shirts into my suitcase when I heard a key in the door.

Gavin was back.

He saw me packing and didn't look surprised at all. If anything, a mocking little smile touched his lips.

"This routine again? Please."

"Karen, every time you throw a fit and run off, don't you always come slinking back on your own?"

"What is it this time? You want some excuse to make me find you in the little park downstairs, hold you, and coax you home?"

He walked over and looked down at me from on high.

"Fine, throw your tantrum if you want. But I don't have time today to play these hard-to-get games of yours."

"Marci's not doing well. The doctor says she's had a severe shock and needs to rest quietly. I was on my way to the South Side to buy her some pastries and passed by, just to see if you were back. Good to know you're fine. She's going to be in the hospital at least two weeks, so don't bother pulling some stunt to make me come looking for you."

I didn't answer him. I kept putting my things into the suitcase.

There wasn't much. One case was enough to hold it all.

Seven years, and I hadn't bought myself a single new piece of clothing. Gavin had never bought me any either.

When he saw I stayed silent, he finally started to lose patience.

"Karen, you're a grown woman. Why are you still throwing childish tantrums?"

My heart was ash. I didn't have the strength to fight with him anymore.

I pulled up my suitcase and said one last thing to him:

"Keep your Marci in line."

Then I walked out without looking back.

His cursing followed me down the hall, and I treated it as noise I would simply never have to hear again.

By the time I reached the ground floor, the sky had opened into a downpour.

I'd left in such a hurry I'd forgotten my keys, and the stairwell door had locked behind me.

My umbrella had broken a while ago, so I could only let the cold rain hammer down on me.

The cut on my arm hurt more in that moment.

Just then, my phone buzzed.

It was a video call from Marcella.

I answered, and there was Marcella's face, done up in careful no-makeup makeup.

She was lying in a high-end VIP hospital room, without a trace left of the fragile girl who'd fainted earlier.

"Karen, sweetie, Gavin was worried I wouldn't like the hospital food, so he drove all the way to the South Side to get me my favorite pastries."

"Those have a two-hour line, you know. He pushed back an entire senior management meeting for me. Oh, Karen, it's raining where you are."

I looked at her coldly.

"Was there something you needed? If not, I'm hanging up."

Marcella leaned close to the camera and lowered her voice, every word dripping with gloating.

"I just wanted to see what you look like right now. Aren't you furious that I slashed that wedding dress? I'll tell you the truth, I did it on purpose! I just like your things, Gavin included!"

"Those other wedding dresses you bought before? I dirtied and ruined those on purpose too. I didn't want you two to get married, so what? I met Gavin first. What gives you the right to be with him all these years?!"

She turned the camera, showing a velvet jewelry box.

It was the wedding diamond ring Gavin had said last month he'd buy for me.

"See this? Gavin already gave me this ring to play with yesterday."

"Seven years with him, and so what?! All it takes is two little tears from me and he swings right over to my side!"

There it was, her true face at last.

But I felt no anger, only how absurd it all was.

4: 4

4

The rain came down harder, cold water soaking me through in an instant.

It took forever to flag down a cab.

I hurried to climb in, and my foot slipped. I went down hard.

Then a violent, wrenching pain tore through my belly.

I looked down and saw blood running with the rain down my thighs, spreading red across the ground.

“Oh God, miss, you're bleeding so much!”

The driver panicked and jumped out, helping me into the back seat.

“Hurry, I'll get you to a hospital!”

In the ER, the doctor shook his head with regret.

“You were almost two months pregnant. Threatened miscarriage, plus a bad fall like that, and the baby couldn't be saved. Go handle the paperwork and prep for the D&C.”

The news hit me like a thunderclap.

For seven years I had dreamed of having a child with Gavin, a child that was ours.

And now the baby was gone before it had seen this world even once.

I dragged my weak, ruined body down the corridor toward the operating room, alone.

But as I passed the VIP room at the bend in the hall, I saw Marcella and Gavin.

I shook my head and forced myself past through the pain.

Gavin was sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing at her with tender concern.

“Gavin, do you think Karen's still angry?”

Marcella's voice was soft and fragile as ever, but there was a flicker of triumph at the bottom of her eyes.

“What if she really won't ever talk to you again?”

Gavin let out a cold snort and lifted a pastry to her lips.

“Who cares. After all these years, when has she ever not come crawling back once she's done throwing her fit? An ordinary clerk with no family, no background, marrying me was already above her station.”

“Let her stew a few days and she'll realize she was wrong.”

Marcella ate the pastry and nodded sweetly.

Then she lowered her eyes, and her voice caught, thick with tears.

“Gavin, actually, I just talked to my therapist······”

“Ever since that scumbag ex hurt me, I've been so scared. I feel like I might never be able to love anyone again for the rest of my life, might never dare to marry. But what girl doesn't dream of putting on a wedding dress and walking down the aisle?”

She clutched at the hem of Gavin's clothes, pitiful, and pleaded:

“The doctor said if I could just wear a dress I love and have a ceremony, maybe it would finally undo this knot inside me.”

“Gavin, could you play out a wedding with me? Just to make my one dream in this life come true. Please?”

Gavin's brow creased. Some part of him knew it was absurd.

He was, after all, about to marry Karen on Valentine's Day.

How could he stage a wedding with Marcella?

But then he looked at Marcella's face, so heartbreakingly forlorn.

And at the scars on her wrist, where she'd once cut herself in her depression. In the end, he agreed.

“All right. I'll give you the grandest wedding there is, and make your dream come true. I just hope this time your depression finally gets better.”

The way he saw it, it was nothing but make-believe, a ceremony with no legal weight.

Karen loved him so much. A little coaxing afterward and she was sure to understand.

Three days later, at the city's finest five-star hotel.

To make Marcella happy, Gavin had booked out the entire rooftop garden and brought in countless society guests and press.

The romantic wedding march began.

Marcella made her grand entrance in the couture gown she'd seized from Karen and altered slightly for herself.

But standing at the front, watching Marcella come toward him step by step,

Gavin was struck by a sudden, groundless surge of panic and a pounding heart, as if he were about to lose something.

And just as the officiant smiled and prepared to announce the exchange of rings,

the ballroom's carved double doors were shoved open from outside with a bang.

Founder of the world's top couture house, a godfather of the fashion world, the master designer himself——

Bryce Delgado strode in with more than a dozen bodyguards in black.

The whole hall fell dead silent.

Gavin froze a moment, then hurried forward, flattered and eager.

“Mr. Delgado, you came in person? This is truly an honor for me···”

Bryce didn't so much as glance at him. He walked straight up to Marcella.

“Take off that gown.”