To save my boyfriend, I had to sacrifice my leg. So, he promised me he would give me a grand wedding. Yet, the wedding never came, he kept postponing it over and over again by saying he was busy.

One day, I stumbled across a post on Instagram, that said, “My husband’s ex lost a leg saving him and now she is brazen enough to force him to marry her."

"My husband actually felt nauseated every time he saw her stump but he still had to keep her by his side out of guilt."

I did not think too much of it and brush it off as a fluke, that was until I received a wedding dress that was not quiet in the right size for me.

——

When Jimmy Hill came home, I was sitting anxiously by the bed. I dressed in that beautifully designed wedding dress that I had received from Delivery Express this morning.

I was so excited when I first unwrapped it. I thought he was finally ready to marry me and wanted to surprise me. 

Yet, when I tried it on, I realized the dress was a bit small.

The lace on its edge rubbed against my stump, causing my wound to start hurting as hell.

I did not want to ruin the moment, so I pushed through and kept wearing it. Then I sent Jimmy a message, asking him to come home early, but he did not answer it. He even hung up on me when I tried to call him.

I waited from noon until late at night but he never showed. 

Finally, I heard sounds from outside the door. So, I grabbed my crutches while struggling to hold my body up because I wanted the first thing he saw was me in the wedding dress.

Before I could get up, I overheard his voice. It was tinged with indulgence and humor, "You sent it to the wrong address? You silly pig! Don’t worry, I won’t let her wear it. She’s way too fat to put it on."

I froze in place because I was too stunned to move.

In the next second, the door opened and Jimmy stumbled in. He was reeking of alcohol.

He was too absorbed talking on his phone and didn’t notice me standing there. He was too unsteady as a result he knocked me off the balance, made me fall to the floor and sent my crutches, which I used to support my body, skidded out of my reach.

As I fumbled to reach it, Jimmy suddenly extended his hand and grabbed my wrist to pull me up roughly.

Through his drunken blurry eyes, he looked at my disheveled appearance and sneered, "A cripple like you should stay in bed and sleep. What are you doing standing here?"

As I held back the tears from pouring out, I raised my head and looked at the man I had loved for ten years.

His words pierced me like a knife, making my heart bleed.

The Instagram feed that I had read earlier echoed in my mind. It threatened to shatter my last shreds of self-control.                                                                                                   

The questions burned on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back.

After a moment of silence, I forced down my doubts and gave him a small, strained smile. "It's nothing, I just wanted to change into something else."

Only then did he notice the wedding dress I was wearing.

A flicker of irritation crossed his face and his gaze filled with mockery. "Debbie Marshall, you’re no young girl anymore. Besides, don’t you think wearing something like that with… your condition is a bit ridiculous?"

It felt like my heart was being crushed in his grip, the pain so intense I could barely breathe.

My tears fell down in large drops.

Without even bothered looking at me again, Jimmy pushed me and walked past me into the bathroom.

He slammed the door shut with a loud bang, making my entire body tremble.

I looked at the crippled leg in a daze. As I recalled the disdain in his eyes, shame welled up in me.

Turned out the gift was not meant for me and I was nothing more than a clown who wanted attention.

I silently got out of the wedding dress and changed my clothes. I wrapped my body tightly in a blanket.

When I thought Jimmy recent indifferent and disdain in his eyes, I could not hold back any longer so I covered my face and sobbed.

Be the time Jimmy emerged from the bathroom, I had already sleeping. The ill-fitting wedding dress had been folded and put back into its box on the nightstand.

Without a second thought, Jimmy picked up the box and with his face twisted with disgust, threw it out of the room.

When he turned around, he met with my red swollen teary eyes.

He frowned a bit and pulled a bracelet from his jacket pocket then slipped it onto my wrist without a word.

"I drank too much earlier, so my tone was harsh," he said. His voice sounded more annoyed than apologetic. "Take this bracelet as a peace offering. Are you happy now?"

He looked down at me. There was a trace of annoyance in his voice, when he said, "Wipe your face! Don't you know you look like a mess when you are crying? Your face swelled like a sow. Don't you know you're making me sick?”

Though I had prepared myself for this, his look of disgust cut deeper than I’d expected.

I raised my hand and watched the bracelet glint under the harsh light. Within minutes, my skin began to break out in a red rash.

I calmly took off the bracelet and was about to throw the bracelet into the trash when Jimmy's complexion turned grim. It seemed he thought I was in a foul mood over what had happened earlier.

"Debbie, don’t push your luck. If you keep acting like this, you’ll see where it gets you," he warned.

With a bitter smile, I held up my wrist, to show him the red rash. "Did you forget I’m allergic to metal? I’d rather not end up in the hospital."

His breathing grew heavy and after a moment’s pause, he suddenly exploded in anger, "What’s with that attitude? Do you think I gave you fake jewelry on purpose?"

"I thought you’d just lost a leg, but it seems you lost your mind too. Maybe I should take you in for a full check-up and see if there’s a pig brain in there."

He did not care in the slightest whether I was feeling embarrassed or not. His cold gaze fell on my swollen, scarred leg.

"What right do you have to act up? You’re a cripple and not only do I support you, but I’m supposed to indulge you too?"

He crossed his arms while looking at me from the side as if waiting for me to break down, to cry and beg him to forgive me as I’d done so many times before.

Barely able to disguise the tremble in my voice, I finally reminded him, "I lost my leg because I saved you."

Hearing this, anger flashed in Jimmy’s eyes as he retorted, "What do you mean by that? You think I owe you endless gratitude for that?"

I took a deep breath, ready to respond, but his phone suddenly rang.

He glanced at it and in an instant, his expression softened, his face radiating warmth.

After a few quick taps on the screen, his eyes turned icy again as he looked back at me. "Think about your attitude. I work hard to support you, I do not appreciate to come home and be treated like this."

He threw me a final, cold look before slamming the door on his way out.

He hadn’t even gone far when I heard him laugh. His laughter was a genuine, unrestrained one that I hadn’t heard in so long. Around me, he always wore a mask of indifference, his rare smiles were more of a begrudging charity than anything else.

With trembling hands, I picked up my phone. The moment I opened my notifications, I saw a new alert on Instagram that caught my eye.

Just a few minutes ago, a blogger just posted another update. "My husband’s ex actually tried to seduce him by putting on my wedding dress. He was so disgusted he told her to take it off!"

"That shameless woman messed up my favorite dress, but luckily, my husband promised to take me shopping for a new one. Since he bought me a custom-made bracelet worth fifteen hundred dollars today, I’ll graciously forgive him."

When I looked at the picture of the bracelet and noticed it was the same as the one Jimmy gave me, a chilling suspicion crept over me.

It was becoming impossible to ignore the signs. The person she said was her "husband” was none other than Jimmy, the man I had risked everything to save, the man I was supposed to marry.

That night, Jimmy did not return to our bedroom.

Soft laughter from the guest room next door that penetrated through the walls, drove me into a restless, sleepless state. I did fall asleep until just before dawn and even then, it was a fitful sleep.

It was not until dawn, that Jimmy walked in and kicked me to wake me up without hesitation.

"Are you planning to sleep all day? Don’t forget you’re a housewife. Or are you waiting for me to serve you breakfast?"

The blow landed right on my injured leg and I couldn’t stifle a gasp of pain.

Only when he saw me grimace, did he seem to notice something went wrong. Frowning, he pulled back the blanket, his eyes were met with a swollen and red stump.

"Debbie! How did you hurt your leg like this?” he exclaimed.

Before I could respond to his question, he bent down and lifted me into his arms. "Never mind, I'll take you to the hospital now to have it checked out.”

As I curled up in his arms, I caught a glimpse of his worried expression. For a fleeting moment, guilt tugged at my heart.

Maybe I had misunderstood him. After all, a similar dress didn’t necessarily mean anything and maybe all of this really was just a coincidence.

While I was thinking about it, Jimmy carried me downstairs and placed me in the car. All that time his phone kept vibrating again and again without stopping.

As soon as I arrived at the hospital, I was whisked into the emergency room. Jimmy did not follow me inside. Instead, he chose to stay in the hallway while tapping his cell phone with tender eyes.

While waiting for the examination, I could not stop myself from taking out my phone and opening the blogger's homepage.

The moment I saw her latest post, I was devastated,

In the latest update, she posted a screenshot of a chat history with captions that said, "That disgusting woman faked another excuse about her leg just to drag my husband to the hospital. However, he promised me he would ditch her and come straight to me."

Even though the WhatsApp profile picture had been deliberately censored, I recognized it immediately. Jimmy had recently switched his avatar to a cartoon character.

When I teased him about it, calling it childish, he’d snapped at me, "You wouldn't understand. It's called staying young at heart. I'm not like you, who can only spend the rest of your life lying in bed."

So, in order to make him happy, I looked on the internet to find the same picture and changed my WhatsApp avatar to match his, only to be ordered to change it back immediately.

He told me, "You are just a cripple girl who is stuck at home all the time, how can you have the nerve to act like a young girl? You're embarrassing me! Stop it, will you?

I had blamed myself at the time, but now I understood. He had made me change it because it was a couple’s avatar and I didn’t deserve to have the same one with him.

I forced myself to finish the examination, but by the time I came out, Jimmy had already vanished.

After he rejected my calls multiple times, it finally sank in. The man I had loved for a decade had betrayed me completely, both in body and in heart.