I've planned seven wedding ceremonies in total, and not once has my fiance, Zachary Gardner, ever shown up for it.

The first time, his adopted younger sister, Louise Foster, bursts into tears because she lost her passport at the airport. It was the dead of winter, but he dumped me by the side of the road and left me.

The second time, Louise's dog sprained its ankle. Zachary stuffed the ring back into its box and rushed to the animal hospital to accompany her.

Every time I argue with him about it, he declares nonchalantly, "We can get married anytime, but I can't let Louise be upset."

Everyone around us agrees with him, saying that we're all family anyway, so I shouldn't be so petty. None of them has seen Zachary and Louise kissing fiercely on the dance floor.

Today is the seventh wedding ceremony. Once again, he turns to leave after getting a call.

I grab the corner of his shirt and say in a choked voice, "If you leave this time, Zachary, I won't marry you anymore."

He stops in his tracks and peels off my fingers.

"Wait for me," he says before rushing off.

What he doesn't know is that this time, I won't be waiting for him any longer.

My boyfriend, Zachary Gardner, had been involved with his adopted sister, Louise Foster. He even jilted me seven times for her.

During the last wedding ceremony, when I forced him to make a final choice between me and her, he ultimately chose Louise.

When Zachary got back to the house, I was sitting dazedly on the couch, still in my wedding gown. Our eyes met, but neither one of us spoke.

"Claire."

Louise stuck her head out from behind Zachary. With a pitiful look on her face, she said to me, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called Zach on your wedding day. But I didn't expect him to love me so much that he'd actually come over to accompany me…"

Although it was an apology, every word was thick with boastful smugness.

"You can drop the act. It simply annoys me," I replied with an icy scoff.

Immediately, Louise's eyes watered, and Zachary took pity on her at once. He pulled her into his arms before turning back to me with a cold stare. "You went too far, Claire. It's just a wedding ceremony. We can just hold another one next time."

The way he could state that so matter-of-factly made me chuckle self-mockingly.

"Zachary, have you forgotten what I said to you? I said that if you walked out of the venue, there wouldn't be another wedding ceremony."

Zachary frowned as he looked at me with a flicker of disappointment in his eyes.

"Claire, it was Lulu's graduation ball today. That's an extremely important event. Her friends would've teased her for not having a date. Since I'm her older brother, I can't just ignore that."

As I exhaled heavily, my gaze landed on my phone—and the video I received from an anonymous sender.

In the video, Zachary had his arms wrapped tightly around Louise as he bent down to kiss her fiercely. Everyone cheered wildly, saying that they were the sweetest couple there. Even after hearing those comments, he didn't bother correcting them. He simply kissed her harder.

In the past, he always claimed that this was just a formality. I used to believe him. But now, I no longer wanted to fool myself or put up with this situation.

I looked Zachary dead in the eye and said coldly, "You know me. I don't say things I don't mean. I'll tell our relatives that the wedding has been called off. I'll also be moving out of the house in three days."

For a moment, Zachary froze. He knew that while I had a gentle personality, I was a decisive person who stuck to my decisions.

Once, a patient had come in with a blade pierced through his heart. Every doctor present had shaken their head, thinking he was beyond hope. I was the only one who decided to try my best till the very end to save him.

When the patient's heart started beating again, everyone was stunned. They stared at me in shock. Who would've thought that I, Claire Stewart, the quiet doctor who always stood in the corner, would suddenly burst into action when it mattered most?

Thus, for the first time, Zachary had a panicked look in his eyes. After glancing between Louise and me, he chose to come up to me. However, the moment he took his first step, Louise covered her face and began wailing.

"It's all my fault that you and Claire are arguing, Zach! Just forget about me. After all, we're not related by blood. Mom and Dad, who adopted me, are both dead anyway. It's time for me to leave…"

Zachary froze when he heard her mention their parents. He immediately turned around and began consoling Louise, "Don't cry. Please don't cry. I'll never forget about you. I love you the most in the whole wide world! Even if I have to leave everyone else, I'll never leave you."

Sneering, I got up and marched straight to my bedroom before slamming the door shut.

Zachary didn't come after me. After all, it always took a great deal of effort for him to placate Louise. By the time he came knocking on my door, I was almost fast asleep.

He let out a heavy sigh before saying impatiently, "Stop kicking up a fuss, Claire. You know that Louise is the only family I have left."

It was precisely those words, "the only family I have left", that became the reason why I was abandoned countless times.

"You're right, Zachary. She's the only family you have now. I won't be marrying you, so I won't become part of your family either."

Once I finished speaking, I opened the door and tossed out the wedding ring. As I closed the door, he instinctively stuck his hand out to stop it from closing and ended up getting his fingers trapped. He winced in pain, but I ignored his bloodied fingertips and swung the door shut anyway.

"What should we do, Zach? Claire seems to be really mad."

Joe Newman, Zachary's butler, stepped in to comfort Louise. "Don't worry, Ms. Foster. Ms. Stewart is just throwing a tantrum. I've been working here for almost five years now, and she's said similar things at least ten times. But despite that, she has never stopped wanting to marry Mr. Gardner, has she?

"In any case, her family has gone bankrupt. Life would be very hard for her if she left Mr. Gardner. You have nothing to worry about."

He kept his voice down, but I heard him anyway. Each word he uttered felt like a dagger stabbing through my heart.

Soon, Louise stopped crying, but I couldn't hold myself back from finally shedding a tear. I did the same the last six times Zachary bailed on our wedding ceremony. I would always hide in a corner and cry my heart out after dealing with the aftermath of the ruined wedding ceremony.

With each crying spell, I lost some of the anticipation I had for our wedding—and my love for Zachary as well.

Now, after the seventh time, I no longer felt any love for him. My heart was empty, but I didn't feel sad about it. Something new would always come along to fill it up.

After roughly wiping my tears away, I pulled out my phone and called Dr. Ezekiel Lane, my former superior.

"Dr. Lane, it's about that medical relief program you mentioned. I'm calling to tell you that I'm willing to join the team."

Once upon a time, I was a surgeon, and a great one at that. I ended up quitting my job because Zachary didn't like seeing me covered in blood.

At the time, Dr. Lane tried very hard to convince me to stay at the hospital. He considered me the best doctor under his management. On the day I left the hospital, he solemnly asked me, "Claire, is it worth giving up your dream just for a man?"

Back then, all I could think of was Zachary's gentle expression, so I nodded and replied, "Maybe not all men are worth it, but Zachary is."

…

Dr. Lane remained quiet on the call for a while before he asked me hesitantly, "Are you sure your boyfriend won't mind?"

Smiling as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, I replied, "I won't have a boyfriend anymore."

Without asking any further, he sent me the document detailing my acceptance into the medical relief program.

"Ms. Claire Stewart, welcome to the Sauvaine medical relief team. Your team will be departing in three days."

After closing the email, I entered my social media account and posted a short update.

"The engagement between Zachary and me has been called off. Thank you to all my friends for your support all these years."

Not long after I posted that, Zachary came barging into my room with a scowl on his face.

"Are you being serious, Claire?"

I looked up at him with a steadfast expression. Leaning against the doorframe, he said gravely, "You haven't been working for years, Claire. I bet you don't have any more savings. Won't your life just get worse if you leave me?

"Moreover, your parents adore me very much. I'm sure you wouldn't want to disappoint them."

Zachary sent threat after threat my way, each one with the goal of hitting me where it'd hurt the most. He stared fixedly at my face, his eyes glinting smugly when he saw me frown. He thought he had managed to scare me, but I had simply reached the limit of my tolerance.

"Delete that post. I can pretend as though I never saw it. And by the way, proceed with arranging another wedding ceremony. I'll go wedding gown shopping with you tomorrow," Zachary declared.

"Lulu will be tagging along as well. She majored in fashion, so she wants to check out the haute couture gowns. I'm telling you this in advance because I don't want you to make things difficult for her again tomorrow."

Once he finished speaking, he slammed the door shut so hard that the water in the glass shook.

Not long after he left, my parents bombarded me with a flood of messages. After reading the insults that filled the screen of my phone, I let out a heavy sigh. My parents did adore Zachary, but rather than liking him personally, what they liked was his wealth and status.

I could still remember the first time I brought him home to see them. They had always treated me coldly, but from that moment onward, they suddenly doted on me like a princess.

Zachary was right. Everything I had now was credited to him. That was why I cried until I fainted the first few times he skipped our wedding ceremony.

Each time, my parents would simply stand on the side with matching icy expressions. Right there, in front of all the wedding guests, they would lash out at me, calling me a worthless piece of trash who couldn't even keep my fiance in check.

"You've brought nothing but shame and humiliation to the entire Stewart family! If he backs out of the wedding one more time, I'll make sure you have hell to pay!"

I knew that my parents would make my life a living hell if I called off the wedding. The thought of this made the old wounds they inflicted on me sting once more.

Still, no matter what happened, I had to make it through the next three days. Once I left for Sauvaine, I would disappear from their world for good.

With that in mind, I got into the front passenger seat right on time the next day. Zachary had a faint smile on his face as he leaned over to buckle my seatbelt for me.

"I knew you'd relent, Claire," he said.

As he straightened up again, he kissed me on the cheek and stroked my head affectionately.

Through the rearview mirror, I caught a vindictive flicker in Louise's eyes, but I didn't think much of it. Alas, I didn't expect her to start causing trouble the moment we arrived at the bridal boutique.

At the bridal boutique, I entered the changing room to try on a wedding gown. I had just unhooked my lingerie when Louise yanked open the curtain of my changing room, revealing my back to the public. The passing customers all exclaimed when they saw me.

Covering my chest with one arm, I tugged hard on the curtain, but Louise was shockingly strong.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Claire! I just couldn't wait to see you in your wedding gown. I didn't expect this to happen. I'm truly sorry," Louise said, all while clutching the curtain tightly.

My gaze grew steadily colder. I gave her a hard shove, knocking her to the floor, before grabbing the curtain and pulling it shut.

To my shock, at the very next second, a pair of hands tightened forcefully around me.

Louise's voice rang out beside my ear. "How dare you push me, you bitch!"

She finally dropped all pretense. Inside the cramped changing room, she drove me into the corner, her nails digging painfully into my flesh. I fought back with all my strength and flung her hands off me—but then, I heard a crisp clink.

A ring rolled across the floor.

I froze.

Seeing my dazed reaction, Louise cackled and remarked, "It looks familiar, doesn't it?"

Holding back the bitterness I felt, I scoffed. "Why are you so proud about getting a hand-me-down?"

However, Louise exploded with laughter, as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"A hand-me-down?" she repeated before picking up the ring and flashing the inside of the band at me.

There was an engraving of her name, along with the date the engraving had been made—September 8th.

"I'm afraid someone else got the hand-me-down. If I recall correctly, the date on your ring is September 10th, no? Your wedding ring was just the free gift that came with mine, but you cherish it like some kind of treasure and even wear it while you sleep. It's downright hilarious," Louise said, her eyes flashing with malice as she looked at me.

"Oh, right. Do you know when he gave me this ring?"

Smirking, she continued, "It was during our seventh time doing it. He whispered in my ear, saying how good it'd be if I weren't his sister. He said he'd definitely marry me if that were the case."

With my head lowered, I listened in silence. My hands curled tightly around the gown, crumpling it. Then, I unclenched my hands and chuckled.

"So what? It's just as Zachary said. As long as you're his sister, he won't marry you. Even though you did it with him seven times and even walked down the red carpet with him at your graduation ball, I'm still the one everyone congratulates for soon becoming his wife.

"And you're nothing more than a homewrecking bitch who's sleeping around with your brother."

Louise slapped me hard across the face, her entire body shaking with rage. She lunged at me, clawing at my gown. When she couldn't rip it off, she became even more enraged. She grabbed the scissors at the side and slashed at the gown.

I fought to push her off, and our intense fight drew the attention of the people outside.

"Claire?"

Zachary's voice made Louise whip her head around.

By the time she turned back, the sharp blades of the scissors had already stabbed me in the abdomen.

Louise shrieked in fear and dropped the scissors, her hands trembling uncontrollably. The curtain was ripped open, and Zachary struck Louise, sending her sprawling onto the floor.

He crouched on the floor and pressed his hands against my wound to stop the bleeding. His eyes were red, and his voice quivered hard as he cried out, "Claire… Claire… Nothing must happen to you…"

My lips were ghostly pale. I couldn't say a word. In the end, I fainted from the pain.