"Fine, don't apologize. Then make it up to me with actions! Call everyone and tell them you're the one who doesn't want to get married!"

As if afraid I'd refuse, she hung up immediately.

Then sent me a text:

Ethan, I'm begging you, please stop making a scene. I'm just going with Reuben for his treatment. It's not like I'm never coming back to marry you. Canceling the wedding is just so we can save your dream wedding for the perfect moment.

Those familiar words stung my eyes until they burned.

The perfect moment.

I'd been hearing that for eight years. Nearly three thousand days and nights, waiting for her to marry me.

And what I got instead was her leaving to be with another man for two years.

Andrea, I'm done waiting.

Because we were never right for each other.

She unsent the message.

Then a new one came through:

What I just sent isn't something Reuben should see. He's been really sensitive since he got sick. Just do what I asked, okay? Whatever I owe you, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up after these two years! You want kids, right? When I come back, I'll give you a whole football team!

I couldn't help but laugh.

I waited two minutes. Sure enough, she unsent that message too.

So which was it? Was she lying to me, or to herself?

She'd already made up her mind to stay by Reuben's side until he recovered. Why bother promising me two years?

If his condition never improved, was I supposed to wait forever?

I shook my head, forcing those maddening hypotheticals out of my mind.

I typed a single word: OK. Hit send.

All I got back was a red exclamation mark.

She'd already deleted me. Couldn't wait to smooth things over with Reuben.

Just as well.

I didn't dwell on it. I posted on social media announcing the wedding was off.

People started asking why almost immediately.

I didn't want to stir up drama, so I stuck to Andrea's script and said it was my decision.

But my friends flooded my messages, telling me I was an idiot:

"Ethan, Andrea isn't the broke girl she used to be. Now? Every guy out there would kill for a shot with her. You call off the wedding out of nowhere, and you're basically handing your wife to someone else on a silver platter."

I didn't reply.

Because Andrea was already someone else's wife.

Shortly after I made the post, Reuben sent me a photo of their marriage certificate.

His tone dripped with smugness as he thanked me for stepping aside.

Big thanks for the assist, bro! Andrea was originally going to come with me as my girlfriend, but to make it easier to sign medical paperwork on my behalf, she pulled some strings and fast-tracked a marriage license!

I didn't bother responding. Deleted the message, blocked his number. One smooth motion.

My phone buzzed again. My mother, calling to chew me out.

"Are you out of your mind? The fruit's right there on the branch and you won't pick it! What kind of stunt are you pulling? Wait too long and she might not want to marry you at all!"

A quiet laugh escaped me.

"What if she's the one who doesn't want to marry me?"

She went silent for a beat, then tore into me harder than before.

"Then you obviously did something wrong! Swallow your pride and sweet-talk her. You spent all those years helping her build her empire. Don't you dare walk away with nothing to show for it!"

Eight years with Andrea. She always said the same thing: career first, then family.

But when she finally made it, giving me a family wasn't what she had in mind.

It wasn't that I hadn't tried. Trying just didn't matter.

For eight years, I gave up my own dreams to help her build her company. She feasted while I survived on scraps, and I never complained. All I wanted was to marry her, to stand beside her as her husband where the whole world could see.

But she terminated three pregnancies rather than walk down the aisle.

Every time, the same reason: the timing wasn't right. She didn't want a child to suffer through the hard years.

I loved her. So no matter how much it gutted me, whatever she said, I gave her what she wanted.

Like tonight, when she said she wanted to stay by Reuben's side while he got treatment.

She was the same woman who used to complain about him following her around like a lovesick puppy. She'd even said his affection made her sick.

In that moment, even though my heart felt like it was being carved open, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Maybe it was better this way. At least I wouldn't have to keep waiting in the dirt for her to finally marry me.

My mom was still rattling on about how to win a woman back, but the grievances lodged in my chest suddenly lost their will to be spoken.

"Mom, the wedding's off. I'm never marrying her."

I hung up and called the wedding planner to cancel tomorrow's ceremony.

The emcee paused for a beat before speaking.

"Ms. Rowe already called about this. But she asked us to keep the decorations and banners in storage for two years. That's going to be difficult. Most of those materials are single-use."

It clicked instantly. She'd picked that fight on purpose, just so I'd be the one fielding all the awkward questions.

And she still believed I'd wait for her, like those cheap decorations gathering dust in a warehouse. Two years. Just sitting there.

"Throw it all out. Even if it weren't disposable, it'd be rotted after two years."

Just like her love for me.

It would fade with time until there was nothing left.

After hanging up, I pulled up my mother-in-law's number and felt a headache building behind my eyes.

Edna Rowe despised Reuben. If she found out her daughter had already gotten a marriage license with him, she'd probably have a stroke.

I took a deep breath and wired the $120,000 dowry back to her account. Every cent.

I counted to three in my head.

The phone rang.

"Ethan, why did you send the dowry back?"

"Mom, Andrea and I aren't getting married right now. Maybe in a couple of years."

Mrs. Rowe was sharp. She caught the lie before it fully left my mouth.

"Did Andrea do something to you? I'm going over there right now. The wedding is happening tomorrow, and that's final!"

"Mrs. Rowe, the wedding really can't go forward..."

But she'd already hung up.

That was Andrea's problem now. She could figure out how to handle her own mother.

And I needed to pack and leave.

The apartment was still dressed for a celebration. Every detail was something I'd arranged with my own hands, each one a small monument to the happy life I'd imagined after the wedding.

Now every single one of them felt like a blade in my chest.

There wasn't much to take. I couldn't even fill one suitcase.

But there was plenty to throw away.

By the time I finished, I noticed Andrea had called me several times.

Didn't take a genius to figure out why. She wanted to know why I hadn't handled her mother.

I set the apartment key on the entryway table, grabbed the last framed wedding portrait, and headed for the door.

I walked straight into Andrea.

The portrait slipped from my hands and shattered on the floor, splitting into pieces.

A shard sliced across the top of my foot. Blood welled up immediately.

Andrea shoved Reuben behind her, shielding him, and glared at me.

"Ethan, what the hell? Didn't you see Reuben standing there? What if you'd hurt him?"

She didn't see the blood pooling on my foot. Instead, she crouched down and carefully picked a speck of glass no bigger than a pea off Reuben's shoe.

I had no interest in watching her dote on another man. I grabbed my suitcase and walked past them.

She caught the suitcase in her peripheral vision and scrambled to her feet, grabbing my arm.

"Ethan, where are you going?"

I was about to answer when her phone rang.

I saw the caller ID. Her mother.

She picked up, irritation bleeding through her voice.

"Fine! I know! It's not cancelled! I'll smooth things over with him! Don't worry!"

She hung up and turned to me.

"Ethan, my mom says the wedding has to go ahead tomorrow as planned."

"I don't want to upset her, so let's keep everything on track. But can you be the one who runs? Fly to France. I'll book your ticket and everything."

"My mom adores you. If you're the runaway groom, she'll insist I go after you. That way I can pretend I'm overseas chasing you down."

I stared, wide-eyed, unable to believe these words had come from the woman I'd loved for years.

But then I remembered she'd gotten a marriage license just to accompany Reuben for his medical treatment.

And suddenly, nothing she said or did seemed surprising anymore.

I was leaving anyway. Might as well do her this one last favor.

"Fine."

Maybe it was how easily I agreed that finally snapped Andrea out of her tunnel vision.

She noticed the shattered wedding photo on the floor for the first time.

Then she noticed the blood smeared across the top of my foot.

Her eyes went red in an instant, and she rushed back to the bedroom to grab the first aid kit.

The moment she was gone, Reuben lifted his chin and sneered at me.

"Ethan, you're really pathetic, you know that? You knew I was already Andrea's husband, and you still tried to go through with the wedding."

"So what if her mother doesn't like me? She can fight it all she wants. Doesn't change the fact that Andrea calls me her husband."

"And you? You're nothing but a homewrecker in everyone's eyes."

"Don't bother dreaming she'll divorce me and marry you in two years, either. Because..."

He tugged his collar to the side, revealing a trail of marks on his skin, his smile dripping with smugness.

"She told me I'm the only one who's ever made her feel true ecstasy."

"Oh, and you probably don't know this. Our first time was the night of your birthday."

I lowered my gaze to hide the tears that surged without warning.

So Andrea had betrayed me long ago.

And she'd played me for a fool, telling me to wait two more years.

My thirtieth birthday was the first time Andrea had ever thrown me a real celebration. But Reuben had shamelessly confessed his feelings to her that night.

She'd torn him apart in front of everyone, humiliating him so thoroughly he couldn't show his face.

But on the drive home, she'd dropped me off halfway up the hill, claiming something urgent had come up.

The next day, she came back full of apologies.

And proposed to me.

Said she wanted to give me a dream wedding.

I'd waited eight years for that moment.

The joy crushed every doubt, every uneasy feeling I'd been carrying.

But that same night, she forgot to lock the bathroom door. When I walked in, I saw the scratches down her back.

Fresh scratches. I demanded to know what happened.

She didn't even flinch. Said she'd been scratched by a cat.

Even pulled up her rabies vaccination record as proof.

I forced myself to believe her.

But my gut told me something was wrong. Even while planning the wedding, none of it felt real.

A voice in the back of my mind kept whispering: The only reason she finally agreed to marry me was guilt. Compensation for what she'd done behind my back.

I buried my head in the sand, too afraid to confirm it.

But I couldn't let it go, either. So I started following her in secret.

When I discovered that her so-called client meetings were actually visits to Reuben's apartment, I stopped digging. I just waited for her to come clean.

That was why I didn't press her when she skipped the rehearsal.

When she texted saying she needed to stay with Reuben for his treatment, I didn't object.

"Excuse me."

I had no interest in wasting another word on Reuben. I just wanted to leave.

But the second Andrea stepped out with the first aid kit, he grabbed my hand and threw himself backward into the pile of broken glass.

A sickening crunch.

Blood. On Reuben's hands. Pouring from his mouth.

He slurred his words, staring up at me with wide, accusing eyes.

"Ethan, I know you don't like me, but why would you push me?"

Andrea saw the blood and lunged forward, shoving me to the ground.

"Reuben, don't be scared. I'm taking you to the hospital right now."

She hauled him to his feet and rushed for the door.

Before she left, she turned and fixed me with a look cold enough to freeze.

"Ethan, I never thought you could be this vicious. Attacking a sick man. How could you?"

"If anything happens to him, there is no future for us."