My fiancé canceled our wedding for the ninth time after losing a bet to his pretty assistant.

I seriously told him that if he canceled it a tenth time, I'd marry someone else.

But he only chuckled, "Becca, you even gave me one of your kidneys. How could you possibly marry anyone else? Besides, who else would be willing to marry someone as sickly as you?"

On the day of our tenth scheduled wedding, his beautiful assistant sent him a one-way plane ticket to the US. She bet that if he could find her within an hour, she would stay and attend the wedding.

Hudson's expression turned grim as she gripped the ticket. Then, he ripped the corsage off his chest and rushed out of the hall.

An hour later, Lola Reed shared a photo on social media of the two of them hugging in the center of the crowded airport.

The caption read: Someone who cares about you will find you at a glance among thousands of people.

I quietly took off my wedding dress and dialed a long-forgotten number. "Samuel Jacobson, does your promise to marry me still count?"

I could hear a suppressed excitement came from across the line. "It counts. It's always counted. As long as it's you, it'll count for a lifetime."

——

The people in the hall looked at each other and as wealthy nobles, they all felt embarrassed.

Some even began to speak up for me. "This is the tenth wedding already. Mr. Lenart is being too reckless. How can he keep abandoning Miss Herrera for just a junior assistant?"

"That's right. Miss Herrera treated him so well. She even gave him a kidney and yet her father kicked her out because of it."

They looked at me sympathetically as they spoke. Even outsiders knew Hudson had taken his joke too far.

Hudson's mother came running over, grabbed my arm and said urgently, "Becca, hurry, explain to everyone. Just say something urgent came up at the company and he had to handle it. Invite the guests for the meal first."

I looked indifferently at my mother-in-law, who kept saying she treated me like her own daughter. I felt suffocated.

"Aunt Sandy, do you think everyone else is stupid? I've already said this nine times. Do I really need to say it a tenth?"

Aunt Sandy's expression darkened as she spoke with displeasure, "You've said it nine times already. Does it really matter if you say it one more time? You keep saying you love Hudson, but you're unwilling to say anything. That's just too fake."

She spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I still remember the past clearly. For two full years since hiring Dr. Lola Reed, an overseas graduate, as his assistant, our wedding has been repeatedly postponed.

He always accepted Lola's bet on the wedding day and each time he lost completely.

On our first marriage, he lost a big bet and ended up giving away the venue to Lola for her birthday.

The people who attended the wedding that day were almost shocked when they saw her birthday photo on the big screen.

At our second wedding, after losing a dice game, he downed an entire bottle of high-proof liquor and ended up in the hospital.

The third time … and so on.

Every time, he said embarrassedly, "Becca, it's all for the company. Lola is exceptionally talented. If I want to keep her, I have no choice but to accept the consequence. I can't let her think I, as a boss, am a liar."

The thought made my heart ache. They played games repeatedly on our wedding day and he never won once. Did they really think I was a fool?

I recalled the last time they bet on who could sprint a hundred meters and snatch my wedding dress first.

Hudson, standing at six feet tall with broad shoulders and long legs, stumbled and fell with a thud a meter away from the finish line. Meanwhile, Lola snatched the wedding dress just a step ahead and exclaimed joyfully, "Mr. Lenart, you always lose to me. Are you deliberately not wanting to marry Miss Herrera?"

"How about I wear this wedding dress and blow your mind?" Lola offered.

That day, Hudson's eyes sparkled as he said affectionately, "Fine. Since you won, the dress is yours."

His explanation to me that day was, "There's no wedding dress now, so let's postpone the ceremony. I'm a man of my word. If I lost the bet, I lost, I can't go back on my promise."

That day, he could have easily reached out and handed me the wedding dress.

That day, I could've become his wife in just one second.

That day was the closest I had ever been to happiness.

Aunt Sandy was still trying to persuade me when the door suddenly opened and Hudson strode in, holding Lola's hand.

"Becca, I lost the bet again. It took me an hour and a minute to find Miss Reed. I'm a man of my word. You won't make things difficult for me, will you?"

"Anyway, the good time for the wedding has passed. Let's move it to another day."

Right in front of Lola, he tore down the wedding photo with his own hand and tossed it into the trash along with the corsage.

The hall was filled with gasps and everyone gave me a disdainful look because of Hudson's disrespectful demeanour.

They never thought the once-proud daughter of the Herreras had fallen so low that her dignity could be trampled at will.

Seeing the smug pride in Lola's eyes, I smiled indifferently.

"Hudson, how about we make a bet and see if you'll lose at the eleventh wedding?" I challenged him.

Hudson looked at me impatiently. "Rebecca, I promised Lola that I would only make this bet with her. Don't get involved."

I slowly raised the ring to my face. "I bet that by the eleventh wedding, your Lenart Corporation will go bankrupt."

Hudson's face darkened instantly as he shoved me hard in the chest. "Rebecca! When did you become so vicious? Just because I didn't marry you, you curse my entire family? No wonder Lola called you a big-boobs idiot who only knows how to blackmail me with favors."

I couldn't control my grief and anger anymore. I staggered, holding onto the table and smiled bitterly as I growled, "If you're sleeping with Lola, then just marry her openly. Stop using these stupid bets to disgust everyone."

Lola immediately blushed. She angrily shouted, "Miss Herrera, why are you so disgusting? Mr. Lenart and I were just trying to lighten the mood between superiors and subordinates. Is it really necessary for you to speak so harshly?

"Fine. Since you're so desperate to marry, next time I'll let Mr. Lenart win the bet."

Then she walked over and took my arm, whispering quickly in my ear, "Rebecca, after being dumped ten times, you still have the nerve to stand here barking? If I were you, I'd cover my face and crawl away. Let me tell you the truth, Hudson's has long since grown tired of you, useless thing. Now, he likes me."

After that, Lola quickly stepped back and said helplessly, "Mr. Lenart, you lost the bet last time and said you wanted to cut Miss Herrera's hair to make a wig for Jojo. But I didn't take it seriously. So, Miss Herrera, why did you have to embarrass him?"

Hudson gave her a doting smile, helplessly taking the scissors and handing them to her. "I accept defeat. Go ahead and cut it. I can't break my word in front of my subordinates."

My heart clenched. I stared at him in disbelief, remembering how he once gazed at me with admiration and said, "Becca, your hair is as smooth and shining as satin. Promise you'll keep it long for me, okay?"

After the kidney transplant, my health gradually declined and I began losing large amounts of hair. Back then, Hudson would boil herbal medicine every day for me to wash my hair and nourish my scalp.

Now he wanted to cut the little hair I had left for Lola's dog.

He placed the scissors in Lola's hand and casually said to me, "Becca, it's just a little hair. Jojo got sick and lost all his fur. Dogs have pride, too. He's depressed now, refusing to eat or drink. Just cut your hair and make him a wig."

Before I could say anything, Lola grabbed my hair with a wicked glint in her eyes. Then she cut a large chunk of hair from my head.

When the blade edge scraped across my scalp, a sharp sting surged through me.

I tried to push her with all my might, but she was stronger than I was. With a few snaps, she had cut off most of my hair.

Lola grasped my hair with hatred in her gaze. "Mr. Lenart, weren't you just complimenting Miss Herrea's hair? How come it looks like dried grass? Even Jojo wouldn't like this style."

As she spoke, she casually tossed the hair into the nearby trash can.

Hudson helplessly patted her hand. "Alright, if you don't like it, we'll buy something better tomorrow."

I gasped as I looked at the two of them. With all my strength, I lunged forward, snatched the scissors from Lola's hand and stabbed her in the chest.

Blood instantly stained my hands crimson.

Lola staggered backward, clutching her chest before collapsing into Hudson's arms.

The hall immediately erupted into chaos.

"Murder! How could Miss Herrera kill someone?"

I was out of breath, trying to stop my body from shaking. "Hudson, I have my pride, too. Are you satisfied with this bet?"

For the first time, Hudson's composure broke and he looked genuinely panicked.

He hugged Lola, kicked me aside and shouted frantically, "Call 911!"

Then, he stared at me coldly. His eyes filled with disdain. "Rebecca Herrera, no wonder your father wanted to beat you to death and your mother had the heart to jump off a building. You're a heartless, vicious woman."

I instantly felt as if I'd fallen into an icy pond, my whole-body shivering with cold. He knew my weak spot, knew exactly how to strike where it hurt most. He was heartbroken over Lola's chest wound, so he bloodily tore open the wound in my heart.

With a mostly bald head, I could no longer support my weak body and slumped miserably onto the ground.

Soon, the doctor arrived and hurriedly carried Lola into the ambulance.

Before leaving, Hudson glanced at me coldly. "Rebecca, you've attacked someone with a knife in public. This matter is far from over."

All the guests shook their heads and sighed as they left and my tenth wedding ended with blood splattered on the spot.

I stood on the stage for a long time until the last person left and the police arrived.

"Are you Rebecca Herrera? Someone reported you for suspected intentional homicide. Please come with us."

I asked indifferently, "Was it Hudson Lenart who called the police?"

The officer nodded in response.

Therefore, I endured the trembling all over my body and swallowed the salty blood in my throat before getting into the police car.

When we got to the interrogation room, the police officer began to ask me in detail about the motive and process of the murder and I told him everything without any emotion.

Seeing my messy bald head and dried bloodstains, a female officer looked at me with a sympathetic expression.

"Miss Herrera, since he's already fallen for someone else, why limit yourself to just one option?" she asked.

I stared at the female officer in a daze. Why?

It's just because he offered me a piece of candy in the sea of suffering.

At that time, my parents' marriage was nothing more than a business arrangement. To rescue his collapsing company, my father abandoned his lover of five years and chose to marry my mother.

Shortly after the wedding, his ex-girlfriend secretly gave birth to his son and by the time my father found out, the boy was already six years old.

Feeling guilty and sense of duty, he began staying between our home and his ex-girlfriend's.

My proud mother quickly started a cold war and even threatened divorce, but the business between the two families was already tangled up and could not be separated at all.

In the end, when I was twelve years old, my mother committed suicide by jumping off a building due to depression and I instantly became a child without a mother.

Half a year later, my father remarried. From then on, they became a happy family of three, while my hatred for my father grew stronger by the day.