We had been in love for six years and I was preparing to marry Patricia Mcbride when she suddenly asked me to wait. She said she needed to have a grand wedding with her first love before she could marry me.

This was because it was her first love's terminally ill mother's last wish. She couldn't bear to let the elderly woman pass away with regrets and tearfully promised at her bedside to give her first love a home.

But she forgot that my mother had also been eagerly waiting for me to get married.

I was stunned and asked her what I should do and she impatiently scolded me, "Can't you have a little empathy? It's just a matter of waiting two more months. Do you have to act like a desperate woman wanting to get married?"

I told her my mother had a heart condition and couldn't take the shock, but she made an appointment for the marriage registration right in front of me, "Anyway, the groom for this wedding has to be Terry. Even if your mom can't wait and dies, she'll still have to queue up behind me marrying you first!"

Watching her determined back as she left, I called my sister at home, "Sis, help me switch the bride for the wedding in ten days!"

——

When my sister heard that I wanted to switch brides, she was shocked, "What's going on with you and Patricia? Marriage isn't a game. Mom can't handle that kind of shock!"

Precisely because I knew Mom couldn't handle the shock, I turned to my sister for help. Fortunately, in the six years I had dated Patricia, she had always refused to meet my family. My mom only knew I had a girlfriend but didn't know who she was.

"Sis, I'm serious. I can't marry her!" After all, I didn't want to commit bigamy.

I thought my sister would scold me for being reckless, but after a brief silence, she comforted me instead, "When she hid your relationship from me and got together with you, I told you to be cautious. If you weren't so head over heels for her, I wouldn't have accepted her as my sis-in law! Now this is for the best!"

"Actually, before Mom and Dad knew you were in a relationship, they had already picked out a match for you, a girl who can't take her eyes off you every time she sees you. She's been waiting for you to break up. Just the other day, she joked that if your wife wasn't as good as her, she'd crash your wedding," she continued.

When my sister mentioned her, I immediately knew who she was. My parents had brought her up back then, but I had already been secretly dating Patricia for two years.

At the time, my heart was entirely with Patricia, so how could I be willing to marry someone I didn't know?

After I hung up, Patricia was so jealous that she passionately kissed me to assert her claim, "Anthony, you'll never marry anyone but me in this lifetime!"

She had tearfully begged me to grow old with her and finally confessed to my sister that we had already secretly promised ourselves to each other. Even when my sister scolded her for being a sneaky, unethical woman, she didn't talk back.

When my sister asked if she had truly let go of her first love, Patricia knelt and swore to God that she would only love me in this life. Her idea of 'this life' turned out to be very short.

With only ten days until the wedding, time was running out, so I interrupted my sister, "Let that girl be my bride instead. There's no need for her to crash the wedding."

As soon as I finished speaking, Patricia, who had returned to grab her ID card, froze at the door, "Crash the wedding? Are you planning to crash my wedding?"

She glared at me as if facing a major threat, "Anthony, I said I'd marry you and I will. If you still want to marry me, don't stir up trouble! If you dare to crash the wedding and ruin mine and Terry's holy matrimony, don't blame me for turning against you!"

Before I could say a word, she had already cast me as the villain. But hadn't she already turned against me when she asked me to wait for her and Terry's wedding?

In the six years we'd been together, every birthday, she would promise we'd get married the next year. Yet every 'next year,' she would find a different excuse to avoid meeting my family and postpone the wedding.

For example, she said she was still young and didn't want to be tied down by marriage. For example, she wanted her career to be more stable so that she could better support my family's business after marriage. Every reason was supposedly for my own good.

Because I loved her, I truly believed she was thinking of me and even worked to calm my sister, who had long wanted to beat her up.

I waited six years. My friends joked that if I didn't marry soon, we'd reach the seven-year itch. Only then did she agree to my tenth proposal.

The wedding date was set and the preparations were made, but she still refused to meet my parents, claiming she wanted to surprise them at the wedding.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Terry returned to the country with his terminally ill mother. Only then did I realize I was a joke.

I smiled bitterly and helped Patricia retrieve her ID card from the drawer, "Don't worry, I'm not interested in another man's wife."

This remark seemed to sting Patricia. She frowned and said, "How many times do I have to explain for you to understand? This is just a pretend wedding. Once it's over, I'll be entirely yours. What more do you want?"

I said casually, "I understand. Go ahead and get the marriage certificate. It's best to fully commit to the act." The sincerity on my face made her hand tremble as she reached for her ID card.

Perhaps feeling guilty, she explained, "I won't really register the marriage with Terry. It's just a formality at the civil affairs office ..." Even formalities require an ID card?

I responded nonchalantly with an "Oh," which left Patricia momentarily unsettled by my unusual reaction.

She stepped closer, intending to comfort me with a kiss. But just then, Terry, who had likely been eavesdropping for some time, suddenly barged in between us.

He moved aggressively, subtly using force to push me backward. I stumbled and fell to the ground, while he pulled the nearly-colliding Patricia into his arms.

Frightened, she clung tightly to him. The two of them, pressed close together, lost their balance and fell to the ground.

I coldly watched as Patricia sat on Terry and he, his face flushed, rasped in a voice just loud enough for me to hear, "Patricia, you're … crushing me ..."

Blushing, Patricia let out a light cough but didn't remove her hand from his abs.

Terry, his eyes full of suggestiveness, glanced at her before turning to me with a feigned helplessness, "Anthony, I'm sorry. You can hit me or scold me, but don't take it out on Patricia! If she gets hurt from the fall ..."

Uninterested in watching the nauseating pair clinging to each other, I stood up and headed for the door, "If she's hurt, you can check her yourself. Do you need me to close the door for you?"

At my words, the desire-filled flush on Patricia's face instantly darkened. Whether from anger or embarrassment, I couldn't tell.

She scolded me right away, "Anthony! How can you be so filthy?"

Filthy? She was the one sitting coyly on Terry without getting up, who exactly was being filthy? Considerately, I closed the door for them.

While waiting for the elevator, Terry came out with his face still damp with suspicious water streaks and blocked my path, "Anthony, I'm sorry. Please don't misunderstand me and Patricia. It really was a misunderstanding just now! If it weren't for my mother insisting on seeing a marriage certificate, I wouldn't have troubled Patricia! I beg you, please respect my filial piety and don't cause trouble at the wedding!"

"When the time comes, I'll divorce Patricia and return her to you!" As he spoke, he actually tried to kneel and beg me.

Before he could, the now-composed Patricia rushed over to pull him up, glaring angrily at me, "Anthony, I'm warning you, don't go too far, or there'll be no turning back! From today until the wedding is over, stay at home and behave yourself. I'll arrange for a bodyguard to watch over you!"

As she spoke, she called her secretary and instructed them to send someone to keep an eye on me to prevent any disruptions. Then, glancing at the time, she hurriedly left with Terry to the civil affairs office.

As the elevator doors closed, I didn't miss the smugness and provocation in Terry's eyes. Nor did I miss Patricia asking, "Terry, did you bring your ID card?"

This wasn't a show for Terry's mother, it was a show for me.

Before the bodyguards she arranged arrived, I quickly drove to the bridal shop to retrieve the wedding dress. It was a custom-made, handcrafted gown from Italy that I ordered specifically for marrying Patricia.

Recently, she had lost some weight, so certain parts needed to be adjusted. It made no sense for her to marry someone else while keeping the dress I ordered, this was unreasonable.

When I arrived at the bridal shop, the owner was surprised and said, "Mr. Summer, your girlfriend picked up the wedding dress a few days ago! She even brought a man along to try it on. I wasn't in the shop at the time ..."

Seeing my expression change, the owner quickly checked the surveillance footage. On the video, Patricia wore the wedding dress I had custom-made and slowly walked toward a visibly stunned Terry.

"Terry, do I look good?" The smile on her face was one I had never seen before and Terry's eyes lit up like green flames.

"You look amazing, even more beautiful than in my dreams! Patricia, pinch me. Let me see if this is a dream. For years, I could only marry you in my dreams ..." He choked up as he spoke.

Patricia, full of tenderness, stood on tiptoe and kissed the tears off his face while said, "Silly, thank goodness you came back in time. Otherwise, I would've married someone else ..."

The shop owner, watching the video of the two passionately embracing, awkwardly apologized to me, "Mr. Summer, I'm sorry. This was a mistake by my staff ... I'll find an excuse to get the wedding dress back for you right away!"

It was clear to everyone, I had been cheated on and even my wedding dress was taken. Furious, the owner immediately made a phone call.

The moment they spoke, Patricia's voice turned angry, "Did Anthony ask you to get the wedding dress? Tell him I'll wear this wedding dress to marry him, so stop making trouble!"

I never expected Patricia to be so shameless. What made her think I'd still marry her?

The shop owner, left holding a disconnected line, awkwardly offered me compensation.

But the culprit was clear, so I simply sent Patricia a screenshot of the original wedding dress order.

She called me immediately, "Anthony, what do you mean by this? Just because I wore the wedding dress early, you want money from me? Shouldn't you feel it's even more valuable since it's been worn twice?"

But when Terry suggested keeping the dress as a memento, she promptly hung up and transferred the money to me.

She threatened me, "You'd better have the shop owner order me another handcrafted wedding dress, one better than this one, or I won't marry you!"

After six years of love, it dawned on me for the first time that I might have never truly known Patricia. Looking at her location pinned at the civil affairs office, I thought I would feel heartbroken, but instead, I felt nothing at all.

I disabled the shared location feature on our couple's app just as Secretary Beckett arrived with two bodyguards.

"Mr. Summer, as long as you don't cause trouble, we won't interfere with your movements!" Once overly polite to me, Secretary Beckett now spoke in a superficially courteous tone but looked at me with complete disdain.

Too weary to deal with such a turncoat, I went to my office, resigned and then drove home.