My fiancé, Darrel Gonzalez, the man I had loved for eight years, decided to cancel our wedding and announced his intention to get engaged to my sister instead. 

His reasoning? 

In twenty days, my sister was set to marry Seth Charlie, the son of the richest man, who had been her betrothed since childhood. 

But Seth was a homosexual and Darrel feared she would become a widow shortly after their wedding.

Darrel claimed his plan was noble, saying he would sort things out after their engagement, as if he had forgotten the eight years I had devoted to him. 

When I asked him what I was supposed to do, he replied casually, “Eight years have passed, Sylvia. What’s another two? 

“Our relationship is so stable, so don’t worry about this little thing. Besides, Ashley wasn’t raised with love like you were. I can’t just abandon her.”

Twenty days later, I was wearing a pristine white dress.  But I was not marrying Darrel. I was marrying Seth, the son of the richest man. 

As I passed by him, who looked every bit like a forsaken bridegroom, I saw his pale face.

***

“Mom, I won't marry Darrel anymore. He wants to marry Ashley.”

My mother jumped up from the sofa and the phone on which she was watching a short video fell to the ground.

“Girl, are you sure?”

Of course, I knew why my mother was so excited.

For Darrel, whom I had been in love with for eight years, I ignored the young men introduced to me by my family, decided to focus all my attention on him.

At first, I thought my mother would complain about me and blame me, but she just hugged me.

“Fine then, just don't marry him. Marriage is for the rest of your life, so you should think about it carefully.”

But then my mother continued in confusion, “But we have to think about how to give them an explanation for Ashley's marriage to the Charlie Family.”

I directly said, “Mom, I will marry Seth for Ashley then.”

After hearing my answer, my mother was really anxious.

“Are you kidding me? Although the Charlie Family is rich, Seth is not interested in women and is a homosexual. Why are you jumping into the fire pit?” she asked angrily.

So, I explained calmly, “That’s fine for me. If he really is gay, it means he won't touch me. So, after we get married, I'll just take his money and we'll do our own things.”

I had already thought about it. Sexual orientation was not a pit of fire, but bad character was.

Darrel and I had been in love for eight years. 

I stood by him as he transformed from a penniless dreamer to the young president of a thriving, listed company. 

He once promised to work tirelessly so he could make me the happiest girl in the world.

Eight years ago, after graduating with his master’s degree, he told me he would meet my parents once he secured a top-tier job. 

Six years ago, when he was promoted to director, he said his success would soon give me the life I deserved. 

Four years ago, when his company went public, he assured me he just needed a little more time to stabilize everything before we could have the grand wedding I had always dreamed of.

Year after year passed. Finally, when I was nearing the age of advanced pregnancy, he proposed. I cried tears of joy, thinking our long journey together had finally reached its happy ending.

But when he announced his engagement to my sister, Ashley, I realized the bitter truth. 

I had spent my youth, my dreams and my love helping someone else build their life, only to be cast aside in the end.

In the end, my mother could not persuade me anymore and finally agreed to my decision to marry Seth. What was more, the Charlie Family did not pursue the matter at all.                    

As I was going to the company to resign, I met Darrel and Ashley at the door.

Ashley was the daughter of my father's deceased comrade-in-arms and was fostered in my home when she was six years old.

A year ago, Ashley returned to Canada to fulfill her engagement with Seth. As a result, she always followed me everywhere and there was often a third person on my dates with Darrel. 

At first, Darrel complained, “It is so annoying.”

But some of their behaviors became more and more ambiguous, so I tactfully reminded Darrel to pay attention to the sense of boundaries.

Ashley's eyes suddenly turned red, as if she had suffered a great injustice.

“Sylvia, I'm sorry. I'm used to being abroad and I didn't pay attention to the situation for a while. Don't be angry.”

Darrel's face immediately darkened.

“Sylvia, when did you become so petty? You're jealous of your own sister? It's totally unreasonable?”

I watched him wipe away the tears from Ashley's face with heartache and was so stunned that I could not say a word.

As a result, some female employees of the company gathered together and talked about it.

“Isn't Sylvia Mr. Gonzalez's fiancée? How could Mr. Gonzalez bear to embarrass her in public?”

“So what if he has a fiancée? Mr. Gonzalez is so outstanding, any kind of woman will want it.”

“Sylvia, why don't you look in the mirror? She's almost thirty years old, why is she still pretending to be a proud princess?”

In the past, when I heard these hurtful and vicious words, I would make sure I fought back thoroughly.

But that time, I didn't even have the energy to refute.

Moreover, Darrel, who once said that he would treat me like a treasure, had now demoted me to trash with his own hands.

So, I secretly came to the amusement park uncontrollably to reduce my sadness.

That was the place where Darrel and I fell in love and it was there that he made the most tender vows to me.

Roller coasters, carousels, pirate ships, every place has our memories.

I could not help but walk towards the wishing tree where we had made a wish together, but the scene that came into my sight deeply hurt me.

I saw two figures that I was most familiar with hugging each other intimately under the wishing tree.

Darrel touched the rabbit ears on Ashley's head lovingly and then gave Ashley a long and affectionate kiss on her lips.

Ashley also responded enthusiastically.

The two people hugged each other tightly, as if they were the only two people left in the world.

Ashley caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of her eye, then hugged Darrel tighter and kissed him deeper.

“Darrel, I love you!” Ashley shouted at the wishing tree in her gentle and sweet voice.

“Ashley, I love you more!” Darrel also responded affectionately.

They each wrote something on the wishing paper and then hung them together on the wishing tree that was full of beautiful wishes.

My tears kept pouring out, my heart felt like it was being cut by a knife and even breathing took a lot of effort.

After they left, I walked under the tree and found the wishing papers they had made.

“Ashley, I will not marry anyone other than you in this life. - Darrel"

“Darrel, I will not marry anyone but you in this life. - Ashley"

During the eight years Darrel and I were in love, he always held himself back, restraining his emotions and maintaining a certain distance. 

In public, he often said it was about preserving his image, that he could not afford to appear too intimate.

But at that moment, watching him lose control in front of Ashley, I finally understood. 

His so-called sense of propriety was never about self-restraint, it was about the depth of his feelings. 

His restraint with me was not a mark of respect or care. It was simply that he did not love me enough.

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I wiped them away with newfound clarity. 

I reached for the paper where we had once written our shared wish to be together forever. 

With steady hands, I tore it apart, shredding it into countless pieces, each one a fragment of my foolish hopes.

"Darrel, I don’t love you anymore."

The words felt like a release. I let out a long sigh and turned away. 

But then I was met with Darrel's gaze, which was a bit reluctant and a bit guilty.

I lowered my head in panic, not wanting to lose the last bit of my dignity in front of him.

But when I see him, the sweet memories of the past still come to my mind unconsciously.

I endured the pain like being pricked by a needle and told myself that I should not cry.

Darrel's face showed some reluctance, which actually made me imagine that I still had some weight in his heart.

He stared at the wish papers scattered on the ground and spoke slowly, “Sylvia, you also saw the wishing paper, didn’t you? I fell in love with Ashley and I couldn't just watch her marry a gay and ruin her own happiness.”

“I will get engaged to her first and then find a way to cancel the engagement later. I will still marry you. You will always be my only wife.”

Looking at his confident and condescending look, I suddenly felt relieved.

It turned out that the person I had loved for eight years was nothing more than that.

“Fine then. Let's break up, Darrel. I won't marry you.”

He did not seem to expect that the word break up would come out of my mouth and his face was full of contempt.

“You won’t marry me? You’ve been begging me to marry you for eight years. Besides, you’re almost thirty years old. If you don’t marry me, what will you do?”

His words hit me like a slap, leaving me stunned and momentarily speechless. I never imagined that Darrel, who always carried himself with such elegance, could say something so cruel.

It was then I realized, eight years together had given him ample time to learn exactly how to wound me, how to strike at my most vulnerable points.

Noticing my silence, perhaps he realized his mistake. He sighed softly, his tone shifting to one of feigned remorse. “I’m sorry, Sylvia. I lost my temper. 

“Please be patient with me. I’m just helping Ashley manage her wedding with Seth first. After that, I promise, we’ll get married in a month. I’ll give you the grandest wedding you deserve.”

But as I looked at him, all I could feel was disgust. The man before me was utterly shameless.

Ashley first and then me? Was he hoping to keep both worlds intact, his so-called sincere love with Ashley and the convenience of my thoughtfulness and devotion?

The thought made me sick. Darrel’s promises, once a source of comfort, at that time felt like nothing more than empty lies meant to trap me in his selfish web.

I remembered the day when the three of us had a barbeque together.

While Darrel was helping us prepare the sauce, Ashley completely lost the coquettishness she had when facing him and looked at me provocatively.

“Sylvia, even if you are the apple of everyone's eye, so what? Darrel only cares about me.”

After saying that, she took the coal that had been cooling aside for a long time onto her hands.

Then she covered his hands and screamed loudly with pain on his face. “Sister, don't be angry, I will never see Darrel again?”

When Darrel heard the shouting, an unprecedented panic appeared on his face.

He hurriedly helped the weak-looking Ashley into the car and headed to the hospital.

Before leaving, he did not forget to glare at me fiercely.

“Sylvia, I didn't expect you to be so vicious that you can't even tolerate your own sister?”

What he did not see was that my hands were also burned red by the splashing coal.

A week later, Darrel came to my house and the first thing he did was to ask my parents to agree to his engagement with Ashley.

Suddenly his question startled me. “Sylvia, what are you daydreaming about?” 

I collected my surging thoughts and looked at him coldly. “You should prepare well for your engagement party with Ashley.” 

Since I had resolved not to love him anymore, there was no reason to prolong the inevitable.

My calm indifference and bothered attitude seemed to catch Darrel off guard, leaving him momentarily dazed. 

As I walked away, his expression grew complicated, but I did not look back. 

Instead, I hailed a taxi and went straight home, letting the distance between us grow both physically and emotionally.

The next day, I went to the city’s most prestigious jewelry store. 

After Darrel’s proposal, I had spent hours carefully choosing a set of jewelry that perfectly suited my style and personality. 

If I was not going to marry him, I decided I would at least reclaim what was mine.

But the store owner’s hesitant expression unsettled me. 

“Ms. Lynch,” he began awkwardly, “your set of jewelry was picked up a few days ago by Mr. Gonzalez. I assumed he was collecting it for you.”

A sharp pang hit my chest.

It was as if not enough for him to take my love and my patience, the jewelry I had chosen with so much care, meant to symbolize the life we were supposed to build together, was gone too.

All for Ashley.

It was just an engagement, yet Darrel had given her the jewelry he knew was my favorite.

In that moment, I realized that my place in his heart was not even a fraction of hers.