I picked up a shrimp and chewed. The meat wasn't bitter, but everything I tasted was.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Beatrice watching my every move.

She was worried for nothing.

When I made a promise, I kept it.

What I hadn't expected was that her request would be for me to keep the secret that we were together.

I pulled my gaze away and stopped looking at her.

My mind was a wreck, the ache unbearable. I was about to stand and leave when Jude's groomsmen started joking around.

“Jude, congrats on finally landing the girl!”

“You two went pretty hard that night, huh?”

Jude played dumb：“What night? You've had too much to drink, man!”

“Please. I can drink anyone under the table.”

“Quit playing. The eighteenth, last month. You and Beatrice got a room right next to mine.”

“Man, you two were so loud.”

Beatrice went rigid. I just sat there, frozen, for what felt like a long time.

The eighteenth of last month. That was the night my mother was on her deathbed. I'd called Beatrice over and over, begging her to come see my mother one last time.

I was about to give up when she finally called back.

I remembered how heavy her breathing sounded, her voice rough and hoarse.

She said she was away on a business trip and had come down with a fever. She couldn't make it back.

I believed her. I even worried about her health, since I wasn't there to take care of her.

That whole night, half of me was in agony, and the other half was drowning in grief.

Only now, from the mouth of her lover's buddy, did the truth come spilling out.

That night, she wasn't on a business trip. She was in a hotel room with Jude.

I sank back into my chair, all the strength gone from my body. My chest felt like something was gnawing through it from the inside, tearing without mercy.

“Enough! Stop talking!”

Beatrice snapped at the guy, furious, but he was genuinely drunk.

“Oh, relax! You're married now.”

“Can't a bunch of single guys learn a few moves?”

“Am I right, guys?”

Beatrice's face was taut, her expression so panicked she looked like someone running for her life.

Jude wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his chest.

“Babe, what's gotten into you tonight?”

“You're acting so different from usual. Don't tell me your ex really is……”

“No!”

“I just don't think what happens in our bedroom needs to be announced to a whole table!”

Jude chuckled：“You little minx. Since when are you shy about that?”

“Tonight when we get home, you're going to……”

I couldn't listen to another word.

If she had truly fallen for someone else and was just too afraid to tell me, I would have sent her a breakup text and been done with it.

I hated dragging things out. What I feared even more was being deceived.

“Hey, cousin, where are you going?”

“Sit back down, eat something!”

“You're Beatrice's cousin, her only family here tonight. You've got to stay and see the wedding through!”

“Seraphina, over here!”

Even as Jude spoke to me, his eyes had already drifted past my shoulder. He lifted a hand and waved over a woman named Seraphina Whitmore.

“Wow, look at you!”

“You get more gorgeous every time I see you. Still as classy as ever.”

Seraphina was a former classmate of Jude's, one of several he'd invited to the reception.

But the moment she saw me, a flash of something crossed her eyes.

I looked up at her, and she fell quiet.

“Come on, come on. Gotta introduce the good ones to the inner circle.”

“This is Rhys Dickerson, my wife's cousin.”

Jude pointed at me and introduced me to Seraphina.

“Cousin, her name's Seraphina Whitmore. Isn't she gorgeous?”

I had no interest in making conversation. All I wanted was to get out of there.

But Jude kept blocking my path, refusing to let me leave.

“Cousin, you look like you're in a real hurry to go somewhere. I'm telling you, there's no point rushing off.”

“I'm trying to set you up here! Where do you think you're going?”

He dragged me over to Seraphina's side. The second I sat down, a wall of raised glasses came at me from every direction.

“Come on, Cousin, a toast to you!”

The liquor burned going down, a hundred times more bitter than before.

Seraphina noticed something was off with me and spoke up quickly, waving away the next round of glasses.

“That's enough, everyone. If someone gets drunk and ruins the wedding, none of us can afford that kind of trouble.”

“Oh my! Looks like somebody's already playing protector!”

“Heh, Seraphina, you're not even with the guy yet and you're already looking out for him.”

“Hmph, taking his side over ours already.”

“All right, all right. You all know Seraphina's shy. Why don't we just push these two together and see what happens?”

I wasn't in the mood to listen to any of their banter. Whatever they were saying went in one ear and out the other.

“Okay, rock-paper-scissors! Loser gets a punishment.”

Jude was the first to lose, though someone pointed out he'd done it on purpose. He was supposedly unbeatable at the game.

“Look how eager he is. Lost on purpose so he could make out with his bride right in front of us single losers, huh?”

Jude didn't say a word, but the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth gave him away.

Beatrice didn't want to kiss Jude in front of me, but he didn't give her a choice. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her in for a deep, lingering kiss.

Everyone clapped and cheered. A few people whistled.

A full five minutes passed before he let her go. Beatrice couldn't bring herself to look at me after that.

It was only then I realized I'd drained three full bottles without even noticing. The alcohol hammered at my skull and churned in my stomach.

Sick and barely holding myself together, I got pulled into the game too, and I lost badly.

Seraphina, who'd never played before either, lost just as spectacularly.

“Ha! Cousin and Seraphina both lost. Rules are rules!”

“You two are literally made for each other. Equally terrible!”

“Come on, kiss!”

“Kiss!”

“Kiss!”

Someone shoved Seraphina toward me. I caught her before she could stumble, my hands steadying her by the arms.

“Oh! And he says he's not interested in this beauty. Beatrice, your cousin sure knows how to play it cool.”

Beatrice stared at us with a smile that never touched her eyes, a flicker of warning buried beneath something sharper.

I was done catering to her feelings. Seraphina's face was flushed but she wasn't pulling away. I was about to lean in when she beat me to it, pressing her lips to mine.

“Wow! No stopping for at least three minutes!”

One minute in, someone shoved me back. It was Beatrice.

“C-Cousin, Seraphina hasn't even dated anyone before! You can't just take advantage of her over a silly game.”

I said nothing. My gaze on her was ice-cold.

“Huh, does anyone else think Beatrice looks a little jealous right now?”

“Shoo, shoo, stop picking on my sweetheart.”

“Hahaha, maybe she just can't wait to get to the wedding night!”

“Jude, you better head back! Your boys sent over plenty of goodies for you two!”

It was getting late. Jude glanced at me, then turned to his friends.

“Hey, check if any of your companies are hiring. Get my cousin a decent job. Being some low-level manager at a hotel? That's not gonna cut it.”

“No problem!”

“Take your wife home already! Maybe tonight you'll make a little love child.”

“Ha! Beatrice and I actually picked out baby names a long time ago.”

“If it's a boy, we'll call him Sterling, precious and undeniable, like fine jade. And if it's a girl, Helen, because she'll be just as stunning as her mother.”

I froze. Slowly, I lifted my head and stared at Beatrice.

Those two names. We had chosen them together on a full-moon night, whispering wishes under the moonlight for the children we'd have someday.

A boy named Sterling. A girl named Helen.

How did she always manage to hit me exactly where it would hurt the most?

I stood up. My legs barely held me as I staggered toward the door.

“Hey! Cousin, where are you going??”

“CRASH!”

The wine rack beside me toppled as I clipped it, bottles shattering across the floor in a mess of glass and liquid.

I could almost see them all laughing at me. Calling me pathetic. Mocking me for being too broke, too worthless to keep my own girlfriend from being stolen by Jude.

That night, I fled the hotel covered in shame.

Back at my apartment, I didn't turn on the lights. I leaned against the door and slid down until I was sitting on the cold floor.

My phone buzzed. A message from Beatrice.

“Rhys, I'm sorry!”

“Everything happened so fast. Jude and I are childhood sweethearts. His mother has terminal stomach cancer, and her dying wish was to see him get married.”

“So Jude and I held a ceremony. Just for show. We never signed any legal papers.”

“My dad also said that if I married Jude, he'd hand over control of the company to me.”

“Just hold on a little longer. Things are about to get better for us.”

Zachary Harding had always looked down on me. He was firmly against my relationship with Beatrice.

That was why we'd never gone public. She'd never once brought me home to meet her family.

But what Beatrice didn't know was that "hold on a little longer" and "things are about to get better" were supposed to be my lines.

My thumb scrolled past her page and landed on my father's profile.

I sent him a few messages, then powered off my phone. After a shower, I turned it back on and found missed calls from Beatrice.

One after another after another. She sounded desperate.

I finally picked up. Her voice poured through, frantic and breathless.

“Rhys, you need to hide all my things right now! Jude says he wants to bring me over to stay at your place tonight.”

“You left in such bad shape earlier, he's worried something happened to you.”

“Hurry! He's already on his way down.”

The call cut off right there.

I looked around the apartment, then closed my eyes with a smile so bleak it ached.

They arrived fast. The moment I opened the door, Beatrice's face was tight with panic.

She was terrified I hadn't hidden her things. That our relationship would be exposed.

“Cousin, is everything okay? Did something happen?”

“You bolted out of there so fast tonight. Something's definitely wrong.”

Beatrice's eyes darted around the apartment. When she saw that every trace of her had been put away, the tension drained from her shoulders.

“It's nothing. Just had too much to drink and made a fool of myself.”

It took me a long time to answer Jude's question.

“Oh, is that all? Well, ease up on the booze next time.”

“Right, right. Well, if that's the case, let's just head back!”

Beatrice grabbed Jude's hand, already pulling him toward the door.

“What? Leave? Why would we leave?”

“We're staying at your place tonight, Cousin.”

Beatrice went rigid. Every drop of color drained from her face.

Jude strolled into the spare room like he owned the place：“Don't mind me, Cousin. We're family, right?”

“Beatrice, get ready for bed. It's getting late.”

I clenched my fists, unable to find a single word.

I couldn't ask them to leave. I couldn't ask them to stay.