That evening, a photo suddenly popped up in the group chat. Curious, I clicked on it. My heart sank as I saw the image. Luke was cradling Liora in his arms, his face filled with concern as a doctor carefully treated the scratches on her palms.

I recognized the doctor. It was Kieran, one of Luke’s close friends. The group quickly buzzed with excitement.

One person commented, [I see you’ve rekindled things with your first love. But our boy is pretending to be a big shot again!]

Another chimed in, [I thought the marriage certificate was fake, but you actually got her back. Congrats, mate! Here’s hoping for a baby soon!]

Someone else added, [So, the whole 'no marriage' thing was just because you were waiting for your first love, huh? Phew! So loyal and devoted. Man, you deserve a wife like her!]

Then, Kieran joined in, saying, [I’ve been saying it for years. Luke and Liora are perfect for each other. After missing out for so long, they’ve finally come together. I’d suggest any other losers have some self-respect and stop interfering.]

The chat kept rolling with jokes, one more crass than the next.

Someone even suggested, [Calista has a pretty face and a nice figure. She should be kept as a lover. Why waste her? It would be such a shame to throw her away just like that.]

Another person laughed at the chat. [Luke, whenever you get tired of playing with her, just send her my way. I’ve already got three and one more won’t hurt!]

I watched the conversation unfold, my stomach twisting. They had no idea who I really was. I had joined this group months ago, pretending to be a playboy, fitting into their world without revealing my true identity. But as I read their words, I learned something even more important. I saw Luke’s true color.

He finally responded in the chat, acting as if he was defending me, [Hey! Even if Calista isn’t as good as Liora in every way, she’s still my woman. Shut your filthy mouths up, jerks!]

Kieran shifted the conversation with a teasing remark, [Since you’ve already got the certificate, try hitting the road early and tying down your first love with a baby!]

Luke playfully replied, [Keep talking and I’ll make you regret it!]

But just a few minutes later, Luke’s show-off nature came to the surface. He sent a picture of a red sheet sprinkled with red petals of roses. The caption simply read, [Tonight.]

The group immediately erupted, with all the guys chiming in, offering crass advice on how to hit the "target" on the first try. Their words were too vulgar, so I closed my eyes, refusing to read any more of the obscene messages flooding the screen.

An hour later, another message from Luke appeared. He just casually sent, [Mission completed.]

At that moment, my heart shattered into pieces.

Without thinking, I posted a picture of a pregnancy test showing two lines along with the abortion slip to my Instagram close friends. The caption I added was brief: [No luck, see you in heaven.]

The first person to like my post was Liora, using her secondary account. Not long after, she posted a quote, [Knowing your place is the first step toward meaningful growth.]

It was clear, like a victorious rooster, she was eager to flaunt her win, relishing in the pain she knew I was feeling.

Not long after, my phone rang. I glanced at the screen and found that it was Luke. My hand hovered for a second before I clicked the button to hang up.

I expected him to call again, maybe even try to explain or chase after me. However, as the minutes ticked by, there was nothing. No follow-up calls. Just silence.

I let out a bitter laugh, shaking my head.

"What are you thinking, Calista Hale?" I muttered to myself. "Tonight is the wedding night he’s been dreaming of for years with his first love. Did you really expect him to walk away from that and come back to you?"

The last thread of hope snapped. I turned away from my phone and began to pack my things. I tossed out the couple’s mug we used to share. I cut up the tie I had given him, the one he never seemed to wear anyway. I gathered all the jewelry he had given me, the ones I had not bought myself and locked them away in the safe.

In the end, I had packed less than two suitcases. Two suitcases were all that remained of three years of love and sacrifice.

It was just the crack of dawn when I stood at the door, waiting for the bus. I had barely begun to process everything when an unexpected guest showed up.

Luke stepped out of his Mercedes Maybach, fury radiating off him. Without warning, he kicked over the suitcase sitting next to me.

His voice boomed, "Calista Hale, are you insane? That's my child and you had no right to abort it without my permission!"

He glared at me, his voice rising again, "Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant? That’s my flesh and blood!"

I could not help but laugh at his sudden burst of righteousness, his newfound sense of moral outrage. It was almost comedic, given how absent he had been in everything that mattered to me before.

I bent down to pick up my suitcase, determined to leave, but he grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to face him.

"The marriage certificate really is just a piece of paper! I told you, you're still the one and only Mrs. Grayson. I can give you anything you want, you name it. A house? A car? More money than you can spend? Why are you being so stubborn?"

Slap!

With a sharp sound, my hand flew across his face, turning his head to the side. My voice was cold, laced with anger I had held in for far too long.

"You're still lying to me? Even now?"

I glared at him, feeling the weight of betrayal pressing on my chest. "What? Are you waiting until you and Liora have a child before you finally admit to your affair with her?"

His pupils dilated in shock and he stammered, his voice barely a whisper, "I... I didn’t..."

The sight of him was so hesitant, so weak and it filled me with disgust. I looked at him with nothing but disdain.

"What a coward."

Without saying anything else, I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and started walking. This time, Luke did not stop me. However, as I moved farther away, his voice rose behind me, filled with frustration and anger:

"Without me, you’ll never be the wife of a rich man again in your life!"

Who cares?

That was not what I was looking for anyway.

I was an orphan and had no family to turn to in times of need. Fortunately, my best friend, Harper, was more than willing to take me in.

She had always been the one to stand by me, especially when I learned that Luke had refused to marry me, using his supposed non-marriage stance as an excuse. But when it came to Liora, he had no problem registering their marriage to fulfill her wish.

Harper was furious on my behalf. The moment she heard about it, she cursed Luke's ancestors all the way back to the eighteenth generation. Then, not forgetting her tough-love approach, she jabbed her finger at my forehead and lectured me.

"I warned you from the start! No man in this damn world is truly against marriage. When they say that, it's because they already have someone in their heart, someone they don’t want to give up. They just want to have their cake and eat it too!"

She continued, her voice full of exasperation, "You were too blinded by love for that bastard! You let him deceive you!"

Hearing her hit right at the heart of the matter, I could not hold back any longer. I collapsed into Harper’s arms and cried my heart out.

Yes, I had spent three years chasing after Luke like a loyal dog and two more years meeting his parents, trying to win them over. I truly believed that if I just stayed by his side long enough, he would eventually see how good I was and how devoted I was and one day, he would open his heart to me and make room for me in his life.

But I had underestimated the hold a man’s first love could have over him. Everything I had done, every effort I had made for him over five years, was completely overshadowed by Liora’s presence.

Harper hugged me tighter, her voice filled with concern, "We women need to learn how to hold on to things but also when to let them go. No man is worth risking your life over, let alone a jerk like him."

She gently stroked my hair and added, "To be honest, it's a blessing in disguise. At least you didn’t marry him. You saved yourself from having a scumbag ex-husband and you avoided the mess of a divorce."

I sniffed and nodded through my tears. "That’s true, isn’t it?"

Her words made sense. Perhaps it really was a silver lining in this storm.

Harper, ever the caretaker, was worried about my health and insisted that I stay at her place to recover. She would not let me move out until more than a month later, when I had fully regained my strength. Only then did she finally allow me to leave her care.

But just when I thought I could finally get some peace, the last person I wanted to see knocked on my hotel room door. It was Luke.

"Have you caused enough trouble yet? If you're done, then come back with me," he said, his voice filled with impatience.

I did not bother to respond. I simply turned to close the door in his face. But before I could shut it, he wedged his arm in, stopping me. He looked stunned, his brow furrowed, as if he could not understand the coldness in my eyes.

His gaze lingered on me, almost as if trying to read my thoughts. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Luke broke the silence.

"I'm really sorry about our child."

"Look, Liora didn’t mean any harm. She was just excited about getting the marriage certificate with me. It was just a moment of impulse."

He paused and then added, "If you don’t believe me, I can ask her to explain it to you."

I agreed to his request, but not because I still loved him or wanted to reconcile. No, that part of me was long gone. I was simply curious.

Curious to see how far he would go to twist the truth.

Over the past five years, it became painfully clear that every time my birthday rolled around, Liora would suddenly fall ill. Whether it was a stomachache, a headache, or some mysterious ailment, she always managed to send Luke running to her side.

It was not just my birthday that was disrupted. Our anniversaries, New Year’s Eve, on Valentine's Day and any special occasion that meant something to me. Everything was quickly overshadowed the moment Liora so much as twitched a finger.

Luke, without fail, would rush to her aid, eager to be her ever-loyal lapdog.

It's almost laughable when I thought about it now. During those five long years I spent with Luke, the only truly uninterrupted, romantic day we ever had was the day of our engagement. That was the one day Liora did not steal my man from me.

The back garden of the Grayson Family’s villa had been filled with blue roses, all of which Luke had sown himself. On the day they bloomed, he knelt before me with a crown studded with diamonds in his hands, placing it gently on my head. He then led me to his parents, pride gleaming in his eyes.

I remembered him getting down on one knee, slipping the ring onto my finger and pressing a soft, reverent kiss on the back of my hand.

That day, the way Luke looked at me, his eyes shone brighter than the sun. It was a moment so beautiful and rare that I thought I would hold onto it forever.

Fast forward to the present, on the scheduled day, I took a car to his villa in Serenity Shores. This lavish and luxurious place was Luke’s birthday gift to Liora.

He had said, "Liora is a woman. She needs a solid material foundation to be confident in this world."

Yet, in all the time we were together, he never once gave me anything as extravagant or meaningful. Any time I hinted at wanting something similar, he would brush it off with the same line, "Love cannot be measured by money."

Walking into the living room, I immediately noticed Liora lounging on the sofa, her delicate neck adorned with that seven hundred thousand dollar necklace. The same necklace that, for a fleeting moment, I had once admired.

Luke motioned for me to sit down and poured me a cup of tea.

Just as I raised the cup to my lips, a heavy photo album was tossed onto the table in front of me. Liora’s smile was radiant, but there was something about it that felt deliberately sharp, like the edge of a blade.

“Many of my friends heard I had received the marriage certificate and thought I was joking,” she said with a light laugh. “They laughed and said I was lying, so I had no choice but to drag Luke on a honeymoon to prove them wrong. It's all just for show, Calista. I’m sure you understand, right?"

I flipped through the pages of the album. The pictures were clear and vivid, from Sanya’s sun-soaked beaches to the pristine shores of the Maldives and even Antarctica, where they posed with penguins.

Luke Grayson, a man who once claimed to hate travel, had now journeyed across the globe, all to appease Liora’s whims.

All the while, I had been left alone, recovering in Harper’s house, not even a phone call from him.

Even though I had tried to let go of my attachment to him, flipping through the album brought a dull ache to my chest.

I closed the album, placing it on the table without emotion. “Didn’t you ask me here today to explain the marriage certificate?” I asked calmly, meeting Liora’s gaze. “Why are we talking about things that have nothing to do with that?”

Liora’s smile faltered, her expression freezing for a moment. I could see her glance at Luke, who in turn gave her a nudge with his eyes. Her lips twitched awkwardly as she stammered, “Luke is right. It was just a spur-of-the-moment decision, a temporary thing.”

Luke nodded as though the matter were as simple as that. “When Liora’s friends stop talking about this, we’ll go through with the divorce procedures,” he added with confidence.

Then, as if offering me some kind of consolation prize, he reached for my hand. “As compensation for the child and for everything you’ve gone through, if you still want to get the marriage certificate, I’m willing to...”

“Sorry,” I cut him off, pulling my hand away. My voice was firm, final. “You’ve lost your chance.”

Just as the words left my mouth, the door opened and in walked a tall, handsome man.