After studying abroad for two years, I ended my studies early, eager to return to fulfill my promise to marry her.

But while decorating our wedding room, I stumbled upon thousands of meticulously kept plane tickets from my girlfriend of ten years.

She had flown to Fransei at least once a month, yet not to see me, even though I was only 60 miles from her destination.

I arrived early at the proposal site where we had planned to meet, only to witness her accepting a proposal from the man she truly loved in the venue next door.

"Olivia, will you marry me? If you nod, I'll turn the wedding into our wedding right now!"

She slipped the ring on her finger, tears welling up, and I couldn't bring myself to take another step forward.

I wasn't the man she wanted to marry, so giving them the wedding didn't seem like a loss.

But after I fled the wedding, she crossed oceans searching for me.

——

The proposal scene, adorned with roses, was bathed in warm yellow light, romantic and intimate.

Olivia Yukio, dressed in a wedding gown, with tears streaming down her face, looked exactly as I had imagined she would when she agreed to marry me.

But the man on one knee, asking her to spend her life with him, was not me!

"David, I've finally waited long enough for you to come and propose!"

Olivia covered her mouth with one hand, pulling David Foster up with the other, planting a passionate kiss on his lips.

David held her tightly, deepening the kiss.

The intimate sounds carried through the wind and into my ears.

I instinctively rubbed the matching couple ring that Olivia had sent me from across the ocean.

I hadn't told her that the ring was too big.

To keep it from slipping off, I had tied a piece of red string around it to make it fit.

Perhaps after years of wear, the string snapped with a tug, and the ring, now free, slipped from my finger and rolled far away into the storm drain.

Just like how Olivia had drifted further and further from me during my two years abroad until there was nothing left to hold onto.

A ring that doesn't fit isn't worth retrieving, and a woman who doesn't love me isn't worth holding onto!

"Olivia, I hope your wedding day goes as planned."

"Why? I only want to marry you!"

"Because... I want to crash your wedding! That way, I can prove you love me the most!"

My footsteps halted.

I was curious just how far Olivia would go for David.

"Stop it! Only you could come up with such a bad idea!"

"Then I'd better prepare another pair of running shoes, so when we elope, I can run faster."

"Olivia, are you really willing to treat Martin Jones this way?"

"As long as I show up at the wedding, I've kept my promise. If he insists on leaving the country and can't stop his wife from being stolen, he can't blame me for falling out of love, right?"

Their laughter pierced my heart.

I turned around, leaned against a tree, and felt my legs go weak.

Overwhelmed by the pain, I gathered all my strength to escape that place of heartbreak.

But halfway through, my legs gave out, and I fell hard to the ground.

I limped back home, dialed my advisor, and said, "Professor, I've decided to join the research project you mentioned."

My advisor was thrilled but puzzled. "Didn't you say you'd settle down in the country after getting married? Or has your wife agreed to a long-distance marriage? It's not ideal to be apart after marriage, especially for a girl who needs a sense of security. Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?"

I wiped the blood off my scraped knee, the pain sharp and unrelenting with each wipe. "The wedding is off. From now on, I'll be your right-hand man, fully dedicated to research!"

My professor, who treated me like his own son, immediately sensed something was wrong. "Well, today is the deadline. I'll put your name down. Come back soon, and we'll dive into work. Keeping busy will help you stop thinking too much. Don't blame me for being blunt, but you've spent these two years coming back to see her, while she didn't even visit when you were sick in Fransei. That's enough to show she doesn't love you as much as you think. If you've decided to let go, then don't dwell on the past anymore!"

If I hadn't seen that thick stack of plane tickets, I might've confidently rebuffed my professor's claim that "she doesn't love you as much."

I felt sorry for her and didn't want her to make the tiring trips back and forth. But she willingly traveled across the globe each month for David.

No wonder she always went silent at the end of each month—busy flying to be with David!

For two years, like a fool, I raced to finish my coursework and publish papers, all to free up time to fly back home and give her a sense of security.

Those short meetings after hours of flying used to be my happiest moments.

But my love, which crossed oceans and continents, had become a joke in front of that stack of plane tickets she cherished.

On my way to the chapel, I tried to convince myself that maybe she was just traveling for fun.

But seeing her accept a proposal from the man who had once bullied me made it clear why, even though we were only 60 miles apart, she never came to see me.

David had a strong possessive streak. He forbade her from seeing me, and she deceived me with her sweet words of longing.

She knew full well that David and I were sworn enemies.

To be precise, after my mother remarried, David and his father became the biggest shadows of my childhood.

I had imagined many times that Olivia might fall for someone else during our two years of long-distance love.

But I never imagined it would be David, and that she would be so eager to humiliate me at their wedding.

I soaked myself in a warm bath, gulping down shots of strong liquor until my body finally stopped trembling.

Then Olivia called.

"Martin, why haven't you arrived yet? I've been waiting for so long!"

I remained silent.

Olivia grew anxious.

"Martin, has something happened?"

"If you can't come to surprise me, that's fine too. I've checked the wedding venue, and it's exactly what I wanted. I'm sure you'll love it too!"

She was still so considerate, even magnanimous about me standing her up for the proposal.

"I'm at home. As long as you like it, that's enough."

Olivia paused for a moment before trying to comfort me.

"Alright, I'll come home to accompany you soon."

She didn't ask why I had stood her up or why I hadn't given her a ring yet.

It was not because she loved me enough to tolerate my whims, but because she had already received the proposal and ring from the man she truly loved at her dream wedding.

I was merely her backup plan.

When Olivia entered the house, I had just stepped out of the bathroom.

Seeing David behind her, I frowned instinctively.

"Why did you bring him here?"

Was she really that eager to humiliate me by bringing him here?

Olivia awkwardly flashed a playful smile and teased.

"Martin, I ran into David downstairs and found out he lives in the same neighborhood as us. When he heard you were back, he insisted on coming up to apologize..."

I coldly watched her put on her act.

"Martin, my father and I were out of line back then. I'm here to apologize on his behalf. Can you forgive us?"

Suppressing my anger, I asked Olivia, my voice trembling.

"So, do you think I should forgive them?"

The pain of a ruptured eardrum, the numbness from being whipped until I lost all feeling in my legs, and the agony of seeing my father's belongings burned to ashes...

I wasn't pathetic enough to ask her why she had fallen in love with David.

That would make me seem spineless.

Olivia's guilt vanished as I stubbornly waited for her answer.

"Martin, David was just a mischievous child back then. He didn't know any better. He's felt guilty for years and has already apologized to you. Why hold on to the past?"

The physical and emotional abuse that dragged me into an abyss was now referred to as the past.

Refusing to forgive David was now called being petty.

Back then, it was she who had dialed 911 and stayed with me at the hospital. She knew better than anyone how much I despised my stepfather and stepbrother.

But she still fell in love with David, standing firmly against me.

Olivia reached out, trying to clasp my hand, forcing me to make peace with David.

I swatted her hand away, seething.

"Olivia, what right do you have to ask me to forgive them?"

Behind my mother's back, they had abused me, manipulated my mother into hating me, and after my mother passed away, they didn't even give her a proper funeral...

Olivia stared at her reddened hand, her temper flaring but barely held back.

"Martin, I'm doing this for your sake. You have no family left. At least David and his father are like half-families to you. Why cling to the past and make yourself miserable?"

"We should look ahead, shouldn't we?"

Olivia's words were sincere, but the familiar impatience on her pretty face betrayed her.

Gone were the concern and care I had once known.

I could almost hear my shattered heart crumble into dust.

It hurt so much that I could hardly speak.

And the smug, provocative gleam in David's reddened eyes was exactly as I remembered.

"Martin, it's alright if you can't forgive me. But I will continue to repent and feel guilty until you acknowledge me as family."

"Get out!"

I gripped the doorframe tightly to keep myself from shaking uncontrollably.

Olivia's impatience was plain on her face.

"Martin, why are you being so unreasonable? Everyone makes mistakes. Where is your forgiveness?"

She had witnessed firsthand how David and his father pushed me to the brink of depression, even to the point of attempting suicide.

She used to stand up for me, arguing with them, even angrily rebuking them.

What changed? What made her stand on the opposite side and start defending David instead?

I let the pain engulf me, word by word, I told Olivia.

"Unless he dies right in front of me, I will never forgive him!"

Olivia's delicate brows furrowed, and anger was brewing.

She used to have the same look when she angrily rebuked David and his father for me.

"Martin! You've only been abroad for two years, and you've turned into such a venomous person. Fine, don't forgive him, but at least apologize to David! I don't want people to laugh at my fiancé for being a petty and effeminate man!"

"Your father took his own life because he was weak. If he had cared about you being so young, your mother wouldn't have had to remarry to survive! Don't blame all your misfortune on David and his father. His father made mistakes, yes, but not to the point of death! If you're going to stubbornly hold on and torment yourself like your father, then you deserve to have nightmares every night!"

She practically spat out the word "nightmares" through gritted teeth.

The disgust flashing across her face was something I clearly caught.

So, the person who swore to stand by me forever had grown tired of the nightmares that plagued me.

In the end, all my misfortune and pain had become her weapon to hurt me, stabbing me once more until I was left completely broken.

Once upon a time, she would have shed tears at the mention of my nightmares, holding me close and saying. "Martin, as long as I'm here, no nightmares, no demons can hurt you!"

She had used love and care to pull me out of the abyss, but now she was the one pushing me back in.

For David's sake, she told me I deserved it!

I trembled, a wave of sharp pain gripping my stomach. Unable to hold onto the doorframe any longer, I staggered backward.

Olivia was quick to catch me, only then noticing the swelling on my knees.

She immediately squatted down to examine the wound.

"How did your knees get so badly hurt?"

"Fine, if you don't want to apologize, I'll apologize for you. But from now on, stop being so petty."

I yanked my hand away, my face pale as I pointed toward the door.

"Get out! All of you, just leave!"

Olivia, understanding how fragile I was at this moment, tried to hug me to calm me down.

But David, with tears streaming down his face, bowed deeply to me.

"Martin, I'll leave now. Please don't torment yourself because of me anymore."

With that, he ran out. But in his haste, he bumped into the doorframe and fell to the side.

Olivia immediately released me and rushed to catch David, both of them tumbling outside.

David's head hit the doorframe, turning red instantly with a faint trace of blood seeping out.

Olivia knelt beside him, her hands trembling as she touched his head, her eyes filled with a tenderness I knew all too well.

But it was no longer for me.

"David, does it hurt? I'll take you to the doctor right away!"

The doorway finally fell silent.

And my heart sank to the bottom.

Ten years of knowing her, ten years of loving her, and it had all come to this.

I took out my phone and booked a flight for the day of the wedding.

Seven days left, just enough time to settle everything from my past.

Olivia was right. People need to move forward.

From now on, I would sever myself completely from all the joy and pain of the past!