After studying abroad for two years, I cut my time short, eagerly looking forward to returning to Solaria, ready to marry.

As I was decorating our future home, I discovered thousands of plane tickets carefully preserved by my boyfriend of ten years, Ansel Stormvale.

Every month, he had been traveling to Lunaria at least once and it wasn’t to see me.

Even though I was only 100 kilometers away from his destination in Lunaria.

I arrived early at the place where he had planned to propose to me, only to see him on one knee, proposing to someone else.

“Elara Dawnlight, will you marry me? As soon as you say yes, I’ll switch brides immediately!”

His gaze was filled with anticipation and I couldn’t take another step forward.

Since I was not the one he wants to spend his life with, I might as well let them have this wedding.

But after I ran away, he crossed oceans and continents, searching the world for me!

——

The proposal site was decorated with roses, bathed in the warm glow of soft yellow lights—romantic and intimate.

Ansel, kneeling on one knee, was the exact image of the proposal I had dreamed of countless times.

But the person standing in front of him wasn’t me!

“Elara, will you marry me?”

Elara covered her mouth with one hand, trembling as she took the roses with the other.

A dazzling diamond ring was slipped onto her finger.

The two embraced tightly, kissing passionately. Their intimate whispers carried to my ears by the wind.

I found myself unconsciously rubbing the matching ring Ansel had sent me from across the sea.

I never told him the ring was too big.

To keep it from slipping off, I had wrapped half a loop of red thread around it to make it fit.

Perhaps after all this time, when I tugged at the thread, it came undone.

The ring, freed from the thread that once held it in place, slipped off my finger in an instant and rolled into a distant drain.

Just like Ansel, who, after two years abroad, was no longer tied down by me.

An ill-fitting ring doesn’t need to be retrieved, just as a man who didn't love me didn't need to be held onto!

"Ansel, I hope your wedding goes as planned."

"Why? The only one I want to marry is you!"

"Because... I plan to crash your wedding! That way, it will prove you're truly in love with me!"

My steps faltered.

Because I was curious just how far Ansel would go to hurt me for Elara's sake.

"You little rascal, only you could come up with such a crazy idea!"

"Then I better prepare an extra pair of running shoes, so I can run faster when we elope!"

"Are you really willing to do this to Stella?"

"Marrying her to keep my promise is already the most I can do. If she can't keep her husband from being whisked away at the altar, she can’t blame me, can she?"

Their joyful laughter pierced my heart like a dagger.

I turned around, leaning against a tree, my legs so weak I couldn’t move an inch.

Fearing that my sobs might alert them, I covered my mouth tightly and walked away.

But halfway home, my legs gave out and I fell hard onto the ground.

I returned home, battered and broken and dialed my advisor's number.

"Professor, I’ve decided to join that research project you mentioned."

My academic advisor was thrilled, but also puzzled.

"Didn't you say you were planning to settle down in Solaria after your marriage? Did your husband agree to a long-distance arrangement? Being apart after marriage can be really challenging. Are you sure you don't want to rethink this decision?"

I was wiping the scrapes on my bruised knees, each touch sending a sharp pang through me.

"The wedding is off. From now on, I'll be your right hand, fully devoted to research!"

My advisor, who treats me like his own daughter, immediately sensed something was wrong.

"Today’s the deadline. I’ll put your name on the list. Come back soon so we can dive into the work. Keeping busy will help take your mind off things."

"Don’t think I’m meddling, but over the past two years, it’s always been you looking after Solaria, while he’s never bothered to come to Lunaria. That’s a clear sign he doesn’t love you as much as you believed."

"Once you’ve made up your mind to move on, don’t linger in the past!"

If it weren’t for that thick stack of flight tickets, I could have confidently dismissed my advisor’s comment that “he doesn’t love you as much.”

No wonder he was always out of touch at the end of each month.

Turns out, he was busy traveling thousands of miles to be with Elara!

For two whole years, I felt like a fool, desperately racing to finish coursework and publish papers, just to carve out time to fly domestically to see him.

Those brief meetings after long flights were once the happiest moments of my life.

Yet, my cross-ocean love, in the face of that stack of tickets Ansel cherished, had become a joke.

As I made my way to the proposal site, I tried to convince myself that maybe he had traveled to Lunaria for work.

When I saw him proposing to Elara—the very woman who had once tormented me—it became clear why he hadn’t visited me despite the mere hundred kilometers between us.

Elara had barred him from seeing me, leaving him to weave stories of longing and sorrow to explain his absence.

He knew exactly how much Elara and I were sworn enemies.

After my father remarried, Elara and her daughter became the most persistent shadows of my childhood.

I had imagined countless scenarios over the past two years of our long-distance relationship.

Ansel might fall for someone else, I thought, but I never expected him to fall for Elara. I never anticipated that he would go so far as to agree to let me be humiliated at the wedding just to please her.

I submerged myself in a warm bath, the heat gradually stopping my trembling.

Then, Ansel’s call came in.

“Stella, where are you? I’m already at the seaside park!”

I stayed silent.

Ansel grew anxious.

“Stella, what’s wrong? Are you upset?”

“Where are you? I’ll come pick you up right now!”

He remained as attentive and caring as ever, able to pick up on my emotions and offer comfort.

“I’m at home. I don’t want to go to the park today.”

There was a brief pause before Ansel spoke again, still trying to reassure me.

“Alright, I’ll come home right away to be with you.”

He didn’t question why I had canceled.

It wasn’t that his love for me was so profound that he could overlook my whims.

It was simply that he had successfully proposed to Elara in the carefully orchestrated setting.

I was merely his backup plan for when the proposal didn't go as expected.

As Ansel walked in, I was just coming out of the bathroom.

Seeing Elara behind him, I couldn’t help but frown.

“Why did you bring her here?” I asked warningly.

Was he really so eager to rub my face in it?

Ansel, looking a bit guilty, rubbed his nose.

“Stella, I ran into Elara downstairs and found out she lives in our neighborhood. She heard you were at Solaria and insisted on coming up to apologize…”

I watched him coldly, unimpressed by his performance.

“Stella, my mom and I were in the wrong back then. I’m apologizing on her behalf. Can you find it in yourself to forgive us?”

I turned to Ansel, my voice shaking.

“So, you think I should forgive them—both mother and daughter?”

The pain of a ruptured eardrum, the numbness from bamboo whips, the torment of seeing my mother’s belongings reduced to ashes…

I didn’t ask why he fell for Elara. It would have made me seem too weak.

As I stubbornly waited for his response, Ansel’s guilt seemed to dissolve into the air.

“Stella, Elara was just a kid back then. She didn’t understand right from wrong. She’s been remorseful for years and has already apologized to you. Why hold onto the past so tightly?”

The physical and emotional abuse that threw me into an endless abyss—that's what I call the past.

Refusing to forgive Elara wasn't about being petty.

He was the one who took me to the hospital back then; he knows better than anyone how deeply I loathe my stepmother and stepsister.

Yet, he chose to fall in love with Elara and align himself against me.

When Ansel reached out to take my hand, trying to broker peace with Elara, I slapped his hand away.

“Ansel, what gives you the right to ask me to forgive them?” I asked sharply.

Behind my father’s back, they abused me, tricked him into despising me and after his death, they didn’t even bother with his funeral…

Ansel looked at the back of my hand, now red from where I had slapped him and frowned in confusion and discontent.

“Stella, I’m trying to help you. You’re without parents now and Elara and her daughter are the only family you have left. Why hold on to the past and continue to suffer?”

“You need to move forward, don’t you?”

Ansel’s words were meant to be comforting, but the impatience I knew so well was already showing through his otherwise calm and composed face.

But there was no longer the familiar tenderness and care in his voice.

I could feel my heart, already battered and broken, shatter into dust.

The pain was so intense it left me almost speechless.

Elara’s eyes, brimming with feigned sorrow, held a glint of the same smugness and provocation as before.

“Stella, it’s alright if you can’t forgive me. I’ll keep repenting and feeling guilty until you accept me as your non-biological family.”

“Get out!”

I gripped the hallway tightly to keep myself from shaking too violently.

Ansel’s impatience was unmistakable.

“Stella, why are you being so unreasonable? Nobody is perfect—where has your tolerance gone?” he slightly raised his tone.

He had witnessed me being driven to the brink of suicide by Elara and her daughter.

Once, he had been willing to argue with them on my behalf, even to the point of furious outbursts.

What on earth had driven him to oppose me and start defending Elara?

I let the pain overwhelm me and told Ansel, word by word.

“Unless she dies before my eyes, I will never forgive her!”

Ansel’s forehead was throbbing and he was visibly about to lose his temper.

This was the same look he had when he used to rage at Elara and her daughter on my behalf.

“Stella! How did you become so bitter after just two years? If you can’t find it in yourself to forgive her, then at least apologize to Elara! I can’t stand the thought of people mocking my fiancée as a spiteful, resentful woman!”

“Your mother’s decision to end her life was her own weakness. If she had considered your youth, your father wouldn’t have had to remarry! Don’t blame all your misfortune on Elara and her daughter. Her mother made mistakes, but she didn’t deserve to die! If you, like your mother, are going to stubbornly wallow in your misery, then it’s no wonder you’re plagued by nightmares!”

He practically spat out the word “nightmares” through gritted teeth.

The revulsion that flashed across his face was clear to me.

So, the person who swore to protect me for life was now clearly fed up with being haunted by my nightmares.

In the end, all my misfortune and pain had become the sword he used to wound me, leaving me scarred and broken once more.

Once, the man who would feel heartache and tear up at the mention of my nightmares no longer held me close and promised.

“Stella, as long as I’m here, no nightmare or monster can hurt you!”

He had once used his love and care to pull me out of the abyss, but now he was the one who had shoved me back in.

For Elara’s sake, he said I deserved it!

Trembling uncontrollably, I could no longer cling to the hallway and staggered backward.

Ansel quickly steadied me, only to see that my knee was swollen and bruised.

He immediately crouched down to inspect the injury.

“How did you hurt your knee so badly?”

“Forget it. If you won’t apologize, I’ll do it for you, but you mustn’t be so disrespectful in the future.”

I wrenched my hand away with all my strength, my face ashen as I pointed toward the door.

“Get out! All of you, get out!”

Ansel, recognizing my vulnerability, tried to soothe me with a comforting embrace.

But Elara, tears streaming down her face, bowed deeply.

“Stella, I’m leaving now. Please, don’t torment yourself over this.”

As she turned to leave, she spun too quickly, crashing into the doorframe and falling sideways.

Ansel instantly released me and rushed to catch her. They both tumbled out into the hallway together.

Despite everything, Elara’s head still struck the doorframe, instantly turning red with a hint of blood seeping out.

Ansel scrambled to his feet, cradling her as he rushed towards the elevator.

“Elara, does it hurt? I’m taking you to see a doctor right now!”

The doorway finally fell silent.

My heart sank to the depths.

After ten years of knowing each other and ten years of love, we had reached this point of estrangement.

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

With seven days left, it was just enough time to clear away everything from the past.

Ansel was right; one must look forward.

From now on, I would sever all ties with the joys and sorrows of the past!