On our wedding day, Caleb Lockwood's Unforgettable Flame, the one who'd run off abroad, came back.

She clutched a critical condition notice, her smile fragile. "Caleb, I thought you were going to let me wear a wedding dress one last time."

To fulfill her wish, Caleb Lockwood gave her my wedding dress and made her the bride instead.

He locked me in the dressing room. Through the door, his voice was laced with impatience.

"We have a whole future ahead of us. What's the harm in letting her have this one moment?"

Later, a wealthy young man who'd long admired me from afar bought out all the stock in the Lockwood Group and used it as leverage to propose.

Caleb Lockwood, his eyes red, begged me, "Are you really going to abandon me for him?"

I took a step back. "We don't have a future anymore. Why should I care what happens to you?"

...

On the day of the wedding, the makeup artist fidgeted, opening and closing her makeup case.

"Miss Sterling, perhaps we should start on your makeup?"

My gaze kept darting toward the door. Caleb Lockwood had taken a call and rushed out, and he still hadn't returned.

"Let's get started."

The wedding was set to begin in half an hour when the phone I'd left on the table lit up.

[Your man is wonderful. And now, he's mine.]

[Oh, and so is your wedding.]

The message came with a photo: a girl, beaming as she held up her phone, nestled carefully in a man's embrace.

You could only see the back of the man's head, but I knew it was Caleb Lockwood.

I recognized the girl, too. She was Evie Channing—Caleb Lockwood's Unforgettable Flame.

She was wearing the wedding dress I had meticulously designed. It was one of a kind.

I remembered Caleb Lockwood had taken the dress once, claiming he needed to have some details altered.

I took a screenshot and sent it to Caleb Lockwood.

[So these are the details you altered? Caleb Lockwood, I need an explanation. Is our wedding still happening or not?]

Caleb Lockwood replied almost instantly: [Wait for me. We're still on.]

'We'd been together for seven years. I couldn't just throw it all away.'

Ten minutes until the ceremony.

Caleb Lockwood rushed in, beads of sweat on his forehead.

'Maybe it was just force of habit, but a pang of concern made me swallow all the questions I wanted to ask.'

"Raina, the wedding will proceed as planned."

Caleb Lockwood's eyes were full of deep, affectionate apology.

I didn't press him. Instead, I turned back to the mirror, quickly dabbing highlighter on my face. "You're back so late, I don't even have time to change into my dress now."

"You don't have to."

Caleb Lockwood's hand rested on my shoulder. "You won't be attending today, Raina. I'll make it up to you."

I froze.

'It's true what they say. Sometimes, when you're furious, you just have to laugh.'

"What do you mean?" I studied him. He wasn't wearing the tuxedo I'd painstakingly chosen for him. This one was similar, but there were subtle differences, from the cuffs to the bow tie.

Caleb Lockwood instinctively avoided my gaze. "The hospital issued a critical condition notice for Evie. Wearing a wedding dress is her final wish. I can't let her pass away with regrets."

Evie Channing was Caleb Lockwood's Unforgettable Flame.

Back in school, everyone knew she and Caleb Lockwood were a couple—the talented scholar and the beautiful belle, a match made in heaven.

But when the Lockwood Family fell on hard times, she went abroad, leaving Caleb Lockwood to face his most difficult years alone.

Then, she returned, just one month before our wedding.

Upon her return, she'd stubbornly refused to contact Caleb Lockwood. It was only when the hospital couldn't get in touch with any of her relatives that they finally called him.

At first, I respected her for her restraint and self-control. I even pitied her—a young woman, gravely ill, with no family in the country to turn to.

Caleb Lockwood repeatedly told me he was only looking after Evie Channing out of sympathy and a sense of duty.

But I began to realize she wasn't as innocent as she seemed when, during the last lockdown, Evie Channing had called Caleb Lockwood, crying, and begged him to come stay with her.

After that incident, however, Caleb Lockwood didn't act any differently.

He also made a point of discussing it with me anytime she called, and he would avoid going to her if he could.

That's why I had been willing to tolerate it.

'But when had they decided to hijack my wedding?'

Caleb Lockwood avoided my gaze.

A chill, so cold it ached, seized my heart.

The coldness seemed to seep into my very bones, creeping through the cracks.

"Caleb, what about me?"

My eyes were red.

"She wants to fulfill her dying wish at my wedding. So what about the wedding I've spent so long planning? What does that make all of this?"

From every detail of the ceremony to the handwritten invitations I sent out.

I worked without rest, preparing for more than half a month.

Just last night, I stayed up all night with Caleb, fantasizing about how perfect today would be.

I thought I would be the most beautiful bride at our wedding, a culmination of our seven years together.

But now... what did any of it mean?

I waited for his answer.

Caleb grew impatient. "You're being so unreasonable. You and I have a whole future ahead of us. She's dying. What's the big deal about letting her have this?"

I know Caleb. He's an exceptionally gentle and refined person.

In the seven years we've been together, this was the first time he had ever raised his voice at me.

And it was for another woman.

"I'm sorry." Caleb ran a hand through his hair, agitated.

"The wedding is about to start. I'll make it up to you later."

"Caleb!"

I tried to follow him, chasing after his retreating steps.

But all that answered me was a tightly shut door.

Caleb was gone.

Through that door, the wedding march began to play.

I stood there numbly in my wedding dress slip, feeling like a clown.

'Just because his Unforgettable Flame is dying...'

'...I deserve to have everything ruined.'

During the wedding, a staff member suddenly entered and turned on the electronic screen in the dressing room.

"Miss Sterling, this is on Miss Channing's orders."

As the staff member left, my phone lit up.

It was a call from my mom, but I couldn't answer it.

Then, the scene of the wedding appeared on the large screen.

Evie Channing was wearing the wedding dress I had meticulously designed, walking across the Bridge of Promises I had spent nights creating. A blissful smile on her face, she moved step by step toward Caleb Lockwood.

The vows I had written had become the emcee's tribute to her.

The custom-made wedding rings were engraved with her initials, not mine.

The montage of our past, the one we'd filmed, had become a chronicle of her and Caleb's shared memories.

Even my wedding photos, the ones I had gone through so much trouble to scout locations for and shoot, had been AI-doctored to replace my face with hers.

Grief, struggle, a thousand different emotions gnawed at me like tiny insects, eating their way from my heart to the surface of my skin.

It itched and ached.

There was no escape.

I trembled helplessly.

My fingertips, my ankles, every part of my skin that was sore and bruised from the wedding preparations screamed in protest.

I had made a thousand adjustments under the blazing sun, all to capture the most beautiful photos for this day.

And it had all become a wedding gift for Evie Channing.

I saw Caleb smile at her, his expression full of adoration.

Caleb smiled at me, too, but he had never looked at me with such a cherished gaze.

Only after seeing what real love looked like did I realize how clearly he had never loved me.

I wrapped my arms around myself as tears streamed down my face against my will.

「The camera panned.」

My parents were being held down in a corner, their mouths gagged.

"Dad, Mom!"

I shot to my feet in horror.

'How could Caleb do this? How dare he!'

I pounded frantically on the door. "Let me out! Let me out!"

But the only response was the cheerful strains of the wedding march.

: Resignation

From anger to powerlessness, and then to clarity.

I looked in the mirror and wiped off my makeup.

I changed back into my own clothes.

This wedding was never meant for me.

My poor choice had already brought my parents enough shame.

Caleb Lockwood was a piece of trash, and I wasn't about to take him back.

The wedding ceremony was a tedious affair.

I had wanted this grand ceremony to be a testament to our happiness.

Now, it was nothing but torture.

Once it was all over, the door to the dressing room swung open.

Caleb Lockwood stood in the doorway, his face etched with exhaustion.

"Raina, I'll make it up to you. I'll go explain to your parents, I…"

I cut Caleb Lockwood off, raising my hand and slapping him several times.

"President Lockwood, this is my letter of resignation."

I had always been gentle and capable, never one to act so irrationally.

Caleb Lockwood was stunned.

I brushed past him, never looking back.

"Raina."

He called out to me.

I ignored him and strode toward my parents.

Red marks were still visible on their faces.

All manner of aunts and other relatives were gathered around them, all talking at once.

"See? I told you. No good comes from a girl trying to land a rich man."

"Looks like Raina just got played, huh? Thought she could lock down some Alpha CEO, but it turns out he never really wanted her. What a disgrace. Tsk, tsk. You two really need to teach that girl a lesson."

I stepped in front of my parents. Seeing their faces flush with embarrassment and anger, a deep sadness welled up inside me. I didn't care that these people were my relatives and elders; I fired back at them.

"Auntie, what makes you think I was after his money? When I helped Caleb Lockwood build his company from scratch, he was a nobody!"

"Second Aunt, you want to talk about teaching me a lesson? Why didn't you say anything when Caleb Lockwood gave you that bracelet?"

"He's the one who swapped brides at the last minute! It's because he's fickle and has no integrity! If I'd known sooner, I never would've chosen him as my boyfriend in the first place!"

After I drove off my relatives, I didn't even notice Caleb Lockwood standing right behind me. Nor did I see the look of anguish in his eyes.

On the way home, my parents didn't ask me a single thing.

They just gently told me to take care of myself and not to grieve over someone who wasn't worth it.

A parent's love for their child is unconditional.

After taking my parents home, I went to the house I had shared with Caleb Lockwood for seven years.

The moment I opened the door, a familiar scent washed over me.

I was horribly, unnervingly clear-headed.

And yet, my heart felt like it was being crushed by a stone.

Tears pooled atop that stone, salty and astringent, but I couldn't cry.

There was no outlet for all the bitterness I had swallowed.