On the day I was supposed to walk down the aisle, the boy I had cherished in secret for years whispered a promise that stole my breath.

He said as long as I took the first step, he would handle the other 99 steps.

His words, soft and full of conviction, became my beacon of hope. My heart raced with reckless abandon as I hurried to our meeting spot, brimming with the belief that this would be the start of something beautiful. But when I arrived, reality struck like a thunderclap. His smile wasn’t one of love but of smug triumph.

Behind him, his friends burst into laughter, their taunts echoing in the air.

“See? She fell for it! A thousand each, don’t forget to pay up!”

With his winnings clutched in his hand, he turned to the bridesmaid who had driven me there and pulled her into an embrace that was far too intimate to ignore. His betrayal was as sharp as a dagger, carving a wound deep into my chest.

Mocking me with a smirk sliced through my pride, he said, “Ravenna, don’t flatter yourself. The person I truly want is her, not you. Did you really think I’d fall for a married woman like you?”

Then, as if twisting the knife, he dropped to one knee, holding out a ring in front of my bridesmaid. The crowd gasped, their whispers cutting through the air like a thousand daggers.

Noticing my darkened expression, he chuckled, the sound dripping with malice. “If you want to scurry back and carry on with your wedding, feel free. But I doubt the groom would still have you!”

What he didn’t know, what none of them realized, was that this so-called elopement wasn’t his victory; it was my move in a game he didn’t even know he was playing.

------

When Hendrick Pierce fell to one knee and proposed to Viella Ivory, my bridesmaid, the truth hit me like a cruel punchline to a joke I hadn’t realized I was the butt of. It wasn’t just a proposal; it was the final act in their carefully staged mockery.

I was the one who had received Hendrick’s heartfelt confession text, the one who dared to believe in a love that wasn’t mine to claim. I was the one Viella had so sweetly encouraged, whispering promises of chasing true love, even driving me here under the guise of friendship.

And now, with the cheers and blessings of the crowd ringing in my ears, the two of them stood entwined, basking in the glow of their deceit.

Meanwhile, I stood frozen, the weight of my wedding dress pressing down on me like chains, a tragic figure in a performance I hadn’t agreed to join.

After kissing Viella with all the flair of a man basking in his victory, Hendrick turned to his friends, his grin as wide as his arrogance.

“See? Ravenna really ran away for me!” he boasted, waving his hand theatrically. “The evidence is all here, now, cough up! A thousand each, no excuses!”

Laughter erupted from the group, their voices dripping with mockery.

“Come on, Hendrick! With that kind of charm, how could we not fund your happily ever after?” one chimed in.

“To Hendrick and his bride, may your love be as eternal as your ego!”

After tossing their mocking blessings into the air, his friends turned to me, their expressions twisted with disdain.

“Ravenna, should we applaud you for bravely chasing love or just admit you’re as clueless as a headless chicken? You’re married; how can you still be hung up on Hendrick?”

“Seriously! Hendrick is leagues above you. Take a good, hard look at yourself!”

“We bet you wouldn’t come, thinking even you wouldn’t fall for this. But here you are, too pitiful to even look at!”

I stood frozen, my hands gripping the edge of my wedding dress so tightly it nearly ripped, the fabric straining under the weight of my silent fury.

Hendrick pocketed his winnings with a satisfied smirk, then sauntered over to me, leaning in close as if to whisper something kind.

His voice, soft yet mocking, cut through the haze. “Ravenna, are those tears I see? Don’t tell me you’re about to cry.”

Then, with a dramatic turn, he waved at his friends, his tone shifting to fake reproach.

“Really, guys? Have you no hearts? You’ve almost brought the bride to tears! On her big day, too, how could you be so cruel?”

I snapped my head up, desperate for some sign that this was nothing more than a cruel nightmare.

But Hendrick shoved a microphone into my trembling hands before I could even gather my bearings.

His grin stretched wider, cutting through me like a blade. “Ravenna, today’s my big day. Everyone else brought me gifts, but you didn’t.”

He paused, letting the words hang in the air, a mockery in their own right. “That’s okay. We’ve been best friends for over a decade, haven’t we? You don’t need to give me money. Just sing me a song.”

My heart sank as his smile grew even colder. “Sing ‘Today You’re Marrying Me’!”

The air caught in my throat, disbelief flooding my chest. How could such cruel words flow so easily from his mouth?

The crowd erupted into applause, their cheers echoing like a cruel serenade.

Viella blushed, turning her head coyly. “Who said I’d marry you? You’re so annoying,” she murmured, her voice laced with playful protest.

Hendrick grinned, blowing her a kiss with theatrical flair before pivoting back toward me. His voice was sharp, cutting through the noise. “Sing! Didn’t you always love singing back in the day? Let’s hear it!”

Someone from the crowd joined in, their laughter ringing louder than my pounding heartbeat. “Yeah, Ravenna! Weren’t you the one always secretly singing for Hendrick in school? What’s wrong now? Too shy with all these eyes on you?”

Hendrick nodded, a fake gleam of understanding in his eyes. “That’s right. Back then, you’d practice for hours just so you could sing for me. Now, come on, sing this song as a blessing for my dear fiancée. Show us your love.”

“Ravenna, sing!”

With a dramatic flourish, Hendrick clapped his hands, the sound echoing through the room like a command. His friends immediately fell in line, chanting in unison, “Sing! Sing!”

A wave of fury and humiliation slammed into me, drowning out the world around me. My hands trembled so violently that I nearly dropped the microphone, the cold metal pressing against my skin like a reminder of my powerlessness.

Back in school, when Hendrick’s parents divorced, he was too terrified to sleep alone. He’d beg me to sing to him, the sound of my voice his only comfort through the long, sleepless nights. I would sneak back and forth between his house and mine, practicing lullabies and perfecting my singing, terrified that my voice might not be good enough.

But now, those precious moments I’d held close had turned into nothing more than a cruel game for his amusement, a mockery of everything I’d given.

My voice, thick with emotion, I shoved the microphone back into Hendrick’s hand.

“I won’t sing,” I said, the words bitter on my tongue. “And I don’t wish you two any happiness.”

The words barely left my lips before a mocking voice rang out. “Ravenna, don’t tell me you’re still chasing after Hendrick?”

“Hendrick, you’d better watch out. Women like her, clingy, shameless, and relentless, are terrifying! She ditched her own wedding to throw herself at you. She’d probably be thrilled to be your mistress!”

Hendrick sneered, his eyes full of disdain as he shot me a glance. “My mistress? You? Not even close.”

Each cruel word was like a dagger to my heart, tearing it apart piece by piece.

If this had happened in the past, I would have already broken down, tears flooding my eyes as I begged Hendrick to explain himself. But not today. Today, I forced the bitterness rising in my throat down and steadied myself.

“Hendrick, you're the one proposing today, and I’m the one getting married. So why don’t you give me a wedding gift? No need for money; a song will do.”

Hendrick exchanged a sly look with Viella, and they both burst into laughter as though I were the punchline of some cruel joke.

“Ravenna, you already ran away from your wedding for me. Do you really think your husband will still want you after this?”

“Exactly,” Viella chimed in, her voice dripping with mockery. “I heard you and your husband had a flash marriage with no real foundation. Now you’ve made such a scene, do you honestly think your wedding will go ahead?”

I forced a smile, though my heart twisted in my chest. “You don’t need to worry about that. My wedding will proceed as planned.”

I had known all along that Hendrick was trying to trick me into abandoning my wedding. But not today. Today, I would stand firm.

Early that morning, I had received his call. His voice, thick with alcohol and a tremor of something that sounded like tears, slipped through the receiver.

“Ravenna,” he whispered, the words heavy with desperation. “Please don’t marry him. Don’t marry anyone else. I can’t stand it. You know I can’t live without you.”

“If you still love me, come to Sinclair Garden, our spot. I’ll wait until midnight.”

“If you show up, I’ll take you away, no questions asked. From that moment on, it will just be us, no one else.”

Before I could even respond, he hung up. On my end, my heart was racing like a wild drumbeat, every thump echoing in my chest.

Hendrick and I had been inseparable since childhood. We’d been best friends for more than a decade, and I had confessed to him more times than I could count. But he had always turned me down, insisting we were just friends.

Was it the impending wedding that had finally shifted something in his heart? Had it taken me about to commit to someone else for him to suddenly feel differently?

At that moment, my bridesmaid, Viella, sent me a message.

[Ravenna, I know you’ve always loved Hendrick. He told me to drive you to Sinclair Garden.]

[If you’ve made up your mind, let’s go. Nothing in this world can stop true love between you two.]

As I teetered on the edge of uncertainty, another message pinged a video message.

In the video, Hendrick was busy arranging flowers and balloons across the lush lawn of Sinclair Garden.

A voice off-camera asked, “Hendrick, Ravenna is getting married today. Tell me, are you really setting up a wedding venue for her?”

Hendrick, without missing a beat, rolled his eyes. “Her? Worthy of this? No, I’m setting up a surprise for Viella. I’m proposing to her today and making her my fiancée!”

“But isn’t she the bridesmaid at Ravenna’s wedding? Will she even make it here in time?”

Hendrick’s eyes glinted with mischief, a sly smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“So, Ravenna’s getting married today, huh? I’ll bet you anything. With just one phone call, I can make her abandon her wedding and rush right over here.”

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a teasing whisper. “Who wants to see a clown bride in a wedding dress?”

The group erupted in laughter and cheers. “We do!”

One person, eyes wide in disbelief, asked, “Hey, Hendrick, are all these flowers fresh? This has to be costing a fortune!”

Another voice chimed in, “Not just fresh flowers; these came all the way from France! And this lawn? People would fight to book this spot, but Hendrick not only spent a small fortune but also worked some magic to get it. All for Viella, of course.”

Hendrick’s smile grew, his eyes softening. “For Viella, only the best.”

Suddenly, a memory flashed in my mind, and the wedding gift Hendrick had prepared for me was still unopened.

Curious, I lifted the lid of the box and found it brimming with delicate paper stars and origami cranes, their edges crisp and precise.

A card rested on top, and I picked it up. In his familiar scrawl, it read, "Ravenna, I folded all of these myself!"

My fingers trembled as I picked up one of the stars and carefully unfolded it. Inside, my own handwriting greeted me, "Hendrick, I wish you health and happiness forever!"

I froze. Back in high school, Hendrick had fallen gravely ill, and I had folded 999 paper stars and 1,000 origami cranes, convinced that the act would bring him good fortune and health.

Every single one of those stars, every crane, had been folded by my hands, each one a prayer for his recovery.

Yet now, he had casually gathered them up and handed them to me as a wedding gift while he spared no expense flying in flowers from France for Viella.

The video ended abruptly, leaving my heart splintered into countless jagged pieces.

What should have been a moment of excitement had turned into a pit of cold despair.

I repeated Hendrick’s name over and over in my mind, my emotions twisting from heartbreak to seething hatred.

He knew, he had always known, how I felt about him. And yet, knowing I was on the brink of marriage, he still chose to humiliate me like this.

In the silence, the image of my childhood friend, the one who had once cherished me, who made wishes with me under shooting stars, who promised we would always be together, seemed to vanish, leaving behind only the shadow of what he had become.

“Hendrick, you once said I hadn’t given you a wedding gift, right? Well, here it is.”

I slipped the bracelet from my wrist and handed it back to him, the cool metal feeling foreign in my palm.

Hendrick stared at it, his eyes distant, as if the meaning of the moment was slipping through his fingers.

I remembered when his mother had given it to me just before she left.

She had said that, after her remarriage, I would likely be the one who cared the most about Hendrick in the world.

That’s why she entrusted me with this heirloom bracelet.

Back then, I had been over the moon, imagining it was a sign that Hendrick and I were destined to be together, forever.

But today, the day he was to propose to another woman, everything felt different.

Viella stepped forward, her fingers seizing the bracelet with barely a pause.

"Thank you, Ravenna. Hendrick and I will be so happy together."

Her words, sweet as poison, were followed by a cold appraisal of me; her eyes lingered on my veil.

"Your wedding dress is stunning," Viella said, her voice dripping with mock sweetness. "Since you're not getting married anymore, why not take it off and let me try it on?"

The audacity of her request took my breath away. I instinctively took a step back, shock freezing me.

"Viella, you're still wearing the bridesmaid dress I paid for, and now you want my wedding dress too?"

Viella’s gaze flicked down to her dress, a slight frown creasing her brow, but there was no shame in her eyes, only calculated indifference.