The engagement party was winding down. I went to the lounge to find Richard, but stopped short when I heard his drunken voice slurring to a friend.

“I don’t love Kelly. The woman I want to marry is Ava. You get me?”

His friend sighed. “Then marry Ava. Why go through with an engagement to Kelly?”

Richard mumbled, his words thick with alcohol and resentment. “My family demands a match of equals. They’d never let Ava into the Monroe family. But Kelly… she loves me, her family is perfect, my parents approve…”

I lowered my eyes, swallowing the bitter taste that rose in my throat.

It was true, I loved Richard. But my family, the Langstons, had no shortage of suitors.

1

I gathered the hem of my gown, ready to leave, when I heard his friend speak again.

“Keep your voice down. What if Kelly hears you?”

I froze, wanting to hear his answer.

A moment later, Richard’s voice rose to a shout.

“Let her hear! What’s she going to do? She loves me so much, she’d never leave me!”

“You have no idea how suffocated I feel. When we were making the toasts tonight… God, I wished it was Ava standing next to me.”

“Listen to me,” he said, his voice cracking. “Marry someone you love. Otherwise, you’ll end up miserable, just like me…”

A smile, more painful than a sob, twisted my lips.

I never knew. I never knew that Richard had agreed to be with me, to propose to me, under such a cloud of misery.

My nose tingled, a hot sting behind my eyes.

I turned to go and walked straight into a waiter. The hangover-remedy soup I’d ordered for Richard sloshed all over my expensive gown. The waiter began to apologize profusely.

“It’s fine,” I said, my voice hollow. “Don’t bother making another one. Just… pretend I was never here.”

I had arranged for the soup earlier, watching Richard knock back glass after glass. I thought he was happy.

How utterly laughable I was.

The waiter tried to say something else, but I was already walking away.

I sat in my car for a long time, the world outside a silent blur. Then, I made a call.

“The wedding in two months… can you be my groom?”

The person on the other end was silent for a long moment. Then, a single word.

“Yes.”

My grandfather’s health was failing; the doctors had only given him a few years. His greatest wish was to see me married. As long as I was married, my uncles couldn’t touch the inheritance my parents had left me. That’s why, when Richard proposed, I’d said yes.

But tonight, I learned the truth of his private agony.

I drove back to the house we were supposed to share, our future home, but my heart felt like a hollow cavern. Just a few days ago, I had been excitedly telling the designer exactly how I wanted every room to look.

In the living room stood several large suitcases I’d had delivered, still unpacked. Now, it seemed, they would be leaving with me.

A dead calm settled over me.

It was love at first sight for me with Richard. Our relationship was engineered by his family, a perfect strategic match. At first, he was polite but distant. Then, slowly, he began to return my affection.

I thought… I thought he was falling in love with me.

Richard’s call came while I was in the middle of ripping our enormous engagement portrait off the bedroom wall.

I answered, and his heavy breathing filled the line. “They said you left early. Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Just tired,” I said coolly.

He was quiet for a few seconds. “I have something to take care of tonight, so I won’t be coming back. I’ll pick you up for breakfast in the morning.”

“Fine.”

Tonight was meant to be our first night together in our new home.

As soon as he hung up, I drove back to my own apartment and started searching for my important documents. I couldn't find them anywhere. Then I remembered—I’d brought my birth certificate and passport to Richard’s apartment, thinking it would be more convenient for applying for the marriage license.

Since that was off the table, I needed to get them back.

The next morning, I drove to Richard’s downtown apartment. He often worked late at the office and wouldn't come back until the afternoon.

But when I opened the door with my key, the first thing I saw was a pair of long, bare legs.

Ava, his secretary, was standing there wearing one of my shirts—one I had bought for Richard. Our eyes met.

2

So this was the “something” he had to take care of.

“Kelly…” Ava stared at me, her eyes wide with shock. The egg she was frying in the pan began to smoke.

“Where’s Richard?” I asked, my voice flat.

“He’s… still sleeping.” She bit her lip, a picture of innocent chagrin.

The scene was surreal: my fiancé’s secretary, wearing his shirt, making him breakfast in his apartment. But after overhearing his confession last night, my heart felt little more than a dull ache. There was no room for shock.

I started toward the bedroom, but Ava blocked my path.

“Kelly, this is all my fault,” she pleaded, her voice trembling. “I had too much to drink, and Richard was just worried about me. I was the one who initiated things. It’s all on me. You can hit me, scream at me, just please don’t blame Richard.”

By the end of her speech, she was sobbing. I tried to step around her, but she grabbed my arm. I shook her off, and with a sudden shriek, she stumbled backward and collapsed onto the floor.

Before I could even react, Richard burst out of the bedroom and shoved me hard. My back slammed against the sharp corner of a console table. A jolt of intense pain shot through me, and I gasped.

He wasn't even dressed, just wearing a pair of boxers. A cluster of fresh red marks on his neck burned into my vision.

“Kelly! If you have a problem, take it up with me! Don’t you dare touch Ava! I can explain everything.”

Explain? Explain why he was sleeping with his secretary?

I opened my mouth to speak, but my gaze fell on a bracelet on Ava’s wrist.

It was the Monroe family heirloom. Richard’s grandmother had given it to me, a tradition for every bride who married into the family. A priceless piece of jewelry, now on Ava’s wrist.

I stepped forward to get a closer look, but Ava shrank away like I was a monster, hiding behind Richard. “Please, don’t hit me again,” she whimpered. Her shoulders trembled as she cried, the very image of a victim.

Richard shielded her, his face dark with fury. “It’s just a bracelet, Kelly. As the future Mrs. Monroe, you shouldn’t be so petty.”

So it was true. The bracelet I treasured, the symbol of my place in his family, had been given to her.

“If you want to marry her,” I said, my voice steady, “I will step aside.”

Richard flinched. The reality of his family’s opposition hit him, and his expression turned blacker than the burnt egg in the pan. “Kelly, it’s a stupid bracelet! If she wants to wear it, let her. I already owe her so much. Can you just stop making things harder for me?”

I looked at his heaving chest and realized something with stark clarity: the absence of love is deafeningly obvious. With me, his emotions were always muted, a calm, placid surface. He rarely got angry. But now, for another woman, his face was a mask of cold fury.

The realization sent my heart plummeting. A profound exhaustion washed over me.

“I’m just here to get my things. I’ll be gone in a minute.”

I came out with my documents, and Richard stared at me, his brow furrowed. “What do you need those for?”

To marry someone else. To be with someone else.

But I saw no need to tell him that. “It’s none of your business.”

He instinctively started to follow me to the door, but Ava’s weak, wounded voice called out from behind him. “Richard…”

He stopped dead in his tracks and watched as I slammed the door behind me.

Outside, I made another call to the same person. “When you get back, let’s get the marriage license first.”

“Okay. I’m almost done here. Wait for me.”

I looked up at the vast blue sky and thought, maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

At least I was free of a rotten man.

3

I had my suitcases moved to a penthouse owned by him and began to set up our new home myself.

I worked until evening, when a text from Richard came through.

<I’ll arrange for Ava to settle abroad. She won’t be in your way. You’ll still be the future Mrs. Monroe. Satisfied?>

I stared at the message, a humorless laugh escaping my lips, and deleted it.

The future Mrs. Monroe?

Sorry. I’m no longer interested.

Though I was resolute in my decision to leave Richard, our families were still entangled in business. So, until I was ready to make my move, I played my part. At my birthday party, I was on his arm, a fake smile plastered on my face as we accepted congratulations.

When I grew tired and slipped out to the balcony for some air, I saw Ava, dressed in a stunning white gown, step gracefully to Richard’s side.

They looked good together. A perfect match.

I didn’t remember inviting her.

A short while later, Richard was summoned to the study by my uncles. As he headed upstairs, he shot a worried glance back at Ava and me. I knew what he was thinking. He was afraid I would hurt her.

Once Richard was out of sight, Ava came and sat beside me. She raised her wine glass. “Congratulations, Kelly.”

“Are you congratulating me on my fiancé’s infidelity, or on you successfully climbing into his bed?”

Her smile faltered, a flash of jealousy in her eyes. Since I wasn’t playing nice, she dropped the act. “You don’t actually think last night was our first time, do you?”

She smirked, her tone dripping with provocation. “The night you confessed your feelings to him, the night you two officially got together? He came to me, drunk, holding me and apologizing for how guilty he felt.”

“You were out making wishes on shooting stars, Kelly. Did the stars give you what you wanted?”

My hand trembled, and red wine sloshed over the rim of my glass onto the floor. The night before I told Richard how I felt, I had seen a shooting star and made a wish. When he agreed to be with me, I’d joyfully told him my wish had come true.

He had just smiled and patted my head.

I couldn’t stop myself. I threw the rest of my wine in her face. The red liquid stained her expensive dress. I turned to leave, but she grabbed my hand and clamped it around her own throat.

“Kelly, I’m sorry… please don’t do this…”

I struggled to pull away, confused, and in the next second, she threw herself backward over the balcony railing.

It wasn't a high balcony, only a single story down to the lawn below.

I heard Richard’s roar of fury from behind me. He ripped me away, his eyes locked on Ava’s unconscious form on the grass. Then he was gone, flying down the stairs to her side.

He looked up at me, his eyes blazing with a hatred so intense it scorched me.

He sped away with Ava in his car. She’d broken her leg. She wasn’t dead.

The next day, I was trending online. Headlines painted the future Mrs. Monroe as a vicious shrew who couldn't tolerate a grain of sand in her eye, who had pushed her fiancé’s poor secretary off a balcony. The story they spun was that Ava had only come to the party to deliver an urgent file.

The public backlash was immediate and brutal. The Langston Group’s stock plummeted. My uncles pressured me to go to the hospital and apologize.

Not wanting to worry my grandfather, I went. I was met by Richard, his face covered in stubble, his eyes shot with blood. The moment he saw me, he lunged, slamming me against the wall, his hands tight around my throat.

Just as my vision started to blacken, Ava’s weak voice came from the room. “Richard… don’t do something you’ll regret…”

He let go.

“If we weren’t engaged,” he snarled, his voice thick with rage, “I would kill you.”

He turned and went to her bedside, carefully spoon-feeding her porridge. I watched the scene with a cynical detachment. Ava, however, flinched under my gaze.

“Kelly, I was wrong, I really was. Please, forgive me, I’ll break it off with Richard…”

Before she could finish, Richard cut her off. “Kelly, get out!”

My heart was already numb. I turned and walked away.

Photos of my hospital visit were, of course, leaked to the press. The next day, a new story was published: it was all a misunderstanding, an accident. But no one believed it. Someone was carefully orchestrating the narrative, keeping the blame squarely on me.

Then, two days later, every negative story about me vanished from the internet.

I knew he was back.

Eddy. Eddy Cole. He’d had a crush on me in college, but his family was so powerful, their world so complicated, that I had turned him down. We hadn't spoken since, though he’d sent his congratulations through a mutual friend when he heard I was engaged.

The night I heard Richard’s confession, I’d gotten Eddy’s number from that same friend, never imagining he would actually agree to my desperate proposal.

Now, he sat across from me in a private dining room, devastatingly handsome. I had to ask.

“Eddy, was it you who had the stories taken down?”

“Yes,” he said, his gaze steady and serious.

We ate in a comfortable silence. With Eddy, I was learning what it felt like to be treated with genuine chivalry.

The next day, we got our marriage license. I showed it to my grandfather, who was overjoyed. He’d only met Richard once and barely remembered what he looked like.

A moment later, my phone rang. It was Richard. “Where have you been? You haven’t been staying at the new house, have you? And all your suitcases are gone.”

His voice was strained. “Kelly, I’m already stressed out cleaning up the mess you made. Can you please stop throwing a tantrum…”

I cut him off, my patience gone. “What do you want?”

He paused, then his tone softened. “Come back. There’s something I need to discuss with you.”

Honestly, I could have just ignored him, but I knew if I didn’t go, he would just go to my uncles. Now that I was legally married, it was time to set the record straight.

When he saw me, the frustration on Richard’s face melted away. He rushed toward me and took my wrist. I pulled away instinctively.

His voice was gentle, conciliatory. “I was thinking, after we’re married, we should have Ava move in with us. That way, I can look after her. I don’t trust anyone else.”

I stared at him in disbelief. He seemed completely oblivious to my shock.

“None of this would have happened if your jealousy hadn’t gotten the best of you and you hadn’t pushed her,” he continued, his tone matter-of-fact. “I was going to call the police, but Ava stopped me. You should be grateful to her, Kelly.”

“I’ve already had the housekeeper prepare the master bedroom for her. If you want to stay, you’ll have to use the guest room.”

Hearing his words, I felt a wave of profound relief that I had woken up when I did.

I opened my mouth to tell him that none of this mattered to me anymore, but he cut me off impatiently. “I have to get back to the hospital to take care of Ava. If you need anything, call my assistant.”

He started for the door, but just then, his phone rang. My hands were shaking with rage at his audacity, and I accidentally hit the speakerphone button as I answered.

Eddy’s clear, calm voice filled the room, laced with an unmistakable tenderness.

“Wife, are you coming home for dinner tonight?”

Richard froze, his hand on the doorknob. He turned slowly, his face ashen.

“Kelly, stop playing these games. Do you really think hiring some guy to call you is going to make me abandon Ava?!”