Chapter 2

I lifted the hem of my wedding dress and was just about to leave.

Nina Wells grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t go. The rehearsal isn’t over yet.”

The emcee was Ethan Shaw’s friend, and even he tried to persuade me.

“Don’t ruin the mood.”

“Let’s continue! Next, we’ll play the wedding VCR the bride and groom recorded in advance!”

Nina Wells smiled and pressed the remote control button.

The big screen slowly lit up.

But the person who appeared on the screen was not me.

It was Nina Wells.

She wore a white wedding dress and stood by the sea, smiling brightly at the camera.

The camera shifted.

Ethan Shaw walked over from behind her, skillfully tucked her windblown hair behind her ear, then hugged her.

The two of them looked at each other and smiled, so in sync it looked like they had filmed it countless times.

As I watched, my eyes slowly began to sting.

Ethan Shaw smiled faintly and pulled Nina Wells closer.

“I told you this wedding dress looks better on you than it does on Sophie.”

Nina Wells punched him again.

“Shut up! What are you saying in front of my best friend?”

She broke free from his arms and ran over to shake my arm.

“Sophie, don’t overthink it! I’ve never worn a wedding dress before, so I was just trying it on!”

I looked at Nina Wells’s hand on my arm.

On her ring finger was a diamond ring the size of a pigeon egg.

That was the ring Ethan Shaw had first used to propose to me.

Only later, he had suddenly told me with a hint of apology that there was something wrong with the ring, and he would get me a different one.

I never expected this.

It turned out my best friend had taken a liking to that ring.

How ironic that the ring used to propose to me had ended up on my best friend’s hand.

I slowly pulled my hand back.

Nina Wells’s eyes immediately reddened.

“Sophie, do you not even trust me anymore?”

Ethan Shaw finally frowned.

“Sophie.”

“Everyone is just joking, so don’t be so sensitive.”

Nina Wells took out her phone and said, “Sophie, I’ll delete Ethan Shaw right now!”

“We’re best friends, and I swear I only wanted to help you keep an eye on him!”

“Since you mind, I won’t bother with him anymore, okay?”

Nina Wells unlocked her phone and opened her chat history with Ethan Shaw.

Their chat history was very long.

I had never known that Ethan Shaw could have so much to say.

I sent him thirty messages every day, and he only replied to me once.

“Oops, where’s the delete button?”

I did not know if it was on purpose, but Nina Wells fumbled around in a panic, failed to find the delete button, and instead let me see a lot of their chat history.

“Sophie is asking again if the wedding date can be moved up.”

“Is she that desperate to get married?”

Nina Wells replied to him, “Forgive her. She’s already thirty, unlike me. I’m only twenty-six.”

Ethan Shaw sent back a smile.

“That’s why I said talking to younger you is easier than talking to her.”

My fingertips tightened little by little.

Soon, another section of the chat slid into view.

It included a photo of me wearing only half of my wedding dress, my upper body still bare.

Ethan Shaw said:

“Sophie chose a mermaid-style wedding dress.”

“She has no ass, so how does she have the nerve to choose a mermaid style?”

Nina Wells sent a laughing-crying emoji.

“Don’t say that about her.”

“But she really isn’t suited for it. Her figure is too lacking.”

Ethan Shaw replied:

“Yeah, you have a great body. You’d look better in it.”

I stood where I was, as if I had suddenly lost my voice.

My chest sank little by little, and even breathing came with a dull ache.

It turned out every single thing I had taken seriously.

Every moment of joy when I looked forward to the wedding.

Every bit of happiness I had hidden in my heart.

In Ethan Shaw’s eyes, it was nothing more than a private joke for him and Nina Wells.

I suddenly felt that there was really no need to get married.