Chapter 1

The night before our engagement party, I discovered my boyfriend Adrian kept recordings from his first night with his childhood sweetheart, even the bloodstained sheets.

When I confronted him through tears, his response was ice-cold:

"I just had too much to drink that night. Vanessa gave me her first time—I need to take responsibility for her."

At the engagement party, when I tried to call off the wedding, Vanessa deliberately spiked my drink with formaldehyde.

I vomited all over the floor in front of everyone, but Adrian only had eyes for Vanessa's bleeding hand.

"She's the one who got hurt, and you're still putting on this act!"

He rushed his childhood friend to the hospital, leaving me alone on the floor in that mess.

Fine then. I'll let you two have each other.

Later, as I walked toward another man in a pure white wedding dress, Adrian knelt at my feet with a diamond ring:

"Ella, please give me one more chance."

Watching Adrian's determined figure walk away, I picked up my phone and called my mom:

"Mom, I'm willing to marry Theo."

"Oh sweetheart, I know you've been wronged. I'll arrange the wedding right away."

Before the engagement party even ended, an ambulance took me to the hospital for a stomach pump.

The burning sensation in my mouth and throat kept assaulting my nerves.

After giving my mom instructions through the pain, she immediately had someone notify the Richardson family to set a date for our wedding.

Theo had been pursuing me for five years, proposing to me every birthday.

But back then, my heart only had room for Adrian. I never accepted his affection.

Even though I'd decided to leave, my heart still ached unbearably.

I smiled bitterly and shook my head. Better a short pain than a long one. I'd get used to it.

After the stomach pump, I was lying weakly in the hospital bed when the door suddenly burst open. Adrian rushed in with red-eyed Vanessa.

"Ella Hayes, how long are you going to keep pretending to be sick?"

"Vanessa just grabbed the wrong glass—what gives you the right to make her kneel and apologize to you!"

His whole body radiated hostility, veins bulging on his face like a lion pushed to the edge of fury.

"When did I ever tell her to kneel?"

"Still making excuses." He shoved Vanessa's phone in my face.

After seeing the message on the screen, my eyes went wide.

"I never sent this."

I pulled out my phone to show him the chat history, but he slapped it out of my hand.

"Who else could it be!"

He wouldn't listen to my explanation at all, throwing my phone violently to the side.

In that moment, I suddenly didn't want to explain anymore. He always took Vanessa's side anyway, using the sharpest words to wound me.

Whether I did it or not didn't matter anymore.

"Adrian, it's all my fault. I'll kneel and apologize to Ella."

Vanessa, her hand wrapped in bandages, held back the furious Adrian and bent down as if to kneel.

"Ella, are you done with this tantrum!"

Adrian pulled her up immediately, and Vanessa nestled in his arms, tears falling like broken pearls.

"Adrian, it's okay. Every time Ella gets angry, I'm the one who apologizes first anyway. As long as Ella feels better, that's all that matters."

Adrian tenderly wiped the moisture from the corner of her eyes, then turned to me with uncontrollable rage.

"Ella, I already told you that night was just an accident. Why do you keep making things difficult for Vanessa!"

"If you're angry, take it out on me, but if you bully Vanessa again, I won't let you get away with it!"