Chapter 3

After sending it, I held my phone in my palm and looked up.

The living room was still noisy.

Ethan was still rummaging around. Sienna stood beside him. The distance between them made me sick.

"Where on earth did you hide the wedding shoes?" someone asked.

Quinn glanced at me. I shook my head slightly.

As my longtime best friend, she instantly understood.

"Sienna."

Quinn walked over and grabbed her arm. "Did you hide the wedding shoes?"

Sienna froze, looking up innocently. "I... I just put them somewhere random. I didn't know..."

"Where did you put them?"

Sienna twisted her dress hem with her fingers. After a long pause, she said quietly, "I... I threw them outside."

The room fell silent for a moment.

"Threw them?" Quinn's voice changed pitch. "Where did you throw them?"

"Just... in the flower bed downstairs."

Sienna's voice got smaller and smaller, her eyes beginning to redden. "I don't really understand these customs. I thought hiding the wedding shoes meant hiding them as hard as possible to find, so their marriage would be happier... I didn't know..."

Before she finished speaking, tears fell.

After a few seconds of silence in the room, someone from the groomsmen spoke up. "Come on, Sienna's never been married. She didn't know. It wasn't on purpose."

"Exactly. She threw them, so what? We'll just find them."

Ethan said nothing, just looked at Sienna once, then sighed.

That sigh held no blame, only helplessness.

"I'll go get them."

"Me too!" The groomsmen followed Ethan out.

Sienna was about to follow when Ethan raised his hand to stop her. "Don't come. It's hot outside."

His voice was very gentle when he said this, like coaxing a child.

Sienna nodded. Her tears hadn't dried, but the corners of her mouth curved upward.

Watching this scene, my stomach turned.

A few minutes later, Ethan returned, holding a wedding shoe.

"Found it."

But the shoe was covered in mud. The red satin was stained with a large dirty patch, looking utterly disheveled.

"Can she even wear this?" Quinn frowned, picking up the shoe to examine it. "It's so dirty!"

"Just wipe it off."

Ethan's tone was casual, as if discussing something insignificant.

I looked at that filthy wedding shoe. My heart felt like it was being squeezed tight.

"I don't want it."

Everyone looked at me.

"I don't want it even if you clean it." I said. "I want a new pair."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Ethan frowned at me. "Where am I supposed to buy new ones now? We need to leave soon."

"Then we won't leave." I said.

Ethan's frown deepened, impatience creeping into his voice. "Chloe, stop making a scene. Just wipe them clean and it'll be fine. No one will notice your shoes."

No one will notice your shoes.

Those words were like a knife, stabbing precisely into my heart.

For over ten years, Ethan had said so many things like this.

Chloe, no one will notice you.

In this childhood romance, I had been invisible for so many years.

In the end, even Ethan himself believed it.

I really wasn't worth his attention.

"Is it hard to buy them?" I looked at him, my voice calm. "Or do you just not want to buy them, Ethan? Because you don't actually want this marriage at all?"