Chapter 4

"What are you doing here?"

Liam scrambled forward to speak, while I stood frozen, staring down at my suddenly empty hand.

In the end, no matter the circumstance, I was always the one he discarded without a second thought.

A bitter smirk pulled at my lips, but it was drowned out by the sharp, echoing crack of a slap.

I looked up to see Liam’s head snapped to the side.

He clutched his burning cheek, his other hand clenching into a trembling fist.

"Chloe, you dare hit me?!"

Chloe’s voice shook with choked, furious tears.

"Why shouldn't I hit you?! Liam, do you honestly think you don't deserve it?!"

"You told me your ID and birth certificate were locked at your parents' house, that we had to do the ceremony first and sign the papers later! If I hadn't decided on a whim to book a marriage license appointment today, how long were you planning to keep lying to me?!"

Chloe’s gaze darted between Liam and me, her voice breaking into a shrill shriek.

The sheer panic and devastation she was feeling right now was the exact hell I had lived through just days ago. For a second, my heart ached for her.

I parted my lips to offer some form of comfort, but before I could make a sound, Chloe whipped around and pointed her venom straight at me.

"She has no chest, no ass, nothing! What the hell do you see in her that you had to sneak behind my back to marry her?!"

The words I was about to say choked in my throat. A wave of nauseating disgust hit me like a physical blow.

Before I could snap back, Liam roared.

"Shut up!"

"Chloe, wouldn't it be better if you just stayed home and played the good little Mrs. Miller?! Who gave you permission to poke your nose into my business?! Who I love and who I legally marry has nothing to do with you!"

The commotion quickly drew a crowd of passersby, who gathered in a loose circle, pointing and whispering.

Humiliated and enraged by his words, Chloe raised her hand to slap him again, but Liam was ready this time. He shoved her away with brutal force.

Chloe crashed hard onto the pavement. She looked up, her eyes wide with sheer disbelief.

"Liam, you hit me?! You shoved me for this bitch?!"

"Why can't I meddle in your business?! I’m your lawfully wedded wife, and this woman is nothing but a dirty homewrecker!"

Screaming, she scrambled up and lunged to attack me. Watching her direct all her rage at me while letting the cheating bastard off the hook made my blood boil.

If love was about who came first, she was the one who crashed into an eight-year relationship.

Besides, the moment I discovered their wedding, I broke things off immediately.

And somehow this was my fault?

Regardless of the truth, the spectators sniffing around for drama began giving me filthy looks, their whispers growing louder and bolder.

"Look at her playing the innocent victim. Turns out she’s a home-wrecking side piece."

"Mistresses these days have some nerve, flaunting themselves right in front of the actual wife."

"Nerve? It’s pure shamelessness. Young and pretty, yet choosing to be a cheap whore."

Seeing the crowd turn against me, Chloe shot me a smirk of petty triumph.

Furious, I stripped away whatever polite restraint I had left.

"Liam and I have been together for eight years. How long have you known him?"

"When exactly did the two of you meet?"

Chloe’s smirk froze. Her eyes went wide as saucers as she stared at me.

"Eight years...?"

"That's impossible! If you two were together for eight years, then what am I?!"

Panic cracked across her face, shattering her fragile reality. She spun toward Liam, grabbing his jacket. "Have you really been with her for eight years?!"

"Then what the hell am I to you?!"

She pointed at her own chest, laughing and crying hysterically. Unable to accept that she was the interloper who came second, she quickly grasped at straws to protect her pride.

"Love isn't first-come, first-served! So what if you were together for eight years?! I’m the one he brought home to meet his parents! I’m the one he walked down the aisle with in front of everyone!"

I had to admit, her words struck right where it hurt most. That was the unhealable wound Liam had carved into my soul.

I stood there, speechless.