Chapter 3

Ethan's face was filled with his usual arrogance.

He looked down at me from his height.

He was waiting. Waiting for me to bow my head and apologize, just like I had done for the last ninety-nine times.

"Chloe, you better think carefully. Aside from me, who else would ever want to marry you?"

The man standing in front of me felt like a complete stranger.

I could no longer connect him to the sweet, brave boy who swore he loved me eight years ago.

In high school, when I was being brutally bullied, Ethan had taken a beating just to pull me out of the hands of those monsters.

He told me he fell in love with me at first sight and promised to protect me for the rest of his life.

When I was eighteen, my parents died in a sudden car crash, leaving behind a mountain of debt. Ethan worked multiple part-time jobs to help me pay it off and put me through college.

He worked so hard he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer, but he never let me suffer.

When I was twenty, I was kidnapped and assaulted by his business rival. After I was rescued, he knelt by my hospital bed, crying, and swore he would love me forever.

But everything changed the moment Blair came back into his life.

Every sentence he spoke to me eventually drifted back to Blair.

The more he mentioned her, the less he came home.

He started keeping his distance. He grew annoyed with me. He stood by and watched as others publicly humiliated me.

The cold winter wind drifted through the open window, chilling me to the bone.

The warm memories of the past finally froze over, and the illusion of the sweet boy from my youth shattered.

I looked straight into Ethan's eyes and spoke clearly, word for word:

"Then let's cancel it. I hope you two rot together forever."

As I turned to walk away, a flicker of panic flashed in Ethan's eyes. His voice lost its composure and became frantic.

"Chloe, stop right there!"

"You were assaulted before! No decent man will ever marry you except me!"

Whispers instantly erupted in the crowd.

"Oh my god, Chloe was assaulted?"

"Look at how provocatively she dresses. Who knows what really happened back then?"

"Seriously. A woman with that kind of baggage should be grateful Ethan even wanted her. Why is she throwing a tantrum?"

"Honestly, Ethan is better off with Blair. At least Blair is clean."

The pointing fingers and disgusting whispers felt like needles piercing my chest.

"Ethan, you absolute bastard!"

"You don't know anything!"

I spun around, my hand flying out to slap Ethan across the face with everything I had left.

The room fell into a dead silence.

Blair immediately stepped in front of Ethan, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and pressing him against her chest.

"Chloe, you are literally insane. Ethan and I are just friends. Is it really necessary to throw such a massive fit?"

"Everyone else thinks it's fine. You're the only one making a scene!"

The guests looked at me with even more disgust and contempt. The murmurs grew louder.

Ethan kept his head stiff, refusing to look at me.

Something inside my chest shattered completely.

Blair's smirks, the crowd's mockery, Ethan's cold silence...

All the years of silent suffering felt like a physical blow to my face.

"Ethan, I have tolerated you two for so damn long. You use the excuse of being 'childhood friends' to do the most disgusting things."

"Every time we were supposed to get our marriage license, Blair miraculously fell ill, and you ran to her like a loyal dog."

"When I was in the ICU fighting for my life after a near-fatal miscarriage, you were chasing the Northern Lights with her."

"You even went and legally married her behind my back! Today, you bring her here to humiliate me and reopen my deepest wounds. Have you forgotten that I was only targeted and assaulted because of you?!"

"Or did you honestly believe I was so pathetic that I could never live without you?"

I was hyperventilating, my face soaked with tears.

Through my blurry vision, I saw Ethan reach his hand out toward me. But the waves of whispers from the crowd felt like they were going to drown me alive.

I couldn't take the suffocating pain anymore. Like a coward, I turned and ran.