Chapter 1

Today was the eighteenth wedding I had held this month.

The first seventeen times, my girlfriend ran off before the ceremony.

Every time we reached the ring-exchange part at the end, her old flame would show up right on time.

He would look at my girlfriend with deep emotion, and she could never bring herself to reject him.

Then she would say to me guiltily, “Ethan, I’m sorry. I’m not ready yet.”

After that, they would leave hand in hand, leaving me alone to face everyone’s gossip and laughter.

At today’s wedding, her old flame showed up again, without fail.

I lowered my head and laughed at myself. Since she treated my love like it meant nothing, I would take it all back.

I beat her to it and spoke first. “Then I wish you both a happy marriage and lots of kids soon!”

......

The second my words fell, the guests below started whispering.

They looked back and forth at Emily and her old flame, Ryan, and tossed out teasing remarks now and then.

And Emily cared most about saving face.

She got so angry that she slapped me across the face.

“Ethan! Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you talking about?”

Emily had been spoiled by me.

No matter where we were, if she was unhappy, she would take it out on me.

In her eyes, there had never been anyone but herself. She never cared about other people’s feelings, and she sure as hell never cared about mine.

Countless times, over something small, she would insist on blowing it up.

She would curse me out and trash me, then hit and kick me.

The next day, she would cry to her mother and say I was bullying her.

And all I could do was apologize like crazy.

But Emily would not let it go there. After we got home, she made me kneel down and apologize to her, or she would break up with me.

To avoid losing her, I had no choice but to do it.

But she only got more and more outrageous. She started making me kneel and slap myself in the face at the same time.

Watching me look so pathetic, she would smile and record me with her phone.

She would keep filming as she said, “Wow, who is this? Who’s apologizing to me?”

The person I loved most had personally trampled my dignity into the ground.

When I came back to my senses, I looked at that arrogant face of hers and could not help saying, “What? I’m just helping love win. What’s wrong with that?”

Emily got so mad when she heard that she rushed over and pointed at me as she yelled.

“What do you mean helping love win? How many times have I told you that Ryan and I are just friends? Do you have to be this petty?”

“When you said that, did you even think about my feelings? What are the guests going to think of me?”

“So men really are all so fickle. You’re being so selfish right now!”

With that, she threw the bouquet in her hand straight onto the ground.

I laughed at her words. The abuser was calling herself the victim.

Had I suddenly changed?

A lot of things do not change all at once.

If you really think about it, there were many moments in the past when disappointment and hurt kept piling up until they became change.

I looked at Emily coldly and shot back, “I’m selfish? Did you forget the seventeen times you ran off before the wedding? Why didn’t you think about what the guests would think of me back then?”

Emily froze, and after she reacted, she knew she was in the wrong.

She started trying to cover for herself. “I just wasn’t ready yet. Why did you have to push me? Are you happy after making me like this?”

It was honestly kind of funny. There probably wasn’t a more wronged man in the whole world than me.

I could actually put up with my fiancée running off from the wedding seventeen times, even while she ran off hand in hand with her old flame.

Time and time again, I gave in, and time and time again, I got hurt.

Thinking about that, my heart finally went completely cold.

“Since that’s how it is, let’s end this here.”

“Ethan! Do you even know what you’re saying? I’m telling you, even if you kneel and beg me later, I will never forgive you!” she said in shock, staring at me.

“Sure. Then let’s wait and see.” I left this farce by myself.