Betrayed Once, Destroyed Again

After a moment of dead silence, the crowd erupted into chatter. The mocking laughter pierced my ears, making my limbs numb.

I asked, "Why? Why do you have to do it this way?"

Henry Tate's smile was cruel. "Isn't this nice?"

My eyes reddened. It was our wedding day, supposedly the happiest day of my life. Yet he actually slept with Rebecca Litt and chose to tell me now. This wasn't getting revenge for me. He was humiliating me in public.

I stared at the intertwined figures on the screen, my throat tight.

Henry leaned in and whispered with a hint of amusement. "I made a bet with Rebecca. We wondered if you would cry or make a fuss when you saw those photos."

He raised his hand and gently wiped the tears off my face. "I knew you would cry first." Then he took his phone out of his pocket, which showed that he was on a call.

Rebecca was nonchalant. "Alright, you won. I'm going to learn how to do what you showed me in the video. Just wait until tonight. You're going to enjoy it."

My mind was completely blank. All I could hear was the sound of my heart beating.

The next moment, the lights came on in the banquet hall. The intimate photos vanished, replaced by the words "Just Married!"

Henry linked his fingers through my cold hand and raised his glass toward the guests. "Just kidding. I was only trying to lighten the mood."

Then, like a puppet on strings, I was carried offstage by him, the laughter filling the room slowly fading behind me. The moment the backstage door closed, I slapped him across the face, tears streaming down my face.

Henry turned his head away, his tongue pressing against his cheek as his eyes slowly turned red.

Memories of the past flooded my mind. Henry, Yves Sullivan, and I were childhood friends. Both he and Yves were race car drivers, and they risked their lives to marry me. By the end of the race, both of them were barely breathing.

Afraid something would happen to them again, I cruelly rejected Henry and chose to get engaged to Yves instead.

On the eve of our wedding, I found out I was pregnant and wanted to surprise him. Instead, I walked in on him in bed with Rebecca, the student I financially supported.

Dressed in Yves' shirt, Rebecca leaned against the bedframe and smiled at me. "Your fiance said I'm more flexible than you."

Yves didn't deny it, nor did he stop what he was doing.

It felt like someone had ripped my heart straight out of my chest, and I stumbled out the door, wandering through the rain for three hours.

In the end, it was Henry who found me. He held an umbrella over my head, and without asking any questions, he said, "Come with me."

Henry didn't mind that I was pregnant with Yves' kid. "Keep the baby. I'll be his dad."

But I wasn't willing to let others mock the Tate family's only son as a sucker and a simp because of me.

So on a rainy night, I consumed half a bottle of sleeping pills. Henry carried me all the way to the hospital, his desperate tears mixing with the rain, hitting my face.

The doctors managed to save me, but my baby was gone.

That night, he spent the whole night kneeling in the hallway.