Claimed by the alpha. Ruined by your love.

I kept scrolling through the comments, punishing myself with every word.

Besides my best friend, Sean Torres, plenty of our mutual friends had left their congratulations.

"Oliver is the best man I've ever met. If you ever treat him badly, I'll be the first to call you out."

It was Fiona's best friend. Just last week, she had greeted me warmly with, "Gavin."

"I'm so happy for Fiona. She's finally married the man she loves. Tonight, we're celebrating until we drop."

That was my old college roommate.

"Have fun, but for Fiona and Oliver's sake, keep this quiet. Don't let a certain someone find out."

That was Fiona's younger brother. Years ago, he had borrowed eighty thousand from me to start his business and told me I was the only brother-in-law he would ever recognize.

"Don't worry, we've got this covered. For the prince and princess' happily ever after, we'll make sure the dragon never finds out."

That was the new assistant at Fiona's company. He was a little slow and had nearly been fired several times.

I was the one who spoke up for him and patiently taught him everything he needed to survive in the workplace. Thanks to that, he made it through his internship.

I tilted my head back, stubbornly forcing my tears to stay where they were.

Everyone knew Fiona had been with another man for the past eight years. Everyone except me.

To them, I was "a certain someone" in their private conversations. I was the dragon standing in the way of the prince and princess' happiness.

I was the joke.

The page refreshed, and Fiona's post suddenly disappeared.

A second later, my phone rang. It was Fiona, who had been unreachable all day.

"I'm sorry, Gavin. Our company's system had a major outage today, and I've been swamped. I haven't even looked at my phone. We've both been so busy lately. Let's put off getting our marriage license for now.

She paused for a moment before adding, "Oh, by the way… did you happen to see anything interesting on social media today?"

Her voice was tense. The clumsy probing was impossible to miss.

I forced myself to sound normal.

"I couldn't get through when I called you today, and I was at the hospital taking care of my mother. I haven't had time to check social media.

"Go take care of work. As for the marriage license, we'll do it whenever you're free."

My mother had never been healthy. Last year, she was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer.

The doctor said that, even under the best circumstances, she had maybe three years left. Her only wish was to see Fiona and me get our marriage license before I turned thirty.

Today was my thirtieth birthday. She was still lying in her hospital room, waiting to see our marriage license.

But I could never make her final wish come true. Because Fiona had already become someone else's wife.

I sank into a corner of the hallway and ran a hand through my hair. Tears splashed onto my phone, blurring the bold black letters on the screen.

After wiping it clean, I silently memorized the location of their celebration—Gilded Dining Room, Suite 302.