Chapter 1

On the other end of the line, Josh Harrington chuckled.

“On it. But are you sure you wanna play this big?”

“I’m sure.”

After hanging up, I looked at the scene unfolding inside, took a deep breath, and dialed Sean.

The phone rang several times before it was picked up.

“Emma?”

Sean’s voice was laced with exhaustion.

“Just got outta the OR. I’m beat. Can we talk later?”

I stared at the man on stage dressed in a groom’s suit.

While holding the phone to his ear and talking to me, his other arm was gently wrapped around Michelle, pressing another kiss against her lips.

The pair were lost in each other.

Gettin no reply from me, Sean shot a meaningful look at the man standing beside him.

“Are you still angry? Come on, I was really caught up.”

With that, I watched with my own eyes as he handed his phone to the groomsman next to him.

The next second, an unfamiliar voice shouted through the receiver:

“Hi Emma! Sean’s been in surgery for eight whole hours. You don’t have to check on him every minute. He’s really not fooling around! We can all vouch for him!”

Listening to the chorus of echoing voices on the phone, I opened my mouth to speak, only for a sharp siren to blast from the receiver.

I looked up, only to see someone in the far corner of the hall playing an ambulance siren audio clip on their phone.

The next moment, Sean shouted with urgent anxiety:

“Gotta go, babe. The ambulance just came in.”

Before I could say another word, the line went dead.

The call was hung up cleanly, and a burst of roaring laughter erupted throughout the event hall.

“Sean’s getting closer to his Oscar!”

“That was close!”

“Michelle’s a genius to have come up with the excuse. A business trip outta town for overspending.”

“A reminder to Emma to stop being a gold-digger. And a perfect cover.”

“Exactly. Gotta be smart with who you spend on.”

They raised their glasses toward Sean.

“Our man counts each and every penny spent on his girlfriend, but doesn’t blink an eye spending hundreds of grand on this wedding.”

“True love, am I right? Gotta root for that!”

Standing to the side in her wedding gown, Michelle rested her face on Sean’s shoulder, smiling with shy happiness.

I gripped my phone, the warmth in my eyes turning icy cold as the seconds passed.

Just as I was about to walk inside, my phone vibrated again.

I looked down to see a message from Sean:

“Don’t be mad, okay? Look, I brought you a gift. Miss you lots.”

Attached was a photo of a silk scarf.

The moment I opened the photo, I was so infuriated that I couldn’t hold back a scoff.

I recognized that scarf.

It was a complimentary gift given by a luxury brand for the sale of one of their handbag.

That was supposed to be a gift for me.

I put my phone away and watched the crowd clapping and cheering, unable to resist a smile.

I clapped my hands too, stepping right up beside them as I called out:

“Cheers! Cheers”

Sean looked down with a smile, but the moment his eyes landed on me, his face turned deathly pale.

He let go of Michelle and walked toward me.

“Emma? What are you doing here?”

Ignoring him completely, I turned my eyes to Michelle, whose face had frozen, and asked:

“Remind me, did I ever wrong you?”

For a fleeting second, my mind flashed back to our senior year of high school.

Michelle had been dragged into an alley by a man who was about to assault her.

I wasted no time to jump in and save her, earning a nasty slash on my arm.

The scar was still visible to this day.

From that day on, we gradually became best friends who shared everything with each other.

Yet now, behind my back, she was marrying my boyfriend.

I looked at Michelle, my eyes filled with unspeakable disappointment.

She instinctively took a step back, as if wanting to say something.

“Emma…”

Sean stepped sideways to block her behind his back.

“Emma, it’s all my fault. Take it out on me if you need to.”

Here stood my boyfriend, protecting my best friend, his newly-wed wife. My hands trembled.

“Fine. Let me ask you this. Every time you went on a business trip, were you with her?”

A few surrounding guests tried to deescalate the situation, but a sharp shout of “Shut up!” from me froze them all in place.

I stared intently at Sean, waiting for an answer.

He remained silent for a moment before finally nodding, his tone strangely candid.

“Yes. Every time I told you I was going on a business trip, I actually came to see Michelle.”

I couldn’t keep voice from quavering:

“Why did you go out with me in the first place, if you have no feelings for me?”

Just as Sean was about to speak, Michelle let out a sigh and stepped forward, reaching out to hold my hand.

“Back then, Sean confessed his feelings to me first. But I knew you fancied him, and you saved my life. I didn’t want you to be heartbroken, so I turned him down.”

Michelle’s eyes welled with tears as she continued:

“Eventually, seeing how besotted you were with Sean, I agreed to let him date you. That was why he got together with you.”

I yanked my hand away from hers and let out a scoff.

“So this is your way of repaying me? Under the banner of doing what’s best for me, becoming the bride at my boyfriend of three years’ wedding?”

Her mouth opened, but not a word came out.

I looked around at the hall filled with guests, every single one a familiar face.

So all of them knew.

They knew I’d been dating a man who had no feelings for me whatsoever for three years, yet not a single one of them came to me with the truth.