Chapter 2

Shannon's POV

After getting into a taxi headed for home, I could no longer hold back my tears.

I was going to delete Ian's, Rebecca's, and the others' contact information from my phone when I realized that I'd taken Rebecca's phone with me by mistake.

The members of a small four-person group chat were currently engaged in a lively conversation.

Chelsea asked via voice message, "Should we go after Shanny? She looked genuinely angry."

Ian replied immediately, "There's no need. She's easy to please and can work through things herself."

Anne piped up in agreement, "Seriously, she's like a stubborn leech. No matter how much we bully her, she'll always shamelessly stick to us. By the way, do you remember when we played hide-and-seek during our childhood?

"Back then, she hid in a large closet. We all deliberately remained quiet and even locked the closet from the outside. When the adults later found her, she'd almost suffocated in there."

Richard laughed so hard I could just imagine his shoulders shaking. "Of course I remember! Her mother even beat her up after she got out."

Chelsea added, "Every time we have a group dinner, we intentionally order extra-spicy dishes that make her face turn as red as a tomato. I told her that it was to help her become desensitized to spice, and she actually believed me.

"Also, we all skipped the bill on her last birthday, leaving her stuck at the restaurant for three hours."

As I watched the voice messages appearing one after another, I felt like someone had dumped ice-cold water on me.

A second later, Richard sent an unflattering photo of me during the wedding to the chat.

He commented below, "Honestly, Shannon really doesn't look like she belongs in our friend group. Look at her wedding dress—it cost thousands of dollars, yet it looks like something from a yard sale on her."

Anne added, "Ugly people tend to act out more to get attention. When I went with her for the bridal makeup trial, she was incredibly fussy and dissatisfied with a lot of things."

Chelsea sent an emoji of someone giggling with their hand over their mouth. "Shanny's always been stubborn and difficult like that.

I felt a lump in my throat.

Chelsea had clearly been the one to tell the makeup artist to do Rebecca's bridesmaid makeup instead, leaving me with an assistant artist.

It was only after the assistant poked my eye with the eyeliner pencil several times that I complained once.

As for the wedding dress, they claimed that the original had been damaged before the wedding and swapped it for a cheap knockoff instead.

I clutched Rebecca's phone, my body trembling uncontrollably.

Just as I was about to ask why they did all of that, Anne changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, isn't it strange that she flipped out over a game today? Doesn't she usually just roll with the punches? Do you think she's figured something out? Could she have found out that Rebecca and Ian have been together for five years and that we've kept it from her despite being aware of it?"

Richard replied, "No way. She's pretty dim-witted. She hasn't even realized that Rebecca and Ian have been living together for an entire year.

"She didn't notice that we invited the teacher who used to physically punish her and caused her to develop depression today or that we ordered the jasmine flowers that she's allergic to for her bridal bouquet."

I was aware that they'd been picking on me all these years, but I'd put up with it time and again because of what Ian told me.

"They're also important people to me, so you have to learn to accept them too."

I assumed that as long as I did better, they would be able to accept me.

But now, it all felt like a joke.

I was completely disillusioned now.

I saved screenshots of their chat logs and then dialed an overseas number.

"Mr. Lewis, I've thought things over and would like to accept the overseas posting."