Chapter 1

The moment my fiancée, Anna Faulkner, kissed my best friend, Billy Steele, the entire crowd erupted.

It wasn't a fake kiss or a mere peck on the lips. No, it was a deep, passionate kiss.

I, Craig Hunter, stood frozen in place, my face as white as a sheet.

The bridesmaid beside me whispered, "Oh my god, are Anna and Billy really just acting? They're taking this way too far!"

Yeah, way too far—so much so that even I was starting to think they were a real couple.

Thunderous applause erupted from the audience.

Someone shouted, "One more kiss!"

Billy pushed Anna away, his face flushed as he glanced at me. He had just opened his mouth to speak when Anna wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

I glanced down at the groomsman's suit I was wearing, feeling that the whole situation was utterly absurd.

At long last, the seemingly endless kiss came to an end.

Billy immediately came over to find me. "Craig, I'm sorry. I really didn't know—"

Before he could finish, Anna grabbed his wrist and pulled him behind her protectively.

"Craig, we were just acting. You were the one who agreed to it in the first place, so it's not like you can blame Billy."

Her self-righteous attitude made me look even more unreasonable by comparison.

"Craig, there's really nothing going on between Anna and me. You're the one she cares about the most," Billy explained.

Anna cared about me? She knew perfectly well that it would hurt me, yet she still kissed another man right in front of me.

Furious, I hurled the flowers in my hand to the floor and stormed out of the ballroom.

In the past, Anna would have chased after me immediately and begged me to make up with her. But today, even after standing in the cold wind for nearly half an hour, she still hadn't shown up.

After finishing my second cigarette, I returned to the ballroom.

As I passed the corridor, I noticed that the makeup room door was slightly ajar. A faint sound came from inside, and I froze.

On the couch in the makeup room, Anna and Billy were tangled together. Their clothes were in disarray, and Anna's skirt had been pushed up to her waist.

Her breathy, suggestive moans filled the room. She playfully slapped him and said, "Billy, are you crazy? What if Craig finds out?"

Billy, however, didn't seem worried in the slightest. He let out a low chuckle and replied, "Anna, you've been sneaking around with me for two years. If Craig were going to find out, he would've by now."

He grabbed her firmly by the waist and pressed her down beneath him. "Besides, we just got our marriage certificate. Is it illegal for me to sleep with my own wife?"

Two years together? A marriage certificate?

I felt as though I'd been plunged into an icy abyss, and my breathing grew increasingly labored.

Anna stopped resisting and instead pressed herself even closer to Billy.

"If it weren't for the baby, I'd never have married you. I'm supposed to marry Craig next week, and I still haven't figured out what to do."

I dug my nails painfully into my palms as I struggled to contain the fury threatening to explode inside me.

The baby Anna was carrying was actually Billy's?

When I found out she was pregnant, I was so thrilled that I immediately started making wedding arrangements like the fool I was.

Never in a million years did it cross my mind that the baby wasn't mine.

Billy wrapped his arms around her, his eyes filled with a tenderness I had never seen before.

"Just get a fake marriage certificate when the time comes. Craig trusts you so much that he'll never suspect a thing. So what if you marry him? You'll still be mine."

Anna let out a soft cry. "Be gentle. The baby's inside."

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

Their intimate, sickeningly suggestive voices made my chest ache as though it were about to burst. I stumbled backward several steps, bracing myself against the wall as I struggled to catch my breath.

One was my best friend of four years in college, and the other was the woman I'd been in love with for five years.

The two people I trusted most had been sleeping together behind my back, all while pretending to be nothing more than good friends.

It was a long while before Billy finally emerged, hand in hand with Anna.

The moment they saw me, both of them panicked.

Billy was the first to rush over and grab me. My eyes immediately fell on the hickey on his neck.

"Craig, I'm sorry. This was all Anna's fault for going too far just now. I've already reprimanded her." Billy shot Anna a glance. "Hurry up and apologize to Craig now."

Anna immediately came over and wrapped her arms around me. Then, she cooed at me the way she always did when she wanted to sweet-talk me.

"Craig, it's all my fault for not taking your feelings into consideration."

Looking into her sincere eyes, I recalled how she had kissed Billy with 100 times more passion and initiative than she had ever shown when kissing me.

I clenched my fists and pretended I was about to punch Billy, who was standing watching the spectacle. But Anna quickly grabbed my wrist and shoved my hand away.

"Craig, have you lost your mind?" she roared.

I held back, not daring to struggle for her sake. The forceful shove sent me crashing into the wall, and the pain was so intense that my vision went black.

"Anna, are you and Billy really just friends?" I asked.