Chapter 3

"All right, everyone, let's get back to work. We're doing a team dinner after we close up tonight. It's on me," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

With that, I turned and walked back into my office.

The second the lock clicked, I slid down against the door. Jeremy's words kept replaying in my head, one after another.

"Nico, the moment Noelle's pageant is over, we'll get married."

"Nico, your dream is my dream. I'll always have your back."

"Nico, you're the only one I'll ever love."

It turned out that every single word had been a lie.

I raised a hand to my cheek and realized that somewhere along the way, I had started crying. My face was already wet with tears.

Just then, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text from Noelle.

"Nico, I'm so sorry. But I really do love him. Growing up, no one was ever better to me than you. You always let me have anything I wanted. So just this once, I'm begging you, please let us be together, okay?"

I stared at the words, suddenly wanting to laugh.

So, Noelle did know that no one had ever treated her better than I had. And this was how she repaid me.

Before I could even reply, my phone buzzed frantically again. Trending alerts flooded the screen, and my fingers froze.

#NoelleLynchMarried

#NoelleAndJeremy

#MissGlobalWinnerIsMarried

My head started ringing. I tapped the alerts. Pinned to the top of Noelle's profile was a brand-new post.

"Thank you all for the love. Yes—I married the man I love most in this world, Jeremy Morgan."

Below it was a photo of two marriage certificates, along with another shot of their fingers laced tightly together.

The comments section was full of congratulations.

"Noelle's living the dream. Her husband is gorgeous!"

"I had no idea Noelle's husband wasn't in the industry. They're so low-key!"

"Wishing Noelle a lifetime of happiness!"

Only I knew that the man in those photos was my fiance.

I clutched my phone until my knuckles went white.

Five years of blood and sweat, ten years of love—only to pave the way for another woman's happiness, leaving me looking like a complete joke.

I stared at all those congratulatory comments on the trending page, my fingers going cold.

My phone rang. It was Noelle.

I hung up without a second thought. But a moment later, a voice message came through instead.

I played it. Her voice was thick with tears. "Nico, you've seen it, haven't you? Everyone online is wishing us well. You'll wish us well too, right?"

I didn't reply. What was there left to say? Choosing not to expose what she had done to the public had already drained the last shred of sisterly affection I had left for her.

What I didn't expect was for the narrative online to flip completely the very next day.

The first to break the story was an anonymous entertainment blogger.

She posted a long exposé that pulled no punches.

"Rising supermodel Noelle Lynch sabotaged her own sister's engagement and stole her fiance. Ungrateful and disloyal, she repaid years of devotion with betrayal."

The post briefly laid out the past, detailing how I had spent years giving everything to support my disabled sister, sacrificing my youth and putting my own wedding on hold for her, only to be betrayed by both her and my fiance in the end.

The logic was sound, the details rang true, and it instantly set the whole internet ablaze.

In barely half an hour, the post racked up a million likes. Countless netizens flooded the comments to defend me, slamming Noelle for her ingratitude and for biting the hand that fed her.

The comment section exploded.

"Noelle is a homewrecker? Stealing her own sister's fiance?"

"No wonder she got married so suddenly. Turns out the whole thing couldn't stand the light of day."

"This is sickening! These two pieces of trash deserve each other."

Jeremy and Noelle practically blew up my phone with their calls. When I refused to answer, the texts started rolling in.

"Nico, do you really hate me that much? Enough to completely destroy me?"