Chapter 3

Only then did Ryan seem to realize what he had just said, and he looked at Mark with a panicked expression.

“Oh, Mark, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to imply that you’re filthy or anything… I saw that you were drenched, so I…”

He looked frantically toward Claire. “Claire, please explain to him. I really didn’t mean it like that. I don’t want Mark to get the wrong idea.”

Claire reached out and gently smoothed his slightly messy hair, reassuring him, “I know what you meant. How could Mark be mad at you? He’s not that petty.”

Then, she turned to look at Mark and added, “Leo just put on fresh clothes, and you’re dripping wet. You’ll get him dirty. You have no idea how mischievous he is. I just bought him ten sets of clothes yesterday, and he’s ruined eight of them.”

Claire, Ryan, and the child, Leo Davis, looked remarkably like a family as they stood there together.

Mark, however, did not look at Claire. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed on Ryan as he said, “Take off my shirt.”

It was a custom dress shirt that his father had handmade specifically for his wedding, and now, Ryan was wearing it.

Things in the room became tense.

As if intimidated by his gaze, Ryan looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I… I’ll take it off right now.”

After that, he turned to Claire for help, his eyes turning red. “But… my clothes got dirty last night, and Claire put them in the wash for me. They’re not dry yet…”

Claire looked at Mark disapprovingly. “It’s just a shirt. What’s with that attitude?”

The resentment and anger building within Mark all night exploded at that very moment.

“You abandoned me on a road where I couldn’t even hail a cab last night, just to go hang out at a bar with your precious college buddy! My phone died, and I had to walk through a torrential downpour all night to get back!

“And when I finally got home, I found my fiancée spending the night with another man, who’s wearing the dress shirt my dad personally tailored for my wedding! Tell me, Claire, why should I be nice to him?”

Ryan quickly tried to explain, “Mark, please don’t misunderstand! I just drank too much last night, and Claire brought me back because she was worried about me. Nothing happened between us. We slept in separate rooms!”

He turned to Claire, asking helplessly, “Claire, how can I explain this so Mark won’t get the wrong idea?”

Leo suddenly hurled the action figure in his hand straight at Mark’s head. The toy scraped across Mark’s cheek, leaving a bloody cut.

“You’re picking on my daddy! I’ll beat you up!”

Claire, who had been feeling a little guilty, instantly turned cold. “Mark, don’t project your nasty thoughts onto everyone else! Besides, you’re a grown adult. Can’t you even handle a minor inconvenience on your own? Coming back and taking your anger out on an innocent guy like Ryan, do you honestly think you’re in the right?”

Mark laughed out of pure frustration. “So the two of you just share an innocent and platonic friendship?”

“Stop fighting,” Ryan said, looking thoroughly aggrieved. “It’s all my fault. I’ll take the shirt off and give it back to you right now.”

As he spoke, he pulled frantically at the shirt with both hands and tore it wide open at the collar.

Ryan immediately looked even more panicked. “I’m so sorry, Mark! I…”

Claire instantly stepped forward to comfort him. “It’s fine. You didn’t do it intentionally.”

Mark looked at the ruined shirt, his entire body trembling. Ryan definitely did that intentionally!

He lunged forward and raised his hand to grab Ryan by the collar, but Claire caught his wrist in a tight grip.

“Mark, what has gotten into you? It’s just a shirt. If it’s such a big deal, I’ll buy you a new one.”

Mark’s voice trembled with rage. “My dad made this for me. How are you going to replace it?”

His father was once a renowned bespoke tailor. However, his mother’s betrayal had left his father sick with grief and suffering from a heart condition that could no longer allow him to hold a pair of scissors steady.

Yet, ignoring his declining health, his father had poured his heart and soul into secretly tailoring a wedding suit for him and Claire before their big day. And now, Ryan had ruined the shirt from that very outfit.

“That makes it even simpler. Just get your dad to make another one. Besides, I never really liked that over-the-top dress shirt your dad made anyway. Now that this shirt is ruined, it’s a good excuse to swap it out for a different set when we get married.”

With that, Claire flung his hand away. “We’re getting married soon, and I don’t want to argue with you. You should take a moment to calm down.”

Mark stared at her. He could not believe those words had come from her mouth.

He let out a disappointed laugh. “For his sake, you stood me up at the city hall eight times. For his sake, you threw me out in a rainstorm. You even let him wear the shirt my dad made for me for our wedding and sleep in our bed.

“And now, because of him, you’re trash-talking the suit my dad spent an entire year making for us. Claire, what on earth makes you think I’m still going to marry you? This wedding is off!”

At that moment, the front door swung open. Mark’s father, Greg Stevenson, stood at the doorway, looking shocked.

“Mark… what do you mean the wedding is off?”