Chapter 2

I packed my things and left.

After I got in the car, I finally felt a bit more comfortable.

I had genuinely looked forward to that wedding. Back then, I had thought marrying the person I loved was the greatest thing in the world.

It was all there, plain as day. I had just been lying to myself.

Where I was from, there was a tradition that before the wedding, the groom had to compose and handwrite a hundred-word wedding vow to show how much he valued the bride and the marriage.

But before he even tried, he gave up and said, “I’m not good at writing stuff like this. It’s too hard. It’s just a tradition anyway.”

He kept putting it off. He even thought it would be better to just find a template online, saying it would sound much better.

My hometown took that tradition very seriously, especially my mother, Mabel Cairns. I kept telling Ethan to write the wedding vow, but he would not listen.

It took him a whole year to write just five words, which he only wrote because I nagged him multiple times.

How ridiculous. That tradition was meant to test how sincere he was about our marriage.

He obviously did not pass the test.

At that time, he was actually busy handling things for Ruth, comforting her, and paying attention to her. He would help her write or draw anything. He would also run errands and deliver things for her.

Looking at the familiar handwriting on the paper made me realize how foolish I had been. I had been foolish enough to imitate his handwriting myself and write his wedding vow on his behalf to marry myself.

I calmly packed my things.

After accepting that he did not actually love me, I felt so much better.

But of course, I still had to face reality.

Later that afternoon, Ethan’s mother, Holly Nash, called me. She demanded that I go to her house to explain myself.

I agreed. It needed to be settled once and for all.

Ethan, who was supposed to come pick me up, failed to show up again. Fortunately, I had not been expecting him.

Thinking back, I had put in a lot of effort to win his family over.

They would ask me to sell the secondhand items they no longer wanted.

Every time I left the house, I was dragging along bags and bundles of things, using my time after work to search everywhere for the best sales channels.

I poured my heart and soul into communicating with buyers. In the end, when I transferred the money to Holly, all she said was, “I feel like I got ripped off. How did it only sell for that little?”

I was like their family’s garbage disposal. Whenever they had useless things, they came to me to turn them into cash.

To please them, I would always find a way to help them anyway.

After all that effort, and for what?

We kept our wedding simple by only inviting a few people we were close to.

Even then, they did not show up on time. They said they would come by during the toasts.

It was funny how we did not even make it that far.

When I arrived, Holly habitually called me over to do chores.

“Agnes, come give me a hand sorting these books first. They haven’t been touched in ages, and they’re awfully dusty.”

She did not even bother to give me a duster.

I did not move. I just stood there and said, “If you’ve got something to say, say it now. I’ve got things to do.”

Everyone went silent and turned their eyes on me, Ethan included.

In the past, he had also thought it was only natural for me to do the chores in his house.

A man who truly loved his woman would never stand by and watch her be embarrassed or hurt.

Yet he had me slaving away in his own home and had the nerve to call it “bonding” with his family.