Chapter 04

Chloe wasn’t surprised when Ruan kicked her out of his house. She felt disappointed in herself for giving in so easily, knowing he was drunk and vulnerable.

Being with her sister’s fiancé on the eve of the wedding was the worst mistake she could make. She ran down the empty hallway to the elevator and left the building.

The fresh morning air hit her face hard. She walked a few more minutes until she found a taxi and got in, heading home. Everyone should have been so wrapped up in Megan’s wedding that they wouldn’t notice she had spent the night out.

If no one remembered her birthday, how would they notice her absence? But the shock of reality hit her when she pulled her phone out of her bag and the notifications lit up the screen.

Each number represented a conversation she wasn’t ready to have. Most of the messages were from Megan. While her half-sister worried about her, Chloe had spent the night in her fiancé’s room having pleasure with him.

That thought made her toss the phone back into her bag and lock it, but the events of the previous night kept hammering in her mind. The ride home was a blur.

When the car stopped in front of the house, she needed a moment to prepare herself. If Ruan were smart, he wouldn’t tell anyone about the night he had with his sister-in-law, but Chloe had no idea if she could really trust him.

The street was quiet as she dragged herself to the entrance, but her house was chaotic. The flowers, the decorations, the food—it all hit her like a punch to the stomach, a reality she no longer wanted to be part of.

When she finally entered the house, she found her father standing in the living room. His face was full of worry and anger.

“Chloe, where the hell have you been?”

Before she could respond, a hand grabbed her hair and yanked her back forcefully. A physical blow, and when she looked at Megan’s face, flushed with fury, a chill ran down her spine.

“You thought I wouldn’t find out?” Megan’s face grew red by the second. “You thought you could sleep with my fiancé and come home like nothing happened?”

How had Megan found out so quickly? A stunned silence fell over the house. Chloe’s face went pale, her mouth opening and closing without being able to say a word.

“How did I never realize you’re a miserable sl*t?” Her half-sister’s words made her heart ache.

“What are you talking about, Megan?” Josephine stepped between them, her eyes wide as confusion spread across her face.

“That Chloe spent the night with Ruan,” she screamed, shock quickly settling in. “She seduced my fiancé to ruin my wedding.”

“You think I seduced him?” Chloe lifted herself, her limbs boiling with anger every second. “Apparently, you don’t know the man you’re going to marry.”

She shouldn’t have been brave enough to confront Megan after everything she had done, but hearing her speak like that made her unable to stay calm any longer.

Josephine’s hand shot up unexpectedly, and the slap came fast and precise. The sound seemed louder than it should have. Chloe didn’t scream. She only blinked slowly, trying to understand if the pain was on her face or in her soul.

“Is what Megan is saying true, Chloe?” her father’s voice broke through her pain, loud and angry, before she could recover from the first blow.

Chloe couldn’t respond. She looked at her father and stepmother as they concluded the obvious through silence. They had never been her biggest supporters, and after what she had done, they would hate her a little more.

“I can’t believe you were capable of this,” her father ran his hand through his hair frantically. “On your sister’s wedding day!”

“She didn’t tell you there won’t be a wedding?”

They turned to Chloe, their expressions of disgust growing each time she opened her lips.

“Liar!” Megan screamed, advancing to strike her. “You’re making this up so you won’t admit you took advantage of a drunk man and slept with him!”

“It was Ruan himself who told me!” Chloe yelled back. She never imagined she would speak so harshly to her half-sister. “He called me and begged me to convince you to marry him.”

“I didn’t raise you to be a liar, Chloe.” Felix hadn’t heard anything Chloe had said. He looked at her as if she were the scum of the earth. “I will never forgive you for what you are doing to your sister, and I hope Leonidas won’t forgive you either.”

Hearing his name hit her like a punch to the stomach. A pang of pain shot through her as she remembered the end of her relationship, how quickly it all had ended. She had pushed that pain away all night only to hear her brother-in-law’s complaints—and look how it all ended?

“There’s no reason for Leonidas not to forgive me. He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

It was difficult to confess this, to say out loud that the man she loved was no longer hers, but nobody cared about her suffering. Absolutely no one wanted to hear her complaints. They only looked at Chloe’s mistake.

“I hope you’re happy now, because you ruined my wedding,” Chloe said, looking at Megan, realizing someone was lying in this story. “I feel disgust for you and don’t want you as my sister anymore.”

“I’m sorry, Megan, I didn’t mean to…”

Megan turned and went upstairs immediately, not letting her finish the sentence. Chloe was left alone, crying in the middle of the living room, but nobody stopped Megan from packing her bags, grabbing her passport, and preparing to leave.

When Megan reached the bottom step, she looked at Chloe one last time, her heart breaking into a thousand pieces with the severe and disappointed gaze she gave. Chloe should have begged a little more for forgiveness and shown how remorseful she was, but she didn’t have time.

Megan got into her car and left, abandoning the wedding exactly as Ruan had said she would.