This was the thirty-third time my fiancé Ethan had left me alone in the bridal shop because of his stepsister Jessica. Every single time we scheduled a wedding photo shoot, Ethan would find some excuse not to show up. I called to ask why. His tone was dismissive. “Jessica wanted to travel. I’m already in Miami with her. There’s really no way I can come back. We’ll deal with the wedding photos next month.” Jessica snatched the phone. “You’re calling to bother us over something this trivial? It’s not like this is the first time you’ve missed a shoot. You should be used to it by now.” This time, I didn’t take off the wedding dress and slink away. Instead, I smiled and dialed Ethan’s best friend. “Vincent, if you can get to the bridal shop in five minutes, I’ll marry you.” …… By the time the shoot was finished, it was already evening. I changed out of the gown and settled into the lounge area, leaving a quick five-star review for the shop on Instagram. The post had barely gone up when Ethan’s number flashed on my screen. But the voice on the other end was Jessica’s, dripping with affected sweetness: “Olivia, taking wedding photos all by yourself and posting about it? Doesn’t that feel lonely?” I leaned back against the sofa. “Not as lonely as you.” “My post went up less than ten seconds ago, and here you are calling. Watching my Instagram like a hawk, lurking on every single one of my accounts like a little mouse—who’s the lonely one here?” Jessica’s composure shattered. “I wasn’t stalking you! I just happened to see it!” I couldn’t be bothered to keep talking to her. I hung up. Shortly after, a string of texts from Ethan rolled in. 【Olivia, do you have any idea how hard Jessica is to calm down?】 【She called you because she cares about you. Why did you have to snap at her? When are you going to fix that temper of yours?】 I didn’t reply. Instead, I opened Instagram and made another post. The caption was simple: *My fiancé and I are having our wedding this weekend. All friends welcome.* The comments section exploded. 【Oh my God, Olivia, you and Ethan are finally getting married? Congratulations!】 【I thought you two broke up ages ago. You’re really doing it? I’ll be there this weekend for sure!】 【New York’s most beautiful bride is finally walking down the aisle. Ethan really waited for this day.】 I was about to reply when Ethan’s comment appeared right at the top. 【Olivia, have you lost your mind? I’m still in Miami with Jessica. There’s no way I can make it back to New York for a wedding this weekend. Can you stop making decisions on your own?】 【Delete this right now and tell everyone you made it up, before you embarrass yourself.】 I ignored Ethan’s orders. Because my wedding no longer required him as the groom.
What I hadn’t expected was that Ethan would buy a last-minute red-eye flight back. Jessica came with him. At two in the morning, Ethan threw open the front door, seething. Jessica’s eyes were swollen and red. The moment she saw me, she started in with her grievances. “Happy now, Olivia? Ethan and I finally get a chance to unwind, and you have to pull this fake wedding stunt and force us to fly back in the middle of the night.” “You completely ruined my Miami trip!” I glanced at Ethan, then at her. My voice was calm. “Nobody asked you to come back.” Ethan’s voice was sharp with anger. “Olivia, I came back to talk to you like a reasonable person. Delete that post. I’m not ready to marry you yet. Just wait a little longer.” My answer was simple. “No.” Ethan took a deep breath. “Olivia, how long are you going to keep this up?” “Everyone is watching. Do you realize you’re forcing me into this?” Jessica scoffed. “Ethan, she’s obviously doing this to pressure you into marrying her so she can keep you away from me.” Then she turned to me. “Ethan and I are just siblings. It’s not what you think. You’re the one with the dirty mind, seeing something wrong everywhere. Delete that post now.” I didn’t acknowledge her. I looked at Ethan and said the same two words: “Not deleting.” Ethan laughed bitterly. “Fine. Then I won’t show up to the wedding either. You’ll be standing there with no groom. The one who’ll look like a fool is you, not me.” I smiled. “Whether you show up or not doesn’t matter. You’ve been absent from my life for a long time already, haven’t you? You’ve poured all your time and energy into Jessica. And I, your fiancée, had to wait thirty-three times just to take wedding photos with you.” “Ethan, who exactly is your fiancée?” Ethan frowned, as if I were being completely unreasonable. “Olivia, do you really have to put it so harshly?” “Jessica isn’t an outsider.” “She’s my stepsister.” “She’s important to me. We’ve known each other for years. She depends on me, and I take care of her. What’s wrong with that?” I smiled. Over the past eight years, Jessica would call him in the middle of the night, saying she couldn’t sleep. Ethan would leave me without hesitation and drive over to keep her company. In the beginning, he’d still feel guilty. He’d hold me and say she just lacked a sense of security. But as time went on, they grew more and more brazen. Whenever Jessica needed anything, Ethan would cancel every plan he had with me to be with her. And if I so much as expressed displeasure, I became the unreasonable one—immature, graceless, not generous enough. I looked up at Ethan. “So in your eyes, she can take up your time whenever she wants, interrupt every date we have—” “And I, as your fiancée, don’t even have the right to mind. Is that it?” Ethan softened his tone. “Olivia, I know you want to marry me as soon as possible.” “But I really don’t like this side of you. You used to be so easygoing, so reasonable. Why do you have to push me like this now?” I looked down at Jessica’s arm hooked through his. Her body was practically pressed against him, and Ethan made no effort whatsoever to put distance between them. I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. “Ethan, you have absolutely no sense of boundaries.” “Is Jessica your stepsister or your lover?” Jessica’s tears appeared on cue. “Olivia, you’re insane! There is nothing between Ethan and me! Why do you keep making these disgusting assumptions about us!” Ethan wrapped his arm around Jessica’s shoulders and wiped her tears for her. “Olivia, apologize to Jessica. Right now.” I found it absurd. “Apologize for what?” Ethan erupted. “You made Jessica cry! Of course you need to apologize!” Just then, Vincent strolled in, fashionably late. Ethan did a double take. “What are you doing at my place in the middle of the night?” Vincent glanced at me. “I’m here to help Olivia move out.” Ethan blinked, then visibly relaxed. A smug, knowing expression spread across his face. “Thanks, Vincent, but it’s really not that serious. Olivia and I are just having a little couple’s spat.” His tone was dripping with self-satisfied understanding. “Actually, do me a favor and talk some sense into her.” “Tell her to grow up and stop doing things that only embarrass herself.” Then he looked down at Jessica in his arms, his voice going soft immediately. “I need to take Jessica to a hotel first.” “She took a red-eye to get back here. She’s exhausted.” Vincent lowered his head and smiled—a smile loaded with meaning. “Sure. Leave everything here to me.”
With Vincent’s help, I moved out that very night. When Ethan discovered I was gone, the messages started pouring in. 【I know you’re upset, but you really can’t pressure me like this. Marriage is a big deal. You just announce a wedding out of nowhere—I’m not mentally prepared for that.】 【Olivia, it’s not that I don’t want to marry you, but now really isn’t a good time. Jessica hasn’t been doing well lately and she needs me around. Can’t you just wait a little longer?】 【Olivia, I’m serious. I’m not ready for marriage at all. Pushing me like this is only going to make me resent you.】 And so it went, all the way until the day before the wedding. I didn’t reply to a single message. But that evening, Jessica sent me a video. I tapped it open. The screen first showed a lavish hotel suite. The lighting was dim. White sheets lay tangled across the bed. A champagne flute on the nightstand was still half full. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the midnight ocean of Miami stretched into darkness. The camera panned slowly. Ethan appeared in the frame. He sat on the sofa, shirt collar hanging open, hair falling across his forehead in disarray. Jessica was curled against his chest, wearing a thin-strapped slip dress, her body draped over him like silk. She looked drunk—but the eyes that met the camera were perfectly lucid. She reached up deliberately, hooked a finger around Ethan’s tie, and pulled him toward her, inch by inch. Ethan didn’t resist. His hand rested on her waist. Jessica tilted her face up and kissed him on the lips. The frame held for two seconds. Then she looked straight into the camera. The corner of her mouth curled into the smile of a victor. The video ended there. Her call came in right after. “Did you watch it? Ethan’s cheating on you. If even that isn’t enough to make you cancel the wedding, then you really are something else.” “If I were you, I’d be dead from rage by now. You’d fit right into the Victorian era—the kind of devoted wife who watches her husband hold another woman and keeps smiling through it all.” My voice didn’t waver. “Still better than being the mistress who never gets a ring.” Jessica hung up in a fury. On the day of the wedding, I was already in my gown. Guests filed in one after another, offering their congratulations. I smiled and thanked each of them. Ethan walked in wearing a tracksuit. When he saw me, a flash of genuine awe passed through his eyes. “I’ll give you this—you picked a beautiful dress on your own.” But within seconds, Jessica appeared at his side in a formal gown, hooking her arm through his. Her makeup was immaculate. She wore a pale pink dress. The guests exchanged bewildered glances. A few seconds later, murmurs rippled through the room. “Isn’t that the groom? Why isn’t he in a tux?” “Who’s that woman with him? Why is she on his arm?” “This is Olivia’s wedding, isn’t it? Why did Ethan bring another woman?” A fiancé in athletic wear with another woman on his arm, while the bride stood alone in her wedding dress on the opposite side of the room—no matter how you looked at it, something was off. Ethan ignored the questioning stares and launched into his stiff explanation. “Let me make one thing clear. There’s nothing going on between me and Jessica.” “That video you saw of us looking intimate—we staged the whole thing. We just wanted you to call off the wedding. Didn’t expect you’d actually go through with it.” Jessica nodded beside him, her voice saccharine-sweet—a completely different person from the venom of the night before. “That’s right, Olivia. The whole thing was my idea. I just wanted to test how much you really care about Ethan.” “The fact that you watched that video and those photos without even flinching—your devotion to Ethan is truly admirable.” I looked at the two of them and smiled faintly. “I don’t care what you do anymore.” Ethan sensed something was off. A flicker of panic crossed his face. “Jessica is my stepsister. Just like Vincent is my friend. They’re both important people in my life.” “You can’t marry me and then demand I ignore my stepsister’s feelings. I told you, Jessica hasn’t been well lately. I need to spend more time with her. Can’t we just postpone the wedding instead of canceling it?” “You know how much I value relationships.” “Family, friendship—they all matter to me.” “I can’t just abandon my stepsister because I’m getting married.” I looked at his open, guileless expression and couldn’t help but point something out. “Ethan.” “You keep saying family is important. Friends are important.” “But haven’t you noticed that your most important friend isn’t by your side today?” “Take a guess where he’s going to show up.”
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