He Chose His Ex, I Left For Another

Chapter 2

When I was fully awake, Liam had already unbuttoned my pajamas.

"Don't touch me." I shoved him away roughly.

Liam's face darkened with cold hostility.

When he caught the resistance in my eyes, he gritted out, "Victoria, I know you've been wronged today. I spent the whole day working and still came here specifically to calm you down!"

"Don't push your luck!" I stared at him coldly. "I don't need it. Go upstairs and stay with Molly!"

Unexpectedly, Liam softened at first. He sighed softly, "How much longer are you going to keep this up? I've told you a thousand times... Molly is just my past, you are my future. I truly only have a sense of responsibility left for her. Why can't you just understand me?"

I laughed cynically at him. "When she's crashed seventeen of our weddings while pregnant, do you think I haven't understood enough?"

Speechless from my retort, the man flew into a rage instantly, "You are completely unreasonable!" With that, he slammed the door and left.

If this had happened before, I would have chased after him long ago, apologizing and begging him not to be angry. But now, all I feel is exhaustion.

Perhaps even the 18-year-old me could never have guessed that this ten-year, almost obsessive love would end up nothing but a train wreck.

I lay on the bed, and tears soaked my pillow. As I drifted off to sleep, it felt as if I had returned to the year I turned 18.

Liam caught me when I fell off the school wall after skipping class. One fleeting glance that stirred my heart for years.

From that moment on, I was like a rat that couldn't stand the light, carrying a wildly secret crush on Liam.

I strived to change myself, and followed my family's arrangement to study abroad. But when I came back, I found out he had already gotten married. I hid in a hotel and cried for an entire month.

Later, I heard he had been in a car accident after his divorce. I begged my father to arrange a marriage alliance between our family and the Hayes family.

I eagerly rushed to the hospital, took care of him for more than half a year, and stayed by his side as he slowly pulled himself out of his despair.

The day Liam proposed to me, I thought I had finally gotten what I longed for. Only later did I find out that that was the very day Molly had announced her new boyfriend publicly.

I was nothing but a tool for him to spite Molly.

Trapped in my memories, I fell asleep without realizing when.

In the morning, I woke to the sound of knocking on the door, and Liam's deep voice came through, "Get up and eat breakfast."

I stared in a daze. He had never prepared breakfast for me before.

Having been busy all day yesterday and eaten nothing the night before, I was already starving.

When I opened the door, he was already gone.

I went downstairs and saw the dining table filled with more than ten different breakfast dishes.

I was just reaching for one when someone shoved me hard away.

Liam frowned. "Are you a starving ghost reincarnated? Everyone hasn't even arrived yet!"

He quickly seemed to realize he had gone too far, and explained stiffly, "Molly is pregnant and has very special tastes. Let her choose first."

I said nothing, and turned to get the dry bread I had bought myself.

Liam followed behind me and said, "When Molly and I got married before, we never had a proper wedding. I want to hold one for her now..."

My hand froze mid-movement.

I could not help but tug the corner of my mouth into a bitter smile. No wonder he was being so sweet and attentive first thing this morning. He's been planning this to trap me all along.

"And then what?"

I knew that given Liam's character, if he was being nice to me, it was never just for this small thing.

"Her belly is too big now, she doesn't have the energy to plan the wedding. You can oversee this for me. You've got experience anyway, and I'll ask Molly to send you her requirements for the wedding later."

For a moment, I did not know whether to cry or to laugh.

"Liam, you're asking me, your current fiancée, to plan a wedding for my fiancé and his ex-wife? Do you have any idea how people have laughed at me after those seventeen ruined weddings?" As I spoke, all the pent-up hurt and grievance I'd bottled up finally spilled over.

The first wedding, I was over the moon. I was finally going to marry the man I had loved for so long.

Molly was going to be my witness, and I was perfectly fine with it because I thought their relationship was already over, so I accepted it openly.

I never expected her to have a public bout of morning sickness, right in my wedding dress. And Liam just picked her up and left me there, abandoned.

Afterward, he got down on his knees and begged me for a full day and night.

The second time, Molly wore the exact same wedding dress as mine, and he picked up the wrong bride.

The third time, Molly slit her wrist in front of everyone, and he shoved me away like a madman to get to her.

Over and over, he left me. Then over and over, he came crawling back to beg me for forgiveness.

By the seventeenth time, he didn’t even bother to pretend anymore. He was dead sure I’d never leave him.

But he forgot, setting my love for him aside, and ours was never anything more than an arranged business marriage.

Our contract has an expiration date.

By the time of that last attempted wedding, the collaborative project between our two families had already wrapped up.

And me… I don't love him anymore.

Seeing my eyes glisten with tears, a flash of panic crossed the man's face, and he seemed to finally realize how unreasonable his request was.

"Forget it—"

He barely got the words out before Molly appeared, dragging a suitcase behind her.