This Time, I Choose Her to Live

Chapter 3

We'd both survived that k********g by the skin of our teeth, but the second Jenna so much as coughed, Ethan would stay glued to her bedside all night.

When she started worrying about people gossiping about the k********g, Ethan threw her a banquet to kill the rumors.

I squeezed the invitation in my hand and laughed until tears streamed down my face.

The banquet was held at a Pierce family-owned hotel.

As soon as I arrived, I headed straight for the lounge.

Jenna stood there wearing my wedding gown and the aquamarine jewelry that had belonged to Ethan's mother.

She was adjusting her veil when her collar slipped, revealing a dark hickey that burned my eyes.

"Ah, Ethan was drunk last night," she purred. "He kept saying I smelled like you."

My fingers twitched. I'd thought my heart had turned to ash ages ago, but the pain still came sharp and sudden.

She waved everyone else out of the room, then lifted the skirt of her gown and twirled around.

"Summer, look at me. I'm getting married in your place. Do I look pretty?"

"Why are you so obsessed with picking up my castoffs?"

The smile froze on Jenna's face.

"So what if it's secondhand? At the end of the day, he's the one who trusts me, not you. What about you?" she sneered. "What do you have left besides the empty title of Mrs. Pierce? Then you'd better beg him to sign the divorce papers quickly. Otherwise, that title I'm throwing away? You'll never get your hands on it."

Rage and jealousy flashed in Jenna's eyes.

She grabbed a fruit knife from the side table, clamped a hand around my wrist, and dragged the blade hard across her own arm.

I jerked my hand away, but it was already too late. Blood splattered across the wedding gown.

At that exact moment, the door swung open.

Ethan and my parents walked in just in time to see me holding the bloodstained knife while Jenna crumpled to the floor.

"Summer was forcing me to admit that I planned the whole k********g!" Jenna wailed. "When I refused, she said she'd ruin my life!"

My father's palm cracked across my face so hard my head whipped to the side.

"Jenna has always treated you like her own sister! How many more times are you going to hurt her?"

My mother walked straight past me without a second glance, fussing over Jenna as she pressed a hand against her wound.

Ethan ripped the knife from my grasp. The sharp blade sliced into my palm.

Blood dripped steadily from my fingertips, but he didn't even look at me. He simply bent down and scooped Jenna into his arms.

Once, even the tiniest scratch on my hand would have sent him rushing for a bandage.

Now, with a cut so deep I could see the raw flesh underneath, he acted as though I wasn't even there.

I grabbed a fistful of his sleeve.

"You promised. Once the banquet was over, you'd let me go."

Ethan glanced at the blood dripping from my hand. His face was cold, almost unrecognizable.

"You lunatic. You almost killed someone, and you're still thinking about divorce?"

He didn't ask for my side of the story. He simply believed Jenna.

"Ethan, did it ever cross your mind that she's lying to you?"

He sneered, "The knife was in your hand. Are you seriously saying she forced you to hold it too?"

That sentence drove straight through my chest like a knife. The pain was so intense I nearly collapsed.

I remembered the time I'd been framed for leaking Pierce Group's bid documents. Every piece of evidence had pointed to me—but Ethan had torn up the entire report right in front of the whole company.

He'd stood by me then, saying I would never hurt him. If the evidence was wrong, they'd simply redo the investigation.

But now? All it took was a few crocodile tears from Jenna, and he'd judged me guilty on the spot.

I swallowed hard, forcing the lump in my throat back down.

"I just want to get away from you."

Ethan held Jenna tighter, his voice thick with barely contained fury and a flicker of panic I couldn't quite place.

"You're this far gone. How could I possibly let you leave? The wedding's postponed. Once the doctor signs off that you've come to your senses, we'll go through with it as planned."

I wrenched free from the guards, raised my hand, and slapped him hard across the face.

The sharp c***k of the blow silenced the entire lounge.

"Ethan, I'm not crazy! I just don't want to marry you anymore!"

Ethan froze mid-step. The faint flicker of reluctance in his eyes hardened into cold resolve.

"You don't get a choice."

He ordered the guards to wrench my arms behind my back and drag me off to the island villa.

"No one lets her out without my permission."

When I glanced over my shoulder, he was wrapping the wedding dress I'd gone through seven fittings for tightly around Jenna's shoulders.

He used the gown that was supposed to be mine to shield another woman, then locked me in a cage because I'd asked for a divorce.

Deep in the middle of the third night, the electronic lock on my door suddenly clicked open.

Jenna stood on the other side of the threshold, twirling the key card between her fingers.