Chapter 1
On the day of our engagement, my fiancé, Callum Roskell, turned his place card face down on the table and rushed off to stop his ex-girlfriend from attending a blind date.
He claimed that Nyra Caldris hated him so much that she had deliberately chosen this very day to find a man and get married, all to make sure he would never have a moment of peace.
During our three years together, I heard them hurl insults at each other over the phone countless times.
Yet whenever she complained of a stomachache, he could drive for two hours in the middle of the night just to bring her medicine.
When she posted on social media that she no longer wanted to live, he would leave me alone with a fever and rush straight to her.
I used to think it was nothing more than a man's desire to win.
Until, at our engagement party, she called him on video in front of both our families and waved a ring on her finger.
"Callum, if you don't come today, don't ever expect me to call anyone else, my husband."
He pushed his chair back and stood up on the spot.
I caught his sleeve. "If you leave, what am I supposed to tell everyone?"
He frowned. "You're my fiancée. She's deliberately trying to provoke me like this, and you still want to take her side?"
In the past, whenever someone joked about our engagement, he would turn cold with anger.
Now that he was the one humiliating me, all he cared about was how little understanding I showed him.
Every guest at the table was watching me.
He turned his place card face up again and set it beside me.
"Stay here, sweetheart. I'll teach her a lesson and come right back."
On the phone, Nyra burst out laughing.
So even when it came to hatred, they had to compete to see who could win.
My engagement party was nothing more than a place for them to settle their score.
The place card bearing his name swayed gently in the air from the air conditioner.
Suddenly, I felt that leaving the seat empty was just fine.
From now on, I, Avenelle Vexley, promised to myself that the man sitting beside me would no longer have to be him.
*****
"Avenelle, where is Callum?" Callum's mother took my hand and searched the banquet hall with her eyes.
I lowered my gaze and calmly pulled my hand from hers. "He left."
"He left?"
Her eyes widened, and her voice rose sharply. "Today is your engagement party! What could possibly be more important than this?"
I looked at the place card swaying gently in the air from the air conditioner.
The two words "Callum Roskell" had been neatly printed in gold foil.
"Nyra is getting married, so he went to stop her."
The moment I said that, the head table fell completely silent.
Callum's childhood friend, Breccan Vaudrin, jumped to his feet and forced a nervous laugh as he tried to smooth things over.
"Don't worry, ma'am. Callum just had some urgent business to take care of. Avenelle is only joking with you."
He turned to me and desperately signaled with his eyes. "Don't say things out of anger right now. Callum told me earlier that he was just going to pick something up. He'll be back soon. He turned his place card back over. It's right in front of you."
I calmly pointed at the table.
Breccan followed my finger. His face flushed red.
Callum's mother was so angry that her face turned pale. Her hands trembled as she took her phone from her handbag and called Callum.
Beep... Beep...
Two long tones came through the speaker before the call was abruptly disconnected.
Callum's mother nearly collapsed as her knees gave way.
I set down my glass of water, straightened my dress, and walked to the front of the room. Then I took the microphone from the host.
"Dear family members and friends, I'm sorry." My voice rang through the entire hall over the sound system. "Mr. Callum Roskell had an unexpected matter to attend to. Our engagement is now officially over. Please enjoy the food and drinks. I'm sorry for any inconvenience."
The guests erupted in shocked whispers.
Callum's mother pulled free from her sister-in-law's grasp and rushed toward me, trying to grab my arm. But my childhood friend, Kaiven Dacre, firmly stepped in front of her.
He draped the black suit jacket he had taken off over my shoulders, covering me completely. "Ma'am, you can't force someone to love you."
"Kaiven, why are you making things worse?"
Breccan was getting anxious.
He strode toward us. "Callum only went to teach that woman a lesson! Avenelle still matters to him!"
"Leaving his fiancée standing in front of hundreds of people like this? Is that how much she matters to him?" Kaiven shot him a cold look.
Then he turned to me and asked quietly, "Ready to go?"
"Yes."
As I got into Kaiven's car, my phone vibrated.
It was a message from Callum.
Callum: Nyra's blind date is a deadbeat who fled his debts. I'm taking care of things here. Postpone the engagement party. We'll hold it when I get back.
There was no apology. No explanation.
It was as if my engagement party were just a game he could pause whenever he wanted.
I stared at the message. The light from the screen reflected in my eyes, but I felt nothing.
"Where do you want to go?" Kaiven sat in the driver's seat with both hands on the steering wheel. He turned to look at me.
"Back to the apartment," I said.
'Back to the spacious apartment where we had lived together for three years.'
The red wedding decorations were still stuck to the living room windows, and the ties he had rejected the night before were scattered across the sofa.
I walked into the dressing room, took out a twenty-eight-inch suitcase, and laid it flat on the floor.
I owned even less than I had imagined.
For three years, I had thought I had filled his life.
But in truth, this home was full of reminders of all the things he had done to get the better of Nyra.
The wine cabinet was packed with bottles of her favorite vintage wine.
He had bought them all, he said, so Nyra wouldn't be able to find any left to drink.
Lilies, the flowers Nyra hated most, filled the balcony.
He had planted them because, he said, looking at those flowers reminded him of how miserable Nyra had once looked.
Even the jewelry I wore on my head today was a style Nyra had once complained about on social media, calling it unbearably tacky.
I crouched on the floor, took the clothes off the hangers one by one, folded them neatly, and placed them in my suitcase.
My phone lit up again. Callum was calling.
I answered, turned on the speaker, and tossed the phone onto the rug beside me.
"Avenelle Vexley, Breccan told me you announced in front of all our relatives that the engagement was off?"
