Chapter 1 The Groom Who Never Came
The day I went to try on my wedding dress, my fiancé suddenly pushed away the suit the clerk handed him.
"No need."
I turned around, stunned. "What do you mean?"
Jacob Hyde casually stubbed out his cigarette and smiled. "I'm not going to the wedding. You can do the fitting yourself."
The absurdity of it hit me all at once.
My voice came out hoarse. "You're the groom. You're not going? Jacob, you've already called off this wedding seven times. What's the excuse this time?"
He gave a lazy shrug. "Been chasing this girl lately. She's different from other women. There'll be too much media coverage at the wedding. If she finds out I'm married, she'll get hurt."
He said it so lightly, like we were discussing dinner plans. "A wedding can still happen without the groom, right? That's basically what happened at the engagement party. If not, we can always do it another time, yeah?"
I froze in place. Jacob didn't notice a thing. He simply turned and walked away with those long, effortless strides of his.
The staff exchanged awkward glances. I took a deep breath and gave them a set of measurements.
"Alter the suit to this size."
A wedding without a groom can't happen. So I'll just change the groom instead.
My phone kept buzzing nonstop. Messages from that girl's boyfriend flooded the screen.
At first, he begged me to talk Jacob out of ruining their relationship.
Then the insults started. "You can't even keep your man under control. Why don't you just die already?"
Already simmering with frustration, I snapped right back at him. He couldn't even hold on to his own girlfriend, and he had the nerve to lecture me.
I tossed my phone aside. The grief kept surging, wave after wave.
It wasn't like I never tried to talk him out of it.
At seventeen, the boy with flushed ears had once said to me, "Callie, when we grow up, I'm definitely gonna marry you."
Everyone said we were a match made in heaven—that we'd get married for sure. But later, he broke off our engagement seven times, every time for another woman.
I pushed for the wedding again and again. At first, Jacob laughed it off with empty promises. Eventually, he'd just look at me, irritation glinting in his eyes, and say, "Callie, are you really that desperate to get married?"
I didn't understand how love could change so fast, so completely.
When I walked out of the bridal shop, the black Maybach parked outside rocked slightly.
The windows were soundproof, but if you stood close enough, you could still hear faint sounds inside.
The girl was crying, begging him to be gentler.
Jacob let out a low chuckle. "Your boyfriend texted you again? Read it out loud."
A note of shame crept into the girl's voice."I-I'll work hard and give you a better life someday. Please don't break up with me."
What a coincidence. Jacob had once said the same thing to me.
Only the context was completely different. That day, he called me and confessed to cheating, his voice laced with ragged breaths.
"Callie, I'm doing something right now..."
At the time, I was proudly showing off the boxes of gifts he'd mailed me from his business trip in East City.
For years, no matter where he went, if he saw something interesting, he'd buy it for me.
Thinking the call had glitched, I stupidly asked, "What are you doing? I didn't hear you, babe."
After two seconds of silence came the rustle of clothes, the man's low sigh, and the woman's sweet laughter. Jacob answered lazily, "Having s*x, idiot."
The cicadas screamed endlessly in Harbor City's summer heat. But all I felt was cold.
I couldn't believe it was real. I got in my car and drove straight to confront him.
When Jacob opened the door, he still looked half asleep. His upper body was bare, and the red scratches across his abs burned into my eyes.
He rubbed his thumb gently beneath my swollen eyes without explanation or apology.
I spoke first. "You're disgusting. If you wanted to break up, why didn't you just say so?"
