Abandoned Groom: Vanishing From Her World

My adoptive younger brother, Jonathan Arden, is getting married soon, so he has invited me to his wedding. It turns out that the bride is Charlotte Vaughn, my childhood sweetheart-slash-fiancee.

My parents think that I'm going to steal Charlotte from Jonathan and cause a huge ruckus at the wedding. That's why they've hired 100 bodyguards, who soon have me surrounded.

When things are getting tense, Jonathan rushes down the stage and starts pleading with me.

"Mom, Dad, I'm sure Harrison showed up without an invitation just so he can give me his blessings. Please don't blame him."

Charlotte takes my hand and says to me pleadingly, "Jonathan is diagnosed with cancer. He's afraid that you might be worried about him, so he's hidden his condition from you. I'm pretending to marry him just so he won't die single."

I express my understanding toward the couple before giving them my blessings.

Delighted, Charlotte promises me, "Don't worry, you're the only one I view as my actual husband. Once the wedding is over, we'll register our marriage right away."

What she doesn't know is that I've already booked an appointment in a fake-death program. A week later, I will leave this place for real.

After all, I don't want anything to do with my parents and Charlotte anymore.

Harrison's POV

My fiancee, Charlotte Vaughn, walked up to me with a glass of wine in hand and looked at me with disappointment. "Harrison, you came with a fake invitation. Are you trying to frame your brother again?"

I originally had no intention of attending the wedding of my adoptive brother, Jonathan Arden. But he had sent me an invitation with complete sincerity, begging me to show up and even saying he wanted to apologize to me in person.

We were still family, after all. I wanted to reconcile with my parents and give Jonathan a chance. Yet I never could have imagined his bride would turn out to be my fiancee.

As I gathered my thoughts and prepared to explain, Mom, standing nearby, angrily splashed her drink in my face. She jabbed a finger at my forehead and snapped, "You really never change! How did I end up with such a vicious son?

"If I had known it would come to this, I never should've begged your dad to go easy on you when you leaked the company's confidential information. We should've sent you overseas to work in the mines!"

Dad stood behind her and glanced at me coldly. "A liar like you doesn't deserve any share in the company. I've given it all to Jonathan."

I had long since grown numb to their favoritism toward Jonathan, but even Charlotte, who had always taken my side before, tried to persuade me. "Harrison, stop being so stubborn. You've already been punished for what happened. Why won't you admit what you did wrong?

"Just listen and apologize to your parents. Even coming back to work as a security guard would've been easier than doing hard labor in a city where the temperature drops to negative 22 degrees."

She grabbed my frostbitten hands, her eyes reddening with concern, but I quietly pulled them away.

A year ago, just like now, I had done nothing wrong, yet all the blame fell on me. My parents despised me, and my coworkers cursed at me. I was thrown out of the house and abandoned by everyone around me.

When I boarded the flight, Charlotte was the only person who came to see me off. She held me tightly and refused to let go, crying as she promised to wait for me to come back and marry her.

Looking back, I regretted it deeply.

To spite my parents, I spent the past year away from home doing the toughest, most exhausting work, stubbornly trying to prove that I had done nothing wrong. But in the end, I only left myself covered in scars, and they still favored Jonathan.

That alone would've been bad enough. But now, even the one person who had ever been a light in my life was leaving me. She was about to marry the man who had torn my happy family apart.

I looked at Charlotte as she wiped the wine from my face. The concern in her eyes didn't seem fake. Could a single year really change a person so drastically?

"Charlotte, you—"

Just as I was about to ask her, Jonathan suddenly stepped in to smooth things over. "Mom, Dad, how could you treat Harrison like this? He may have come uninvited, but I'm sure he's here to give us his blessing. Right, Charlotte?"

After he finished speaking, he took Charlotte's hands affectionately and deliberately held up the one wearing the ring. I saw that a huge diamond ring had replaced the simple silver band she used to wear on her ring finger. It sparkled in the sunlight, making my eyes sting.