After I hung up the phone, I instinctively returned to the bedroom I used to share with Max. However, somewhere along the way, his belongings had vanished.

That was when it hit me. The whole “bride swap” situation wasn’t a last-minute decision. It was planned.

Clutching my bruised shoulder, I sat down, the bitterness rising in my throat.

I remembered how, back then, if I burned my finger just a little while cooking him a meal, he’d freak out and rush me to the doctor. I’d laugh at him for overreacting, but he’d take my hand, kiss it gently, and whisper, “Kate, you’re my treasure. I didn’t propose to you so you’d take care of me. I want to take care of you. If you’re in pain, it hurts me even more.”

Yet now, he was the one who hurt me, and he didn’t even care. The wedding dress he had custom-made for me that ended up on another woman was the perfect example.

While I was treating my injury, my best friend Danielle Carter called.

“Kate, what’s going on? Your wedding is in three days, and you’re booking a flight to Historia?”

“There’s no wedding anymore.”

I gave a dry laugh and told her about the memory-erasing pill. The next second, a string of furious curses erupted through the phone.

“Kate, wait right there. I’m coming over to beat the hell out of that shameless pair! If it wasn’t for you using your research to back his crappy startup, that loser would still be jobless and living on the streets. Now that he’s made it, he feeds you a damn memory-erasing drug for another woman? Scum doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

Her words opened a floodgate of memories, and my eyes stung.

It was true. I was the one who stood by him when his business failed and even when his family turned their backs on him. I gave him my research, my money, and my network to help him become the heir to the Siegels’ empire. I was also the one who stayed up through the nights with him for three years straight.

He used to swear I was the only one he’d ever love and the only woman he’d ever marry. So, when did he start looking at someone else?

Why was it my love that had to pay for his pity and guilt?

After half an hour of Danielle cursing Max out, she finally ran out of steam. There was a beat of silence before she let out a dark laugh.

“Babe, that scum doesn’t know there’s no antidote to that pill, right? Just imagine him bawling his eyes out while you calmly ask who he is. It’s weirdly satisfying, isn’t it?”

Her sarcasm made me laugh, and for a moment, the ache in my chest didn’t feel so bad.

I thought I’d cry myself to sleep that night, but somehow, I drifted off. When I woke up, someone was holding my hand.

I opened my eyes to Max trying to take off my ring.

“What are you doing?” I asked, groggy.

He froze, then offered me a half-glass of water. “Oh, you’re awake. Are you thirsty?”

I ignored the question. “What were you just doing?”

Caught, he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “You probably forgot. That ring belongs to Fawn. She’s going to need it for the wedding.”

His lie felt like a slap in the face. So, for Fawn, he’d go as far as to treat me like a fool.

I remembered as clear as day that he had designed the ring himself just for me—a delicate balloon flower motif, with our initials engraved on the inside of the band—all because I once casually said engagement rings all looked the same.

He’d said it symbolized a love unlike any other, and now? He wanted to give that to someone else.

Finding it ironic, I couldn’t help but ask, “Why would her ring be on my finger?”

He hesitated for a second before quickly putting on a serious face. “Kate, quit playing. You love this ring, don’t you? After the wedding, I’ll have another made for you. But I promised Fawn a perfect wedding. She needs the ring now.”

His words, so confidently false, made my chest twist with pain. I remembered the day that ring got done—how he couldn’t wait to slide it on my finger.

I had teased him, “Aren’t wedding rings for the ceremony? What’s the rush?”

He kissed me and said seriously, “I just want to lock you down early. Promise me you’ll never take it off.”

Now, he didn’t hesitate to remove it for someone else.

I stared at the empty space on my finger, feeling a wave of sorrow and betrayal crash over me. Clutching my aching chest, I tried to calm myself.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s just heartbreak. A few more days, and it won’t hurt anymore.”

The sky was just beginning to lighten, and all the memories I once treasured were already starting to fade into dust.

Even after taking back the ring, Max still texted me, reminding me to eat on time and asking if I wasn’t feeling well. However, he never came back in person.

I used that time to meet up with a few close friends and have one last dinner before I left. I threw away every gift he had ever given me. Then, I scrubbed my phone and laptop clean of every trace of him.

On the morning of the third day, I rolled my suitcase out the door and left without a word. While I was on the way to the airport, a wedding video from Fawn popped up on my phone.

The venue looked exactly like the one I used to dream about. She was wearing the wedding gown custom-made for me and a ring on her finger engraved with my name. She held tightly onto Max’s arm as they smiled and accepted blessings from the guests.

Someone in the crowd asked, confused, “Isn’t the bride supposed to be Kate? How did it turn into Fawn?”

Max pulled her protectively behind him. His voice rang out loud and firm across the crowd.

“Today is my wedding to Fawn. Please don’t mention anyone irrelevant.”

We shared five years of love, and in the end, I was reduced to just “someone irrelevant.”

I knew I should feel devastated, but there was no pain or even a heartbreak. I watched all fifty-nine seconds of that video in complete calmness, like watching a scene from a movie that had nothing to do with me.

At that exact moment, the last memory of Max drifted away like dust in the wind. The name that once carved itself into my soul was now a stranger, and the deep love I once drowned in felt like it had never existed. I even felt my lips twitch ever so slightly, not in mockery, but in something that felt like quiet, detached confirmation.

So, that was what it felt like to be free—empty and light.

What I didn’t know was that Danielle crashed the wedding. Just as Max and Fawn were about to exchange rings, Danielle stormed in and threw a glass of wine straight into Max’s face.

“What the hell are you doing here? Where’s Kate?” he asked, fuming at the red stain on his white suit, but when he realized it was Danielle, he swallowed his anger.

Danielle casually wiped her hands and gave a cold smile. “Trash like you two? I don’t need Kate to see this mess. I’m more than enough to deal with you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snapped, pulling the tearful Fawn behind him, his face darkening.

“I’ve explained everything to Kate. She agreed for me to marry Fawn first.”

“Oh, you mean you forced her to forget you just so that you could marry another woman?” Danielle sneered. “God, you’re even dumber than you look. Did you seriously think that pill would make her forget instantly?

“No. It doesn’t work like that. It makes people slowly forget what matters most to them. Kate remembers everything you’ve done over the past three days.”

“Impossible!” Max’s face went pale. “The research report said it would temporarily erase memories of the person they love most…”

However, his voice trailed off because nowhere on that report did it say the effect would be immediate.

He stared at the ring on Fawn’s finger that used to be meant for me, and his eyes turned red. Then, suddenly, he slapped himself across the face and fumbled for his phone to call the research lab, hands shaking.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled. “There’s still the antidote. If she takes it, she’ll forget everything that happened in the last three days. She’ll remember how much she loves me. She’ll forgive me. She has to forgive me…”

“Don’t bother.” Danielle’s voice cut in sharply, killing his hope. “That drug? Kate made it. There is no antidote.”

She raised her chin, looking down on him like he was nothing.

“In other words, you erased every trace of the love she had for you. You made sure she’d never remember you again.”

That broke him, and the last shred of hope crumbled in his eyes. His lips trembled.

“No… this wasn’t what I wanted. I never wanted to hurt Kate. I love her. I’ve only ever loved her…”

In a panic, he dialed the number pinned to the top of his call list, but it went straight to voicemail. His heart clenched like it was being crushed in a fist, and he bent over, breathless from the pain.

Watching the broken man and the woman crumpled on the floor in a wedding dress that didn’t belong to her, Danielle smiled with grim satisfaction.

“Are you looking for her?” she said. “Too late. While you were busy putting a ring on another woman, she left. Max, you’ve lost her. Forever.”