Seven days until the wedding.

To fit into the mermaid dress my fiance had custom-ordered, I went to the hospital and had two ribs removed.

I'd just finished a meal with him, and the moment I could, I found an excuse to slip off to the restroom and make myself throw up.

The burn of stomach acid brought tears streaming down along with everything else.

Before I could even clean myself up, I heard my fiance's familiar voice.

"I already told her. If she still can't fit into that dress in seven days, we'll push the wedding back."

"You're awful, you know that? That dress was made to my measurements. Unless she shaves down her bones, how's she ever going to squeeze into it?"

"Please. She can't even lose weight for me. You think she'd shave her bones? She's the one who can't get her act together. No one else to blame."

He wanted to delay the wedding again. This would be the third time.

Well, if this dress wasn't mine, then I wouldn't wear it.

1

When I came back to the private room, Ken Delgado was staring at my best friend Lucy Pruitt, his eyes lit up.

While I was gone, she'd already put on the mermaid dress.

And of course it fit her perfectly, every curve of the waist hugged just right.

Not like me, who could pull it on but never once get the zipper up.

"Lucy, you look gorgeous in that dress!"

Ken didn't bother to hide the admiration in his eyes.

Then he turned to me, his voice noticeably colder.

"Where'd you go? What took so long?"

"You never came back, so Lucy tried the dress on for you."

"Huh. Suits her."

I pulled out a chair, sat down, and picked up my chopsticks for my favorite barbecue ribs.

Lucy caught that I was upset and hurried to take the dress off so I could wear it.

"Mon, put it on again and see how much off it still is. We'll figure out a way to slim you down, or we'll alter the dress!"

I didn't even lift my head. I kept eating.

I didn't tell them that after having two ribs taken out, I could just barely fit into this dress now.

Watching me dig in, Ken's face soured.

"Eat, eat, eat! All you ever do is eat!"

"At this rate you'll never fit into it in your life!"

"What a waste of everything I put into this!"

I looked at him coldly and said, one word at a time,

"You're right, I can't fit into it. So why not give it to her?"

Ken's face stiffened. He frowned and snatched my chopsticks away.

"Don't talk nonsense! Lucy only tried it on for you!"

"You're jealous her figure's better than yours, so do something about it! How do you still have the appetite to eat?"

He gripped my chin and forced me to look at Lucy.

"Look at her. That's the kind of figure that makes wedding photos!"

"You need to lose the weight, seriously. Otherwise you can't wear a dress this beautiful, and our wedding will just have to get pushed back again! I don't want people laughing at me for marrying a fat fish!"

If he really wanted me to lose weight, he wouldn't order a whole table of my favorite dishes to tempt me.

He wouldn't curse me for not taking care of my body every time I fasted to slim down.

And he definitely wouldn't mock me into giving up every single time I tried to exercise.

The joke was on me. I didn't want him to worry, so I'd quietly had two ribs removed.

Then ate plenty in front of him and slipped away behind his back to make myself vomit it all up.

Just to be his beautiful bride.

I got a fresh pair of chopsticks and kept eating.

At that, Ken's brows knotted together.

"Mon, you've already eaten plenty. If you keep this up, does that mean you don't want to marry me?"

Lucy chimed in, just as anxious.

"Mon, I know you've never been able to resist good food, but to be the most beautiful bride, let's watch what we eat, okay?"

As she spoke, she took out some special diet pills from her bag and stirred them into a glass of water.

"This is a fat-burning meal I had someone buy for me. Just one glass and you'll feel full even if you don't eat all day!"

Looking at the dark, nauseating sludge in the glass, this so-called meal replacement, I instinctively pushed it away.

"I won't drink it. If it comes to that, then we just won't get married."

Losing weight for a man is the stupidest thing there is.

Never mind that at five foot seven and a hundred and ten pounds, I was nowhere near fat!

Ken and Lucy both froze at that.

"Not get married?"

"My family's already sent out the invitations, and we've changed the date twice. You say we're not getting married and that's it? You don't think that makes me look like a fool?"

So he did remember the wedding had already been rescheduled twice.

It just didn't stop him from scheming for a third delay.

What was even more laughable was that the shock on his face didn't look faked at all.

"Mon, don't say things you don't mean!"

"The truth is, the reason Ken wants you to lose weight is that there's no time left to have the dress remade!"

"Let's just tough it out a little, okay?"

"Once the wedding's over, you can eat however you want!"

Lucy and Ken exchanged a glance, and then they forced that dark stuff down my throat.

My freshly emptied stomach seized all at once, a violent cramp that had cold sweat breaking out all over me.

I clapped a hand over my mouth and shot to my feet to make it to the bathroom.

But Lucy and Ken caught me from either side and held me down.

"Mon! You can't throw up!"

The pain in my stomach was unbearable, like it was on fire.

I fought them with everything I had, but with my ribs just removed, I couldn't break free.

The wound only tore back with a stabbing pain, until the tears ran down my face.

Ken acted like he didn't see any of it and shoved me back into the chair.

He was rough about it, and my already churning stomach heaved.

I glanced at Lucy, all that smugness in her eyes, and I was certain then that she knew this diet drug was no good thing.

Fine. So I let myself throw up all over her.

That pure white mermaid gown was filthy in an instant.

The streaks of red blood mixed into it stood out sharply.

But not one person saw them.

"Ah! Mon, this is your wedding dress! How could you throw up on your own wedding dress!"

Lucy dabbed at the gown with tissues, looking heartbroken over it.

Ken turned on me, his face cold.

"Monica! You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Once I'd been sick, the worst of the cramping eased.

I looked steadily at the man in front of me, his face flushed red with rage, and said flatly,

"If that's what you want to think, there's nothing I can do about it."

Hearing that familiar line, Ken's face went from red to a sick shade of green.

Because clearly, he remembered the second time he pushed back the wedding, when I'd asked him,

"Ken, the first time we delayed, you said the date wasn't lucky enough for us. This time your parents won a round-the-world trip and it'd be a waste not to go. Do you just not want to marry me? If that's it, say so. I'm not the kind of woman who clings and begs."

Back then he'd answered,

"If that's what you want to think, there's nothing I can do about it."

And he'd added,

"Anyway, to make it up to you, I had my parents order a mermaid gown made just for you over in Ferristan."

He'd shown me the design, and it really was the mermaid gown I'd secretly saved pictures of.

So I swallowed every bit of my hurt and let myself look forward to wearing it and marrying him.

But when the dress came back, it wasn't my size.

When the zipper wouldn't even close, his parents laughed at me behind their hands.

"Mon, we were only away a month. How did you put on so much weight!"

Ken blamed me too.

"The wedding's in seven days. If you can't fit into this dress, we'll have no choice but to postpone it!"

I didn't want our wedding pushed back again.

So I went online and asked people how to get a waist tiny enough to hide behind a sheet of paper in seven days.

Everyone joked that removing ribs was the fastest way, so I actually went to the hospital and had two of mine taken out.

And now the pain in my stomach and my belly was laughing at how naive and stupid I'd been.

"Ken, what do we do! The dress is ruined, your wedding..."

Lucy really did love this gown; her tears spilled over from panic.

Ken shot me a cold look.

"Apologize to Lucy!"

I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"She got my wedding dress dirty, and I'm the one who has to apologize to her?"

"Anyone who didn't know better would think this was her wedding dress!"

I slapped my forehead, my eyes dropping to Lucy's waist, and I clicked my tongue.

"You know what, this dress fits her so well it's like it was made for her! No wonder I couldn't squeeze into it no matter what I did!"

"Monica! What's that supposed to mean? Do you even still want this marriage or not?"

Caught out, Ken flew into a humiliated rage.

I refused to back down.

"I already told you. If it comes to it, we just don't get married!"

Fighting through the pain, I picked up my bag and started for the door of the private room.

Lucy went pale and quickly grabbed my arm, then tugged at Ken.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have worn Mon's wedding dress without asking her, and I shouldn't have told her to lose weight or given her those diet pills. This is all on me! I'm the one who should apologize!"

"Mon, I'm sorry!"

Lucy bent at the waist and bowed to me.

But her tears fell, one after another, onto the back of Ken's hand.

He helped her straighten up, aching for her, his voice gentle as he soothed her.

"Lucy, you only wanted to help Mon try the dress on, so she could see how beautiful she'll look in it seven days from now. You gave her the diet pills so she'd be the most beautiful bride on the wedding day. You did nothing wrong!"

"She's the one who's petty and dirtied the dress herself!"

That last line he said looking straight at me, through gritted teeth.

The cold in his eyes made my whole body feel like it had dropped into ice.

This was the man I'd loved for five years.

Once, all his tenderness and care had been for me alone.

Now he gave it to my best friend.

I didn't say a word in my own defense. I turned and went to the hospital.

After the endoscopy, the doctor's face was grave.

"Ms. Simmons, you have burns in multiple places on your stomach lining and your esophagus. Did you swallow something corrosive?"

Before I could speak, he'd already pulled up the record of my rib-removal surgery from the system.

He frowned at once and scolded me.

"You young girls, are you really willing to throw your lives away just to lose weight?"

"What's more important than your health? What could possibly be worth ruining yourself like this?"

I lowered my head and said quietly, "It really isn't worth it. It won't happen again."

When I got home, the apartment was dark.

Ken hadn't come back.

My phone buzzed. It was a message from Lucy.

【Mon, I've already gotten the dress cleaned. It won't affect your wedding.】

I didn't answer her. I started packing.

When I picked up the toothbrush, I went still.

Ken's electric toothbrush and mine weren't a matching pair.

Because mine had broken a while ago, and when I couldn't find the same model, I'd just bought a new couple's set.

But Ken kept making excuses that his was still fine and wouldn't switch to the matching one with me.

Now I knew the real reason.

The woman's one from the set was still in good shape, and it was Lucy's. So he didn't want to switch.

Once I saw through that little scheme, I looked around the wedding home again and realized just how slow I'd been.

Slow enough that only now did I notice: aside from the wedding portrait of me and Ken on the wall, every other framed photo on display had Lucy in it too.

All through this big, beautiful home were the couple's things I'd so carefully chosen.

And every women's item had a matching one that Lucy owned.

She used to say I had good taste, that anything I picked was top quality, that she could buy it sight unseen.

Even the man I'd chosen, she'd take sight unseen.

The lock turned. Ken was back.

The first thing out of his mouth was a rebuke.

"Mon, why didn't you reply to Lucy? You had her worried sick!"

I took out my phone and only then saw that Lucy had sent another message afterward, telling me to come downstairs and go running around nearby Moonlight Lake with them.

Before I could say anything, Lucy, standing behind him, slipped easily into a pair of slippers identical to mine, gave Ken a mock-scolding nudge, and smoothed out his furrowed brow.

"Come on! Didn't you say you were going to talk to Mon nicely?"

"Keep frowning like that and you'll turn into a grumpy old man in no time, and then Mon won't like you anymore!"

Ken's face relaxed in an instant.

"Okay, okay, whatever you say!"

He looked up at me, his tone noticeably softer.

"Mon, let's go run ten laps together."

Watching Ken hang on Lucy's every word, my heart clenched with a pain I couldn't control.

So it turned out that even his willingness to speak gently to me depended on Lucy handing it down as a favor.

"I'm not going! You two go ahead!"