Aaron laughed smugly as he urged Iris to hang up.

A look of remorse crossed Daniel's face. He was too embarrassed to continue convincing me to wait for Iris.

"Are you sure you want to choose Taylor? Her history—"

I interrupted him before he could say more. I took a deep breath and stared into Taylor Miller's dark eyes, saying, "I choose her."

Mom had once told me that she had seen Taylor at an exclusive and private auction. Although it was undeniable that she was an illegitimate child, she was certainly not as simple as Daniel thought her to be.

Besides, the time had come for me to choose between love and profit.

Since we had to order a new wedding dress, Taylor and I agreed to postpone the wedding to next week.

A flurry of complicated emotions flickered in Daniel's eyes. He let out a long sigh and said, "I'll announce that we're changing the successor of the Miller family on the day of the wedding."

…

Since I now had a new bride, it was only natural that I had to change some other things as well.

When I went to the jewelry store to purchase a new wedding ring, I accidentally bumped into Iris and Aaron, who had just returned to the country.

Iris' smile faded a little when we made eye contact.

"I have to give it to you, Jasper. I didn't expect you to be able to convince Grandpa to freeze my cards. I hate it the most when someone tries to force me into doing something. Don't think for even a second that I'll marry you just because I'm back in the country!" she spat, irritation flickering in her eyes.

Her tone turned colder. "Did you also intentionally track me down? Did you come here to confront me?"

Aaron lightly pinched her cheek. "He's madly in love with you. How can you be so cruel?" he asked helplessly.

He then took her hand, completely ignoring the fact that I was standing right before them. He arched his eyebrow and grinned at me, saying, "It's my fault for spoiling Iris rotten. Don't take her words to heart. Don't worry. I'll set her straight before I hand her over to you."

Iris allowed Aaron to drape himself over her, looking at him with an adoring expression.

Yet in the past, when I tried to hold her hand while we were shopping, she had silently retracted her hand. She had said, "There are so many people looking. It makes me uncomfortable."

It turned out that Iris' discomfort only made itself known when I was the one who was trying to show her affection.

I took a deep breath and suppressed my turbulent emotions. "Don't worry. I won't force you to marry me."

Iris was briefly stunned by my words. The sales assistant approached me just as a frown appeared on her face.

"I've packed up the wedding ring that you selected, Mr. Swanson."

Iris scoffed and arched her eyebrow. "You've already picked out a wedding ring. Why are you still lying about not wanting to marry me?"

She grabbed my hand before continuing, "Put it on. Let me see whether it's a good fit."

The rest of her words died on her tongue when her gaze landed on the ring mark around my finger that hadn't fully faded yet. Her breath hitched before she asked, "Where's the ring that I gave you?"

"I threw it away," I answered calmly.

In fact, I threw it away the very same day I changed brides.

The ring had been the first gift that Iris had given me. Our initials had been carved on the inner side.

Iris, who had been spoiled and carried herself with a haughty demeanor all her life, had been as red as a beet when she roughly shoved the ring into my hand.

"I personally carved our initials on the inner ring," she had said. "I won't forgive you if you lose it."

However, in the end, she was the one who lost her ring first.

Iris had awkwardly averted her gaze when I fished out the damaged ring from the trash, saying, "Aaron got drunk and made a fuss about wanting to look at it. I don't know how it ended up that way. Just throw it away. I'll make a new one when the time comes."

I waited for a long time, but she didn't make a new ring even after the mark around her finger faded.

Iris frowned deeply as she glared in irritation at my empty finger.

"Can you stop causing a fuss now? I'm not going to go back on my word since I already told you that I'm going to marry you. There's no need for you to play hard to get."

A hint of glee flickered in Aaron's eyes. He suddenly pointed at the ring box I was holding and exclaimed, "That's the newest, limited edition design! I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet!"

Iris' furrowed brow smoothed out. She snatched the ring box from me and handed it to Aaron, saying, "Here. Why don't you try it on?"

Aaron's eyes lit up. He was just about to untie the ribbon when I grabbed his wrist.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that you're not supposed to touch other people's things without their permission?" I hissed icily.

Although I barely exerted any force, Aaron suddenly grabbed his wrist and began screaming in pain.

Iris immediately panicked and shoved me aside. She didn't spare me a single glance, even when her sharp nails left long scratches along my arm.

"I just wanted to take a look. Why did you have to squeeze my wrist so hard?" Aaron whined.

Iris' heart ached terribly. She turned on me and shouted, "You crossed the line, Jasper!"

I barked out a bitter laugh as I held my arm.

The outcome was always the same. Iris would always unconditionally take Aaron's side as soon as he opened his mouth.

Suppressing the bitter sensation spreading through me, I held out my hand and demanded, "That's my wedding ring. Give it back to me!"

Iris' expression darkened. She pressed the ring box into Aaron's palm and said, "This design isn't suitable for a wedding ring. Choose another one."

It was a flimsy excuse. I knew that she just wanted me to give in to Aaron's whims yet again.

Besides, I wasn't marrying her. She had no right to tell me that the design wasn't suitable.

Just as I was about to inform Iris that she was no longer my bride, she pulled Aaron to his feet and snapped impatiently, "I don't want to hear your excuses! If you keep harassing Aaron, I'll have no choice but to seriously consider whether our relationship is worth maintaining."

I barked out a self-deprecating laugh as I watched her storm away with resolute steps.

"You don't have to do that, Iris," I thought to myself. "I've already made the decision for you."

…

Rumors of Iris and Aaron being glued to each other spread like wildfire through the city while I was preparing for the wedding.

Everyone was curious about how I would react.

In fact, someone had started a bet some time ago, betting on whether I would still marry Iris no matter how many times she stood me up.

Aaron bet all the money he had when he learned that the Swanson and Miller families were hosting a wedding again, hoping to earn a handsome profit.

Unfortunately for him, he would be losing all his money.

…

On the day of the wedding, I received a panicked call from my assistant right after I woke up.

"Bad news, Mr. Swanson! Ms. Iris brought her men with her and is trying to trash the wedding venue!"

It was one thing for her to abandon me time and time again. Why was she trying to stick her nose into my business when I was marrying someone else?

Suppressing my anger, I rushed to the hotel just in time to see Iris barking orders at the staff members to move the floral arrangements out of the hall.

I wasn't able to get a word in before she began interrogating me furiously.

"Didn't I tell you to postpone the wedding indefinitely? What are you doing? Are you trying to force me to marry you by having the ceremony without first getting my consent? Aaron was really upset because of what happened with the ring that day. We won't be getting married until we get his approval."

I stopped the staff members before they could leave the hall and hissed, "Put everything back."

Iris' expression darkened. "Don't you dare! Don't forget that I'm the successor of the Miller family. He still has to bend to my whims even after he marries me."

The successor?

It seemed that Iris still had no idea that she was going to be stripped of that title soon.

I was just about to call the Millers to tell them to take Iris away when Aaron suddenly appeared, dressed in a wedding tuxedo.

He tugged on his tie and said coyly, "I already told you that it's barely passable, but you just had to force me to put it on. Well, I've put it on now. I won't forgive you if you think that it looks ugly on me!"

He seemed to only notice me after he was done speaking. "Jasper, what are you doing here?" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Do I have to report to you when I'm going to my own wedding?" I asked mockingly, feeling irritated at the interrogative edge in his question. "Are you going to take off that tuxedo by yourself, or am I going to have to find someone to strip it off you?"

Iris' expression darkened as she shielded Aaron behind her. "You're being unreasonable, Jasper!"

Iris had tried to wreck my wedding, and Aaron had put on my tuxedo that took two years to make, and yet I was the unreasonable one?

I looked at the security guards, who were stationed by the door, and barked out my orders.

"Kick both of them out!"

Iris grabbed my wrist, her eyes burning with fury. "This wedding is hosted by the Millers. Why the hell are you acting as if you're the one who's calling the shots?"

She waved her hand and exclaimed, "Tear down everything in the hall and burn it all to ashes! I'm going to teach him a lesson he'll never forget!"

It was obvious that Iris had no idea that the Millers had taken the initiative to handle the wedding preparations to compensate me for her multiple transgressions against me.

The staff members also didn't know that Iris was no longer the successor, so they immediately leaped into action to carry out her orders.

I shot to my feet when I noticed a staff member moving a painting from one of the rooms.

"Put that painting down!" I shouted.

The woman in the painting looked at me tenderly as if she were trying to silently comfort me.

My nose stung as I held back my tears.

Mom passed away when I was young, leaving me with only this portrait of herself. She had said that she hoped to see me get married, have children, and live a good life through the eyes of her portrait.

Naturally, Iris also knew that the portrait was the most important thing to me. She briefly hesitated before she pointed at the hallway and said, "Put the painting there for now."

Aaron's eyes flashed. He dashed forward and snatched the painting from the staff member, saying, "What Iris means is that we need to take good care of something so precious."

Although it sounded like he intended to treat the painting with care, what he actually did was drop a lit lighter on the floor.

The flames swiftly licked up the fragile canvas, burning away Mom's image within seconds.

My eyes widened as I lunged at the painting, but I was only able to grab a fistful of ashes.

"I'm so sorry, Jasper! The painting slipped from my hands because it was too heavy."

My last thread of patience snapped upon hearing Aaron's insincere apology. I whirled on him and punched him.

Aaron yelped in pain.

I gritted my teeth as I yanked his tie and rained more blows down on him.

Pain suddenly exploded across my head in the next second.

Iris had struck me with a wooden bat. Her expression darkened as she shoved me away, screaming, "Have you lost your mind, Jasper? How dare you lay your hands on Aaron over a stupid painting?"

A stupid painting?

I stared at her in disbelief, feeling as if my heart was being crushed by an invisible force.

Iris knew how important Mom's portrait was to me. Her lips trembled when she realized what she had just said. She was about to say something when Aaron grabbed his wrist and let out a pained groan.

"My hand hurts so much. He intentionally stomped on my wrist. There's no point in living anymore if I can no longer draw!"

Iris drew him into her embrace with a heartbroken expression and immediately ordered someone to call an ambulance.

However, Aaron wasn't done just yet.

"Why aren't you standing up for me, Iris? You don't actually care about me, do you? Mom and Dad aren't around anymore. I might as well end my life if you don't care about me as well!"

He broke free from Iris and made a mad dash for the window, prompting the people around him to hastily block his path in fear that he would actually go through with his words.

Chaos erupted in the hall.

Iris gritted her teeth and coldly barked out her orders.

"Break Jasper's hands! He should have known that he would have to pay for the consequences of raising his hand against Aaron!"

Not wanting the situation to escalate any further, the staff members tried to convince Iris to change her mind.

"So what if we offend the Swanson family?" she snapped. "I'm the sole successor of the Miller family. There's no way that Grandpa will punish me because of an outsider."

When the staff members remained rooted to their spots, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Iris averted her gaze when she gripped my chin, saying, "You wouldn't be in this position right now if you didn't hurt Aaron in the first place."

I swallowed the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I smiled and said, "The biggest mistake of my life was getting together with you, Iris Miller!"

Iris' fingers quivered when she heard the hatred lacing my words, leaving a small cut on the end of my brow. She froze in place when she felt the warm blood stain her fingertips.

Aaron's expression twisted. "Do you feel sorry for him, Iris?"

Iris' face stiffened as she tightened her grip on the metal bat.

"Don't blame me, Jasper."

The cold glint of the bat was seconds away from making contact when someone kicked the door open.

The bat was suspended inches away from my palm.

Iris' expression turned frosty as she looked at Taylor, who had grabbed her wrist in a death grip. "You? How dare you stop me? You're just an illegitimate daughter who can never see the light of day."

Taylor chuckled. Ignoring Iris' shocked and furious gaze, she helped me back up to my feet.

"I won't forgive you if you hurt my husband again."