My fiancé, Caleb Giles, was about to abandon me at the altar. Again. It was our wedding day at a Napa Valley vineyard, and he was choosing his cousin, Cassie Monroe, a woman who weaponized her supposed emotional fragility to get whatever she wanted.

I stopped him. "Caleb, can't we finish the wedding first?"

Caleb's brow furrowed, his voice tight with restrained anger and accusation. "Cassie is missing and on the verge of a breakdown, and all you can think about right now is this spectacle?"

My parents sided with him, their disappointment aimed squarely at me. "Juliana," my mother said, "Cassie's mother died saving you."

"Now that she's missing, you're only thinking about yourself," my father added.

I stood frozen, watching their anxious silhouettes disappear through the door as my heart plummeted into an icy void.

This was the third time Caleb had abandoned me for Cassie on an important occasion.

The first time was our engagement party. She claimed to be having a breakdown, and Caleb flew overnight to be with her. It turned out she was just throwing a tantrum because she’d failed to snag a limited-edition handbag.

The second time was during our wedding photoshoot in Paris. She called, sobbing that her boyfriend had dumped her. Without a second thought, Caleb abandoned our photoshoot and spent the entire night consoling her on the phone.

The third time was our wedding.

They all believed I owed Cassie—that I should always put her first.

This time, I decided to give her everything.

After the wedding that never was, I submitted an application for a classified federal biology project: "Project Aegis."

The program's requirements were stringent. Once selected, all my information would be classified for the next five years. No one would be able to find me.

Word got back to me that after I vanished, the ever-elegant and self-possessed Caleb Giles completely lost his mind.

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1

"Juliana, we can have the wedding anytime."

"I promise you, as soon as we find Cassie, I'll throw you an even grander wedding."

He reached for my shoulder, his tone laced with the same condescension used to placate a fussy child.

It was as if my refusal was nothing more than a hysterical fit.

I flinched back, recoiling from his placating touch.

Caleb's patience snapped.

"Your mother is right, Juliana. You owe Cassie a life."

I thought my heart had long since turned to stone.

But hearing those words from Caleb himself, a shard of ice seemed to pierce my chest.

Tears welled in my eyes, and I bit my lower lip so hard they wouldn't fall. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

My silence seemed to soften him, and he tried again. "Juliana, you've always been the most understanding one, haven't you?"

"What if I don't want to be anymore?"

My voice trembled, but it was threaded with a resolve I had never known before.

"You know damn well Cassie is doing this on purpose. Last time it was Paris, the time before was our engagement party. Can't you see it? How many more times are you going to fall for her act?"

The words had barely left my mouth when a sharp slap cracked across my face.

My mother, Eleanor, stood with her hand still raised, glaring at me with a mixture of disgust and fury, as if I weren't her daughter but some ungrateful monster.

"Juliana Hayes, you are a cold-blooded monster!"

She pointed a trembling finger at my face, her voice rising before all the high-society guests. "Cassie's mother lost her life saving you!"

"And now that Cassie is missing, you stand here saying such heartless things?"

"If I'd known you were such an ungrateful creature, my sister never should have jumped in that water to save you!"

The eyes of the surrounding guests were all on me—some filled with pity, others with whispers, and a few with the cruel thrill of a public spectacle.

I stood there in my wedding dress, a garment meant for happiness, with a vivid red handprint blooming on my cheek. A clown in a white gown, publicly shamed.

My mother, however, showed no concern for my dignity. She turned to Caleb, her tone softening instantly.

"Caleb, go find Cassie. Let's see her try to stop you now."

Caleb spared me one complicated glance.

Then, he turned and walked away without looking back.

A triumphant smile crept onto my mother's face. She leaned in, her voice dripping with contempt. "You see? When it comes to Cassie, you'd better learn to keep your mouth shut."

I stared at her, a sob caught in my throat.

"Just because her mother saved me, I have to be indebted to her for the rest of my life?"

She answered without a shred of hesitation, her voice firm and decisive.

"That's right. This isn't just about postponing a wedding. If Cassie ever decides she wants Caleb, you will step aside without a fight."

My parents left with Caleb.

They left me alone to face the wreckage of my own wedding.

"Poor Juliana Hayes, isn't it pathetic? Abandoned at the altar, and her own mother just left with him..."

"Well, she owes the Monroe family a life, doesn't she? I heard Miss Cassie's mother drowned saving her."

"You can't really say that. Even if there's a debt, you don't torture someone like this, do you?"

I raised a hand to my cheek and realized it was wet with tears.

When I was eight, on a vacation at Lake Tahoe, I fell into the water.

It was my aunt who leaped in to save me without a second thought for her own safety. She never resurfaced.

At the funeral, Cassie wailed that she didn't have a mother anymore.

My mother's heart ached for her, so she took Cassie into our home in New York City.

The very first day she came to live with us, Cassie snatched my favorite teddy bear.

When I cried and tried to take it back, my parents pulled me aside. "Juliana, you need to let Cassie have it."

Eventually, that became the rule: whatever Cassie wanted, I had to surrender without question.

In high school, I earned a scholarship to Columbia University on my own merit. Cassie threw a colossal tantrum, crying that she wanted to go too.

That night, my parents came into my room. "Juliana, give your spot to Cassie. Your grades are good enough to get in anywhere. Cassie is different; she needs this more than you do."

I wanted to scream no, but my parents deployed the same old line.

"Juliana, Cassie's mother died for you. You need to be grateful."

And so, I was forced to relinquish the scholarship.

A thousand silent protests raged inside me, but I was powerless.

Who was I to argue when I owed someone a life?

Until I met Caleb.

He was the first person who ever asked what I truly wanted.

I told him I was afraid of thunder, and he had our apartment fitted with the best soundproof glass.

When I mentioned my suffocating past, Caleb took my hand, his expression earnest as he said, "Juliana, you are your own person. You don't owe anyone a thing."

I was terrified the first time I brought him home.

I was so worried Cassie would decide she wanted Caleb, too. And, of course, she did.

When my parents suggested, "Juliana, you should break up with Caleb. Cassie really likes him," I refused for the first time in my life.

"Caleb is a person, not a thing. I won't give him to anyone."

My mother, enraged, hurled a crystal glass at me.

The sting of pain I braced for never came.

Caleb had moved in front of me, taking the impact on his arm as the glass shattered.

As my parents stared in shock, Caleb took my hand. "Mr. and Mrs. Hayes, Juliana is my fiancée. I don't want anyone but her."

Back then, he only had eyes for me.

But I don't know when it all changed.

"Juliana, Cassie lost her mother so young; she's had a hard life. Just let her have this one."

"She's just sensitive. What harm could she possibly mean? You just have it out for her."

"Juliana, can you please stop targeting her?"

I had thought marriage would be our new beginning.

But today, he chose Cassie. Again.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing the tears back.

I realized I’d been clinging to a desperate, foolish sliver of hope that this wedding would go on as planned.

But the illusion shattered once again.

Between me and Cassie, they would always choose her.

"Once you enter the Project Aegis facility, you will have no contact with the outside world for five years. Are you certain about this?"

I looked up and met my university mentor Dr. Reed’s gaze, my own resolute.

"Professor, I've made up my mind."

I would rather be doing something meaningful at a desert base in Nevada than be their disposable option.

Five years was long enough to forget them.

Just then, my phone rang, shrill in the quiet office.

The caller ID read: Caleb.

My fingertips went cold, my breath catching in my throat.

Seeing my reaction, Dr. Reed smiled gently. "No rush. Take your time. We can talk after you're ready."

I took a deep breath and slid my finger across the screen to answer.

Caleb's urgent voice filled the line.

"Juliana, where are you? I was wrong today. I never should have ignored your feelings and left you alone at the wedding."

His tone was low and soft, the one he used to coax me when I was upset.

In the past, my resolve might have crumbled.

But now, all I felt was a profound exhaustion.

I spoke softly, my voice unnervingly calm. "Did you find Cassie?"

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"We found her. She was just throwing a fit, hiding at a friend's house."

"That's good."

I replied faintly, offering nothing more.

Caleb seemed to exhale in relief, quickly adding, "Your parents were just on edge today, their words were harsh. Don't take it to heart. Come back to the house in Connecticut for Thanksgiving dinner tonight. I asked the chef to make your favorite dishes."

I agreed. "Okay."

I would treat it as one last meal. A final, proper goodbye to this entire absurd mess.

That evening, the Hayes family mansion in Connecticut was lit up like a beacon.

My parents and Caleb were gathered around the long dining table, their attention focused entirely on Cassie, who was seated at the head of the table.

"Cassie, dear, you must have been terrified. Here, eat more."

My mother cut a large slice of turkey and placed it on Cassie's plate, her eyes brimming with maternal concern.

Caleb chimed in, "She's right. Don't run off like that again. You had us all worried sick."

Cassie smiled sweetly. "Oh, I'm a big girl now. You don't have to treat me like a child."

She then deliberately picked up a slice of pecan pie and offered it to me.

"Juliana, the chef made this especially for you. You should have some."

I stared at the pie but didn't move.

My mother slammed her fork onto the table.

"Cassie is being kind enough to offer you some pie. What's with that look on your face?"

I looked up, my voice steady. "I have a severe nut allergy."

At my words, Cassie's eyes instantly filled with tears.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Juliana. I had no idea you were allergic to nuts."

Seeing Cassie's distress, my mother's face darkened with fury.

"Juliana Hayes, does a single truthful word ever leave your mouth? You're going to eat this right now. We'll see if you're really allergic!"

Her voice was sharp and piercing, the same tone she'd used at the wedding when she'd called me a monster.

Caleb frowned at me. "Juliana, Cassie meant well. Just have a bite. Don't ruin the evening for everyone."

Have a bite?

They seemed to have forgotten the last time I'd accidentally ingested a tiny piece of a nut, I nearly died from anaphylactic shock.

So, in their eyes, my life was worth less than one of Cassie's crocodile tears.

I said nothing more. I simply put down my fork, pushed back my chair, and walked towards my old room upstairs.