Finally, after five years of dating, I, Bella Wendell, would marry Sonny Simmons, my boyfriend. However, on the day I was trying on my wedding dress, Sonny called me. He said, "Nicole attempted suicide and her emotion can't be triggered in any way. We'll have to postpone our wedding."

The man did not even discuss his decision with me, he just informed me.

This time, I did not hesitate any longer. I immediately agreed and told my family and friends about it alone. However, I did not inform them that the wedding was postponed, instead, I told them it was canceled.

——

I was standing alone at the bridal shop, trying on my wedding dress, when out of the blue, my boyfriend, Sonny Simmons, called.

I was in a good mood because the store attendant had been showering me with compliments about my beauty. Actually, my happiness was not coming from the praise, but from the thought that my love story was about to have a perfect ending.

After having a stable romantic relationship with Sonny for five years, I had no doubt that he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Six months had passed since our engagement and it felt like the right time to start planning the wedding.

"I'll take this one," I finally decided. My heart overflowed with joy.

Just as I was about to send him a picture of me in the wedding dress, my phone rang. Seeing it was Sonny, I excitedly exclaimed, "Sonny! Guess what? I've picked my wedding dress today …."

"Bella," Sonny interrupted my words. He sounded weary and distant. "We need to postpone our wedding for now."

Hearing this, I was stunned as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. Is it a prank? Maybe he is planning to give me a surprise?

However, all my guesses were wrong. 

When he did not hear my response, Sonny continued, "Nicole slit her wrist just now. She is now in the hospital. I don't want to upset her even more than she already is. So, let's push back our wedding date a bit."

I looked down at the diamond ring on my finger in a daze. The diamond glittered under the shop light. It was truly dazzling.

Although the room was heated with central heating, I felt as if I had plunged into an ice-cold cave and the coldness pierced my bones.

"Bella?" Sonny sounded irritated by my silence. "Are you still listening?"

Then without waiting for my answer, he hung up the phone. He did not even have any patience for me.

"Yeah … okay," I whispered hoarsely, long after the all had ended. Then I lowered the phone from my ear.

I raised my hand and touched my cheek. I was surprised to feel it was wet with flooding tears. Then I closed my eyes tightly as pain and bitterness burst out together.

Over the past six months, after the announcement of our engagement, Nicole Simmons, as a young girl who had been fostered in the Simmons Family since she was a child, had used every means possible to sabotage us from getting engaged as scheduled.

The first time I met Sonny's parents, Nicole was just a bratty teenager who made sarcastic comments and threw insults toward me. I did not think it was a big deal since Nicole was just a little girl. Besides, Sonny would often defend me. Over time, I got used to her antic and thought the reason she did it was because that little girl was afraid of losing her protective older brother.

However, when she realized the word did not have the desired effect, Nicole started to hurt herself, making herself so ill and weak that she had to be hospitalized multiple times.

The first time Nicole was hospitalized, I bought her homemade soup to visit. However, the moment she saw me, she became hysterical, grabbed a vase from her bedside and hurled it straight at me. It smacked at my forehead and blood immediately trickled down my face.

What had once been childish antics had grown into something truly vicious. I was raised in a sheltered and loving house so I had never been threatened so cruelly. I endured it and swallowed my pride. Now, Nicole no longer sees me as a human being, she was brave enough to treat me as an enemy she could trample on as she liked.

I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and pressed it against my bleeding forehead. I then looked at Sonny. I hoped as her older brother he would step in and reprimand Nicole.

However, Sonny did not do anything. He did not even show any concern that I was injured or the blood was trickling down on my face.

Instead, he rushed over to Nicole and took her hand to examine the skin that had been cut by the shattered vase and bleeding. He held her close. For the first time, his eyes reddened in front of me. Seeing his sister cry and distraught, Sonny felt upset. His voice choked with heartache as he made a promise, "I won’t get married. I’ll stay by your side forever.”

Then he turned to me and said with an icy tone, "You should go home. Don't upset Nicole anymore."

I was not sure how I could describe my feelings at that moment. Was it disappointing? Shocked? Furious? Or hurt?

All those emotions mixed into a bitter humiliation that I had never experienced before. This feeling became more pronounced when I caught sight of Nicole, who smiled sweetly in Sonny’s embrace. The rage and shame hit me harder than ever.

I stormed out of the door, desperate to escape this place as soon as possible. I felt in this confrontation, I was this sibling's opposition. At that moment, I felt completely isolated, as if I was standing naked in front of them, exposed for everyone to mock and judge.

The memories piled up like scars. I had never faced so much humiliation in my life until I met these siblings.

After the incident, Nicole was discharged from the hospital and surprisingly, she took the initiative to talk to Sonny and ask to meet me to make an apology.

At first, I was skeptical but decided to give Nicole the benefit of the doubt. So, when Sonny went to pick Nicole up, I took a few hours off work to buy her favorite cake.

When Nicole arrived, she seemed genuinely sorry. Her attitude was different, she smiled warmly at me as she took my hand and apologized. Then she wrapped her hands around me.

Seeing two people he loved in harmony, for the first time in a long time, Sonny smiled.

As I saw the innocent expression on Nicole, a glimmer of hope raised in my heart and I turned around to get the dessert that I had to queue for a long time to get it.

Sonny then left to get Nicole's suitcase. I used that time to put the cake on the table and said with a gentle voice, "Your brother said that this is your favorite."

However, Nicole who was originally silent suddenly exploded. Before I could react, she had flipped the cake off the table, making the cream splatter all over me.

I stood frozen in place in a daze. Just then the door swung open and Sonny walked in.

“What happened to the cake?” he asked casually, not yet aware of the tension in the room.

Nicole's demeanor changed instantly. She pouted and grabbed his arm then whined, “I told her I’d eat it later, Bella threw it on the floor.”

My jaw clenched with irritation. "Nicole, can you hear yourself? Do you realize how ridiculous your lie sounds?”

I wiped the cream off my ruined dress, my voice edged with bitterness. “I drove miles to get that cake. If I didn’t want you to have it, why would I bring it here?”

I was done playing along. She had finally seen through Nicole's fake act. She used a sweet, innocent façade around her brother, while toward me, she showed her true color, a malicious girl.

My heart went cold as I realized her apology had been another setup. It was her new way to humiliate me. As anger rose in my heart, I laughed bitterly. This time, I wouldn’t let it slide. Seeing Nicole's mask start to slip, I pressed on because I was determined to expose the truth.

"Nicole, you're welcome to hate me, but don’t resort to these underhanded tricks to frame me,” I said with a steady and resolute voice. I was not someone who tolerated mistreatment endlessly, nor I was naive enough to back down anymore.

“Enough! That's outrageous,” Sonny’s cold voice cut my word. There was not a trace of warmth in his eyes when he looked at me.

“Nicole came here today on her initiative to apologize and make peace and this is how you treat her?” he accused me. “It’s just a cake. Nicole, I’ll buy you another one,” he added to appease Nicole. He took his sweater, that had been hanging on the coat rack and draped it over her shoulders. He said gently, "You can wear this. You'll get cold if you wear so little."

My eyes flickered and I felt like my heart was being squeezed and twisted. The armor I had been carefully built around myself shattered in an instant.

Sonny had always refused to lent me his clothes or accessories. He had claimed he disliked the smell of perfume on his belongings. Even though we were about to get marriage, he had never made an exception for me.

I often joked about his preference even laughed about it but I respected his boundaries and never touched his things again.

Yet now, even from a distance, I could clearly smell the perfume radiating from Nicole. So, it wasn’t that he disliked the smell of perfume, he actually did not like mine.

Sonny turned around and guided Nicole back to the living room. He left me alone to deal with the mess on the floor.

Even now, when I recall the incident, I still feel the same pain tear apart my heart.

Nicole had been living with the Simmons Family since childhood. She had become the family's foster daughter ever since her parents died. Though there was no blood relation, twenty years of shared life wasn’t nothing and the Simmons had always treated her as their own.

I often heard Sonny talk about his sweet innocent sister, the Simmons Family's princess.

Back then, I was so in love with Sonny, I had bought many presents and gift for Nicole to win her approval. I wanted to be accepted by the sister he cherished so dearly.

However, the first time Nicole saw me, she was very hostile toward me. At that time, I dismissed it as a young girl's natural attachment to her brother.

As soon as I learned that there was not any blood relation between them, my woman's intuition told me there was more to it.

When I tried to tell Sonny, he frowned and got angry at me, "Don't think that way about Nicole, okay? She’s always been innocent and pure. She’s just used to being cared for and it’s normal for her to fear losing her brother’s love."

Since then, Sonny's stern face attached to my mind. I finally realized that Nicole was his bottom line, his precious treasure.

Between Nicole and me, Sonny would always, without any hesitation, choose the former. He would indulge her as if it was his second nature. I would always be the one he left behind.

He always prioritized his sister’s feelings, then comforted me afterward with empty reassurances. He insisted that he was being fair to both of us. However, the scales had long since tipped unfairly, the balance of love was always in Nicole's favor.

If it was the case, it was time for me to let go.

My heart had already numbed by the pain. So, when I had made up my mind, I did not feel any struggle I had imagined. Instead, I felt liberated, like a weight had been lifted from my soul.

“Sorry, but I won’t be needing the wedding dress,” I told the attendant with a smile still lingering on my lips. “I’m not getting married.”

I stepped out of the dress and apologized to the staff. Then I walked out the door with firm and unwavering steps as I was running toward freedom and a new beginning.

After I left the bridal shop, I went straight to the apartment that I and Sonny had prepared for the marital house. Without any hesitation, I called all my friends and family when I entered the building.