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.

Some of my friends and relatives asked me a few questions but I managed to handle them well enough.

My parents, however, were a different story. When they found out I was no longer getting married, they were deeply disappointed. To them, five years of my youth had been wasted. No matter how much I tried to explain, they were unwilling to accept it.

I patiently explained the reason for the breakup, but nothing worked. In the end, I stopped covering for him and told them the truth. "Sonny has changed. I'll never be happy if I stay with him."

My parents did not say anything for a long time, but they finally relented because they thought my happiness was more important than anything else.

After spending hours making calls to inform everyone about the canceled wedding, I did not stay idle but immediately started packing my things.

Actually, Sonny had not come home for days, so maybe there was not any urgency to leave. However, I was too desperate to leave. I just wanted to escape and gave my aching heart a distraction.

Fortunately, I did not have many possessions, only a small collection of clothes and a few cosmetics, that could fit into a single suitcase. We hardly lived in this apartment because we only just bought it for our planned marriage.

As I packed, my gaze suddenly directed to the plants on the balcony. My money tree was gone. In its place was a blooming bluebell flower, its tiny bells swaying gently. Nicole’s WhatsApp profile picture was of a little bluebell. I closed my eyes tightly as tears seeped from my eyes then I quickly wiped them away.

I took one last look around the apartment that I and Sonny had decorated together. Five years together no doubt had accumulated many good memories. Sonny had become an integral part of my life. In every vision that I had about my future, he was always there and I believed he would be the one person I would grow old with.

Yet, reality was like this. The script of life was rarely smooth sailing. It was normal to have a roadblock along the way. However, I had never expected that the biggest obstacle would be Sonny.

My hand on the door handle began to shake uncontrollably and my eyes began to blur. In my daze, I almost could see the younger version of Sonny. The boy who accompanied me to climb a mountain so we could hang up our love token high up on the wishing tree. He had placed it high up at the highest branch and made a wish sincerely. “I wish,” he had whispered, “for Bella to be the happiest woman in the world and us to grow old together, year after year.”

The man from those memories was almost too perfect. The current version of him no longer deserved the beautiful journey we had shared. The happiness we had once had was now gone, vanished like smoke. The boy who had once offered his whole heart to me was long lost, replaced by a man full of bitterness and mistrust.

If the end was in a painful and disgraceful way, it would be better to end it early.

As I closed the apartment door, I also shut away the five years of love I had for Sonny.

I then moved to the apartment that my parent had bought for me a long time ago. It was not as luxurious as the one I shared with Sonny but the location was great and it was much more convenient for her job. Since I was alone, I did not need anything too spacious.

Though the wedding was off, I was not ready to officially break things off just yet. I hoped the distance would turn this into a slow, inevitable goodbye, gradually extinguishing any lingering feelings for him.

Once everything was settled, I sat by the window.

The autumn rain drizzled endlessly as droplets clung to the glass and soaked the world in cold, bone-chilling dampness.

I looked through the photo album on her phone and scrolled through picture after picture of the two of them. One by one, I recalled every memory and then deleted them, one at a time.

In their first year together, we traveled to Paektu Mountain to watch the snow.

In the second year, we kissed under the fireworks at Disneyland.

In the third year, we worked hard side by side as we were making plans to build a life and a home together.