"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.

In the fourth year together, I traveled abroad to ski and explore Europe.

In the fifth year, Sonny got down on one knee, pulled out a ring and asked, “Marry me.”

….

I tortured myself by recalling every wonderful memory we had together, then deleted every single photo personally, even though my heart had long gone numb from the pain. I hoped that by erasing those happy moments, my wounds might heal faster.

Once I had wiped every last photo from the phone, I wrapped myself in a blanket and tried to sleep. At first, it was hard. Dreams kept plaguing me. I kept seeing two people saying that they would spend their lifetime together. Each night when I woke up in the dark, I always found my face wet with tears.

Eventually, terrified of reliving those dreams, I started working through the night, so I would be too occupied to sleep.

I disappeared from everyone’s radar for half a month. During that time, Sonny did not make any attempt to reach out even once. The uninterrupted silence gave me the space I desperately needed to start piecing myself back together.

After twenty days of not seeing him, I received an opportunity to be promoted to work at the headquarters.

My exceptional performance had not gone unnoticed by the management. So, they invited me for another interview.

"Bella, there is a vacant position as a director at the headquarters. Are you interested this time?” they asked.

It wasn’t the first time I had been offered a chance to move up the ladder. However previously, the idea of relocating to distant Lagado City wasn’t an option. I and Sonny had been building our future together in Chester City, the salary increase did not tempt me enough to move there. Back then, I had declined the offer, much to the frustration of her supervisor.

Despite all of this, my work ability and capability were excellent. Almost every task that I took was delivered more than expected. Now, even though they half-expected me to refuse the offer again, I was the first candidate they approached.

“Thank you for the opportunity,” I replied. “I’d be honored to join the headquarters team.”

With three months left before the official transfer, I had to sort everything out before I left.

Later that day, I got a call from my father, so I immediately went home.

"Bella, the supplier suddenly backed out of their contracts. We can’t move forward with any of our projects!” my father exclaimed; his voice filled with distress. He could not accept the timber supplier that he had worked with betrayed him.

My family ran a small furniture business. They had longstanding partnerships with several lumber suppliers, all of whom were family friends. However now, every one of those suppliers had backed out from their agreements, leaving the Wendell Family with no wood for production.

"What about the penalty fees?" I asked. "Is that enough to cover the losses?"

I figured maybe we could use the penalty damages from several companies to cover all the losses.

Her father shook his head. “Those clauses are mostly for show,” he said bitterly as he burst into tears. “These are friends we’ve trusted for decades. The fines won’t even scratch the surface of what we owe our buyers.”

The sudden, coordinated betrayal of multiple suppliers suggested that this was no ordinary business decision. There had to be a larger force at play, something powerful enough to orchestrate this crisis.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure this out,” I assured my parents and then left to think of a plan.

With only a month left before their delivery deadlines and no raw materials in the warehouse, the situation was dire. My savings were almost gone. Most of it was used for my wedding preparation.

When I was at the end of the rope, a name suddenly flashed through my mind. The name Mark Ruffus attached itself into my brain.

He was my former university classmate, now his family business had expanded into a nationwide enterprise with branches in multiple industries. Getting their hands on a lumber shipment wouldn’t be difficult for someone like him.