Ten years together, and the wedding I kept waiting for finally happened. Just not with me. Les Sanchez handed it to his little secretary.

I made it to the venue, pointed at his secretary Constance Summers, who stood there in the gown I had designed with my own two hands, and demanded through stinging eyes:

"Is she the reason you wouldn't marry me?"

Les didn't even flinch. He smiled and confessed, like he had every right to.

"Cora, you weren't clean anymore. You shouldn't have stood in the way of my chance at a woman who's completely mine."

My whole body shook. My head snapped up. "...What did you just say?"

He only reached out and wiped my tears away.

"Three years ago, I saw it. For the sake of my future, you walked into that man's office of your own free will."

"I was standing right behind the glass. I watched the two of you with my own eyes—"

He closed his eyes for a moment.

"But that's all in the past now."

"Cora, I'm grateful for what you did for me, so I'll register the marriage with you. But you can't keep me from finding real love."

"Which is why this wedding belongs to the woman I consider my true wife."

I watched the two of them clinging to each other like they couldn't bear an inch between them.

And honestly? I felt relieved.

He should have said so sooner. My ex had chased me three separate times, dangling an entire castle, begging me to take him back.

Well, this made things easy. No more agonizing over how to turn him down.

——

There was something I'd never told Les. The reason I walked into that man's office.

Because he was my ex.

He had schemed his way close to me, going so far as to become Les's superior.

Then he'd used that position to back me into a corner.

"You don't want your boyfriend finding out, do you?"

"Cora, just come back to me, and I can make that broke little boyfriend of yours rich."

"But if you say no, he's finished. Every door slams in his face."

I had every intention of refusing him to the bitter end.

But Les had hit the wall of his life back then. His mother was gravely ill, and the medical bills were piling up fast.

He hadn't slept for days, sick with worry.

He was out drinking and schmoozing deep into the night, desperate to land that one contract.

He came home drunk and threw up all over me.

And he kept murmuring the same things, over and over.

"What do I have to do to land that contract? Are ordinary people like us just doomed to never rise?"

"Cora, I'm so afraid I won't make it through this time."

"I'm sorry. I can't give you the life you deserve. I'm not even a man!"

Watching him cry, watching him break, I wiped my own tears dry, and the next day I steeled myself and went to my ex.

What I never imagined was that behind that one-way glass, Les was watching every move I made.

But for the sake of his future, for his business, he never stepped forward to stop me.

He never even said a single word against it.

He just watched the whole thing, agonized and silent, swallowing it all.

And he hid it from me for three full years.

Just when I thought his business was soaring, that we were finally about to live the good life, he'd been keeping a little secretary on the side.

No wonder. Ten years, countless times I brought up marriage, and he always had some excuse.

It was because he thought I was dirty.

It was because he had a younger, prettier option.

He saw me standing frozen in place, my face cycling from white to sickly green.

Les suddenly spoke.

"Cora, stop making a scene. Today is my wedding with Constance. I only kept it from you because I didn't want to upset you."

"Now that you know, just have a glass of wedding wine and go."

He waved his hand, signaling the bodyguards to seat me at the groom's relatives' table.

I bit down hard on my lip and didn't move.

The whispers and laughter around me rose until they nearly drowned me.

"Isn't that Cora Henson? The groom's girlfriend of ten years?"

“I thought they'd broken up, that's why the groom married someone else. Turns out she was the one kept in the dark the whole time.”

“Please. One's an old maid, the other's a girl fresh out of college. What man doesn't want the young one?”

“And she stood by Les Sanchez for ten years. She saw him broke and humiliated. The minute a man makes it, the first thing he upgrades is the woman on his arm.”

“All you can say is she was a fool. Pinned everything on one man and burned up her whole youth for nothing.”

I curled in on myself, shaking from head to toe.

I'd always struggled in crowds, and the thing I feared most was being talked about.

Every other time, when I was surrounded like this,

Les would come running to shield me, pulling me somewhere safe.

But now, far from rescuing me, he just stood there watching, cold-eyed, his silence its own kind of agreement.

The shame and the terror of it swallowed me whole.

I didn't even lift my head. I bolted for the restroom.

But I'd barely gotten inside

when a few of the bride's people hauled me back out without a shred of courtesy.

“What are you hiding from?”

“The bride said it herself, you're an important witness to this marriage. You have to stay for the reception. They'll be coming around to toast you soon.”

They dragged me back out, leaving me a mess.

Every eye in the hall turned toward me, and I wished the floor would crack open and swallow me down.

“Cora, this is my wedding with Constance. Stop making a scene, can you?”

Les took one look at the state of me and frowned.

“Sit down quietly over there.”

“Once we're back home, I'll make it up to you.”

“Be good. As long as you don't cause trouble today, I'll go to the courthouse with you to register the marriage by Monday at the latest.”

I glanced at Constance beside him, chin tipped high, then back at his self-righteous face.

And all at once I felt absurd.

A full ten years of my youth, thrown to the dogs.

“Les, if you didn't want to marry me, why didn't you say so sooner?”

My eyes were bloodshot, and I stared at him with everything I had left.

“Why drag it out until now? Why keep me in the dark, make me into a joke?”

Les knitted his brows, still holding the wineglass he meant to toast with.

“Cora, I already told you. Compared to you, Constance brings out my urge to protect her.”

Then his lips curved up, and he leaned in with a soft little laugh.

“And you know what? The last time you pulled out that wedding-gown sample, pushing me for a wedding, I was honestly fed up with you.”

“Right then, I'd shut myself in the study on a video call with Constance. She was picking out a hotel, ready to give herself to me, completely.”

“After that night, I felt content for the first time in my life.”

“She's so pure. A woman who belongs to me entirely.”

“I took her first time, so of course I should take responsibility, give her a wife's standing, give her a happy life.”

“And you, you could never give me that feeling.”

With that, Les stepped back, putting distance between us.

“I know I can't give you this wedding, and yes, you'll carry some regret over it. But what in life is ever perfect?”

“Cora, you should be grateful Constance is so generous.”

“She's the one swallowing her pride, willing to step aside and hand the marriage registration over to you.”

“This is our wedding. It wouldn't look right for you to keep carrying on.”

It struck me as so completely absurd that I actually laughed out loud.

And everyone looked at me the way you'd look at a madwoman.

“Don't tell me Cora actually snapped and lost her mind?”

“Couldn't marry the man she wanted, that's a hard blow. Who's to say?”

Constance swept forward and looped her arm through Les's, clinging close.

"Les, don't waste your breath on her. Let's go make our toasts."

"It's filthy back here, and it reeks. What if it gets a stain on my gown?"

She shot me a sneering, sing-song look and made a show of pinching her nose.

The bridesmaids around her caught on instantly.

"No kidding. I heard Cora Henson stopped being a decent woman ages ago. She was cheating on the groom the whole time they were together."

"Really? No wonder he'd rather marry someone else than her."

"A woman like that doesn't respect herself one bit. Who'd ever want to bring her home?"

"Only a man who gets off on being cheated on, ha Haha! "

Of course Les heard every word. He frowned, then turned and steered Constance away by the waist.

"Stop right there."

My voice came out cold.

"Les, you want to marry someone else, that's nothing to me. But are you so broke you can't even afford a proper wedding?"

I raised my hand and pointed at the gown on Constance.

"That's a custom piece. I made it with my own hands, to wear at my own wedding. She has no right to it."

"If you want this ceremony to go off without a hitch, I suggest you have her take it off right now."

Les's face darkened on the spot.

"Cora Henson, don't push your luck!"

"This is my wedding day with Constance. I don't want a scene with you, so I'm warning you, that's enough."

I gave a cold laugh. There's no such word as "enough" in my dictionary.

I only knew one thing: when someone wrongs me, I take it back.

"I already said it. Give me my gown back."

"Les, you of all people should know that dress is my own design. The patent and copyright are already registered."

"If Constance doesn't take it off today, that's infringement. I'll sue, defend my rights, and collect damages."

"It's just a cheap rag of a gown."

Les looked genuinely furious now. All at once he yanked out an unlimited black card and flung it in my face.

"This should be more than enough to buy you out. Now get lost!"

I went still for a moment, staring at the black card lying on the floor.

Ten years together, and that card was the thing Les had dreamed of, the prize he'd guarded like a treasure.

He'd never once let me so much as touch it.

Let alone spend a dime of it.

Yet now, for Constance, he could throw it in my face.

Money in hand is money you'd be a fool to refuse.

I bent down, picked it up, and let out a cold laugh. "Then thank you for your generosity, Mr. Sanchez. Goodbye."

With that, I turned to leave.

Behind me came Constance's vicious snarl.

"Cora Henson, you made me strip out of my gown at my own wedding. I'll remember this, and I'll settle the score with you later."

I scoffed and didn't bother answering.

"Then let me wish you both the best."

"Barren, infertile, and blessed with a houseful of children."

With that, I tossed aside the bouquet beside me, ignored the uproar exploding behind me, and walked out on my own.

Outside the hotel, I pulled out my phone and opened my contacts.

My finger hovered a long time over the name "Denys Stephens".

Three years ago, he'd forced his way close to me like some lovesick obsessive.

After that, he and I had a falling-out.

But these past six months, he'd told me his net worth had jumped by a billion, and he wanted to get back together.

Thinking back to those days, he'd been dirt poor.

To scrape together the money for my mother's medical bills, I'd had no choice but to harden my heart and break up with him.

"Denys, a broke nobody like you and I have no future."

He'd been crushed. He knelt in the pouring rain at the foot of my building, begging me over and over.

"Cora, I can make money, I swear. I'll work five jobs a day if I have to!"