At our wedding, my wife's assistant "accidentally" uploaded the wrong photo. The big screen was supposed to display our wedding portraits.

Instead, it was a picture of my wife and him in full wedding attire. Their fingers were laced together, their eyes locked in a soft, intimate gaze, looking every bit like a blissfully happy couple.

The entire venue erupted in shocked whispers. The assistant froze in shock, acting like he had no idea why he was in the photo. He started panicking, asking if we should just postpone the ceremony. My wife, however, stayed surprisingly calm.

She whispered her solution, “Everyone’s here. Postponing now would be humiliating and, honestly, a bad omen. Beside, most people here don’t even know what the groom looks like. Why don’t we just let him stand in for you?”

Our friends were dumbfounded. They all thought I’d explode in anger and jealousy after hearing something so outrageous. Instead, I nodded, saying it was actually a great idea.

Seeing how composed I remained, my wife looked pleased with herself. She told me that since we were legally married anyway, she’d make it up to me later with another ceremony. However, she seemed to have forgotten one thing: she had just signed the divorce papers.

“How can you switch grooms in the middle of a wedding? What’s Graham supposed to do? He’ll probably be heartbroken again.”

A friend couldn’t resist glancing at me. I could tell he was only trying to stir the pot, waiting to see me blow up.

Honestly, if this were before, I probably would’ve raged with jealousy and thought Lucy Leavitt’s suggestion was absolutely insane. Yet now, to everyone’s surprise—including my own—I was calm.

After all, situations like this had happened too many times, and I’d long gone numb. Ever since Zack Graff became Lucy’s assistant, she had done countless things for him that left me stunned.

When we went to the movies, she insisted on bringing him along. She claimed he was scared of the dark, then left me alone and went to sit with him. When I fell sick and urgently needed money, she told me to “tough it out” to build resistance, yet she turned around and bought a limited-edition figure for Zack because he liked it.

When we scheduled our wedding photos, she found an excuse to send me away. Then she snuck off to take wedding portraits with Zack instead. When I caught her, she wasn’t even embarrassed. She simply laughed it off.

“Zack doesn’t have a girlfriend. He just wanted wedding photos. What’s wrong with giving him some? It’s not like I’m actually marrying him.”

Now, today, they really were getting married, and I was completely disappointed in her.

“I’m just handling an emergency for the ceremony. It’s not like it’s a real marriage,” Lucy spoke as if nothing mattered. “Right, Graham?”

“You’re right.”

I nodded, took off the groom’s boutonniere, handed it to her, and ignored the awkward looks around us. Then, I turned and walked straight out of the hotel. Even as I stepped outside, Lucy didn’t come after me.

Behind me, thunderous applause erupted as she and Zack took their spots at the end of the aisle. When no one else was looking, Zack turned back toward me with a smug smile, as if announcing his victory.

I wasn’t surprised. I had known this wasn’t an accident; it was Zack deliberately provoking me, and Lucy wasn’t oblivious to it. She just let it happen. She had always indulged him without limits.

At the company, everyone had to call her President Leavitt, but only Zack was allowed to call her Lucy. Others would get chewed out for the smallest mistakes, but even if Zack caused major problems, she pretended not to see a thing.

Just a month ago, Zack’s mistake cost the company a contract worth millions. Everyone was furious. Yet to calm people down, she didn’t discuss anything with me. She simply pinned the blame on me and docked an entire year of my salary.

When I confronted her, she acted indifferent.

“We’ve been together for so many years. Why are you still so petty over something so small? It’s not a big deal for you, but it is to Zack. If we deduct his salary, how is he supposed to survive? If it bothers you so much, fine, I’ll make it up to you. Happy?”

This wedding was supposed to be her making it up to me, but of course, it ended up benefiting Zack instead. Maybe that was why, this time, I wasn’t even sad. I was unexpectedly calm enough to just go home and sleep.

Lucy hated dealing with details, so I had handled every part of the wedding myself. I chose the photographer, oversaw every shoot, and even designed our outfits a year in advance.

To avoid affecting the work she assigned me, I used all my after-work hours to sort everything out. I stayed up night after night choosing decorations, invitations, and gifts. Just yesterday, to make everything perfect, I rehearsed until midnight. My chest still hurt from exhaustion.

Looking back, it really wasn’t worth it. If I’d known, I would’ve slacked off too.

Just as I drifted off to sleep, I was jolted awake by the sound of the front door opening. It was already past midnight.

When I walked out of the bedroom, I saw Lucy acting like she always did, kicking off her shoes and collapsing lazily onto the couch.

“Graham, I’m starving. Make me some food.”

She spoke as naturally as if she hadn’t just gotten married to someone else.

I let out a quiet laugh. “Did you come home to the wrong house? After a wedding, aren’t you supposed to be enjoying the bridal suite?”

She frowned immediately.

“Graham, are you still mad about what happened today?” As usual, she asked even though she already assumed the answer.

This time, though, she was wrong. I wasn’t angry; I was just bored.

“No,” I said truthfully.

She clearly didn’t believe me. She sat up, speaking with a sigh, “I know you’re upset, but I was thinking of the company. We had so many business partners attending today. If they saw us mess up something as simple as the slideshow, they’d question our competence. I didn’t want you to become a laughingstock.

“Zack was under so much pressure today. You don’t even know how much people were forcing drinks on him. He drank so much on your behalf that he threw up three times. You should thank him.”

I almost laughed, and after thinking for a moment, I nodded.

“I really should thank him.”

I should thank him for helping me decide to leave Lucy for good.

Seeing how calm I was, she assumed she had successfully coaxed me again. Her tone lightened up a little.

“As long as you understand our good intentions. As for thanking him, forget about words. You left the wedding early, and he was actually a little worried about you. You should give him a gift. His rental place is under renovation, so let’s gift him a house.”

She had mentioned gifting him a house before. For her to bring it up again so casually, she wasn’t asking for my opinion. She was notifying me of something she had probably done.

I let out a soft, mocking laugh. “A house isn’t enough. I’m planning to give him something he’ll like even more.”

“What is it?”

In her confused but slightly hopeful gaze, I said calmly, “I’m giving him you. Lucy, we’re getting a divorce.”

When the words left my mouth, I wished I hadn’t wasted my breath on her.

Back when we registered our marriage, Lucy insisted we keep it hidden from the company. She said she didn’t want the employees thinking I’d get special treatment, so she wanted our marriage kept quiet.

I understood her and went along with it. However, later on, she stopped caring about discretion and openly acted intimately with Zack at work. Everyone in the company thought she and Zack were the real couple, and she didn’t bother to explain. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the misunderstanding.

Even when it came to planning the wedding, she only invited business partners. She didn’t invite a single friend or relative. Her explanation at the time was that since we lived in another city, even if we announced our wedding, our friends wouldn’t be able to come. She said it would only look like we were asking for gifts, so it was better to keep things simple and quiet, and we could have a celebration back home later.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. Yet looking back now, she was basically creating opportunities for Zack to take the groom’s place. At this point, everyone already believed she was Zack’s wife. Aside from the marriage certificate, there was almost nothing left to prove that Lucy and I were together.

I originally thought she would just go along with my decision. However, she froze for a moment instead and frowned.

“What did you say? Graham, when did you become so petty? You want a divorce over something so trivial?”

When I didn’t answer, she let out a long breath, and her tone unexpectedly softened.

“Forget it. I know you’re just saying things out of anger. I won’t take it to heart. Stop making trouble, okay? Talking about divorce is hurtful. We’ve been together for so many years. How could we get a divorce just like that? Besides–”

She was about to continue when her phone rang. The moment she saw the caller ID, her eyes lit up. She answered without hesitation and walked straight into the bathroom to take the call, completely ignoring me.

I could already guess who it was—Zack. Whenever it involved him, she would unconsciously cast me aside to go and chat with him, like the rest of the world didn’t exist. I had gotten used to it. Sometimes I even wondered if she ever regretted registering the marriage with me.

She probably did. I had seen Lucy when she truly loved me. It was bold and passionate, which was why I knew with absolute certainty that the woman standing in front of me now had no love left for me at all.

Lucy stayed in the bathroom for two hours. Dawn was already breaking by the time she walked out, looking thoroughly satisfied.

When she noticed that I was still standing there, she paused and then guiltily averted her eyes.

“It was a company call. Something needed to be handled.”

I laughed. Even she didn’t seem to realize that she only offered explanations when she felt guilty. If it really had been a work matter, she would’ve walked out with a dark expression, handled it without a word, and only snapped at me later for asking if she needed help.

However, I didn’t expose her. Instead, I said quietly, “We’re not done talking about earlier.”

“About what?”

She looked genuinely blank, clearly having pushed everything about me out of her mind.

I was used to that, too. So, I reminded her, “The divorce.”

Only then did she seem to remember, and her brows immediately knotted.

“Graham, stop it. I already said I’m not agreeing to a divorce. Why are you being so childish? Why can’t you be more like Zack? He’s younger than you, and yet he’s more mature. When problems arose, he kept trying to fix everything. He even brought his parents over just to make sure the ceremony went smoothly. You don’t have parents, so of course they couldn’t come, but instead of trying to help, you just keep picking fights…” she rambled on, irritated.

I couldn’t help but snort. I never thought she’d have the nerve to bring up my parents.

When she was a kid, her house caught fire. She was home alone. To save her, my father rushed inside and ended up severely burned. He didn’t survive the night. My mother died soon after from grief.

The night my mother passed away, Lucy held me while I cried and swore over and over that she would never leave me. Yet now, after all those years of shared history, she was using my parents’ deaths as a flaw to compare unfavorably to Zack.

My fingers clenched, and a dull ache spread through my chest with every breath.

Before, I knew she felt guilty about my parents, so even if she said something hurtful, I would avoid pushing back. I never wanted her to feel like I was using morality against her.

Now, I met her eyes directly. “Do you remember how my parents died?”

She clearly hadn’t expected that question. Panic flashed in her expression, but it faded quickly.

Then, she muttered in a low, impatient tone, “There you go again… We’re not even talking about the same thing. And besides, that was years ago. Why bring it up? The dead can’t come back to life. And it’s not like I begged your dad to save me. He chose to go in.”

“Graham, everything that happened before is in the past now. We should focus on living in the moment. How about this? Take a month off and get some rest. I’ll be away on a business trip, and we can talk when I get back.”

She didn’t even wait for my reaction before she picked up her suitcase and walked out, humming a tune.

I stood frozen where I was, ears ringing, unable to process anything for a long time. I never expected that the thorn in my heart for years would be met with such a response. However, the old Lucy wasn’t like that.

Back then, when she was pulled out of that fire, my dad suffered third-degree burns over eighty percent of his body. She cried as she apologized to him, and to distract him from the pain, she told him sweet, gentle stories for hours. Later, when my dad passed away, she promised she would remember that day forever—that she would never forget her life was saved by him.

Yet now, barely a decade later, she had changed. If she could treat something as serious as a life-saving ordeal like this, then what about all the promises she once made to me? Had those been “in the past” for her, too?

I sat on the couch and lit a cigarette. She used to complain about the smell on me, so I quit years ago. Now, smelling that familiar smoke again, I actually felt nauseous. After a few seconds, I stubbed out the barely lit cigarette and tossed it into the trash.

Habits really would change a person. I used to enjoy smoking, but it disgusted me now. Lucy used to love me, too, but she didn’t anymore.

I let out a small, relieved laugh. Maybe I really should start living in the moment.

By then, dawn had broken. I grabbed my phone and called my lawyer, asking him to draft a divorce agreement. I emphasized that I was willing to leave the marriage with nothing. The reason Lucy never wanted a divorce before was that she feared I’d take half her assets. Now that I was willing to walk away empty-handed, she wouldn’t have any reason to refuse.

My lawyer had known us since the beginning. He was the one who handled our legal work back when the company was just a tiny startup, so he understood our situation better than anyone. After listening quietly, he stayed silent for a long moment.

“Graham… technically, I shouldn’t interfere. But you’re my friend, so I’ll say this anyway. Two months ago, Lucy had already notarized all her assets. Even without giving everything up, you still wouldn’t get a single cent.

“I don’t know what happened between the two of you, and I know you love her. I know you’re willing to give everything up for her. But after how she’s treated you, I’m telling you as a friend, you need to wake up. Don’t act on impulse. At the very least, take back what’s yours.”

He sounded angry on my behalf.

For a moment, I didn’t know how to respond. This was the first time I heard about her quietly notarizing her assets. It seemed she had been guarding herself against me long ago.

I found it funny. She used to tell Zack everything—what she ate, what she bought, down to the company’s core secrets. I warned her a few times to be careful, but she just brushed it off, saying she trusted him. She trusted Zack with blind faith, yet she assumed the worst of me.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. However, what confused me was that if she had notarized everything, she could’ve just agreed to divorce. Why avoid it twice?

I couldn’t figure it out, but it didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t want to waste any more time on her. Sure, the money was a lot, but wasting time on her would cost me even more. Cutting losses early was always the smarter choice.

We built that company together from nothing. To save money, we started in a tiny rented cubicle with just the two of us and grew to a near-IPO corporation with its own entire building.

She, however, dumped all the hard work on me and enjoyed the profits I brought in. I stayed up countless nights revising proposals to win contracts; I even downed two full bottles of liquor at client dinners until I got alcohol poisoning. The company’s success was practically built with my own hands. Yet, she used her title as my wife to justify paying me the same as a regular employee.

I loved her then, so I accepted it willingly, until recently, when I finally woke up. After all these years, I had been working myself to the bone only to make someone else shine. However, it was fine. I had built one successful company, so wherever I went next, I wouldn’t end up worse off.

“Give her everything. I don’t want a cent. Just draft the agreement quickly,” I said calmly.

Seeing my determination, the lawyer didn’t push further.

After that, I messaged HR to submit my resignation. HR didn’t know about my relationship with Lucy, so the head of department replied by the book.

“Ms. Leavitt and Mr. Graff are on their honeymoon. I can’t bother them right now. Please bring it up again next month.”

I wasn’t surprised. I had figured out that the ‘business trip’ she mentioned was a lie. News about her wedding had spread everywhere. No one would expect her to handle work during her honeymoon.

“I can’t wait. Just take the resignation. Give it to her after the honeymoon if you need to. If anything goes wrong, I’ll bear the responsibility.”

HR hesitated, but after I reassured her several times, she finally agreed to submit it.

In fact, our eight-year contract had expired two years ago, but Lucy never renewed it. I wasn’t sure if she forgot or simply didn’t care. After all, her attention these days was always on Zack, which was fine—it meant I didn’t need her approval to resign.

Right after that, I called a friend out of town. He had recently started a new company but desperately needed a strong technical lead. He had approached me several times, eager to partner up. However, because of Lucy, I turned him down at the time. Thinking back, I really had been pathetic.

When he heard I wanted to join him now, he was thrilled. He rushed to book me a first-class flight to Southport. However, the moment I boarded the plane, my phone rang. It was Lucy.