1 It was time to exchange the rings, but the man who was supposed to be my husband refused to say, “I do.” He was silent. All because his old flame, the one that got away, had announced her breakup on social media an hour ago. The post was a picture of a plane ticket, with a landing time of one hour from now. My brother, Ron, strode to the altar and announced to our guests that the wedding was postponed. Just like that, the two of them, in perfect, unspoken agreement, abandoned me at the altar. I became the spectacle, the joke everyone was staring at. I held my head high, calmly managing the fallout, while my eyes were glued to my phone, watching her feed update. A new photo appeared: my brother and my husband, flanking her, offering her the world on a silver platter. A bitter smile touched my lips as I dialed the number for my birth parents. “Dad, Mom,” I said, my voice steady. “I’m ready to come home. I’ll agree to the marriage alliance with the Whitfield family.” “Laraine, are you absolutely sure?” The voices on the other end were laced with disbelief. Five years ago, my birth parents had found me. A DNA test confirmed that I, an orphan who had grown up with nothing, was the long-lost daughter of the Ashworths, one of New York’s most powerful families. But I hadn’t felt like I was lacking love. I had Ron and Elias, the two boys who had grown up with me in the orphanage. So, three years ago, I had flatly refused to return to the Ashworths. And now, the family I had chosen, the man I had chosen, had abandoned me on the most important day of my life. Mrs. Ashworth sighed, then her voice grew firm. “Don’t you worry, darling. Even if it is a marriage alliance, you are still our daughter, and we will protect you.” I looked out the window as the sky darkened, wiping a tear from my eye. “Dad, Mom, I’ll need about a week to handle things here.” “Of course. Take your time to say your goodbyes. And don’t you worry about the wedding. We’ll arrange everything. No matter what, the Ashworths will always have your back.” After I hung up, my eyes burned. Ron and Elias used to say the same thing. “Don’t be afraid, Laraine.” “We’re your family now. We’ll always be on your side.” I remembered Matron Lynn, the head of the orphanage, smiling at them. “You boys have to protect your little sister. A man’s word is his bond.” Elias, his cheeks flushing pink, had puffed out his chest. “I don’t want to be her brother! I’m going to marry Laraine when we grow up!” Their sincerity had won my heart. Ron was the steady, protective older brother. Elias saved every good thing he ever found, every small treasure, and presented it to me like a crown jewel. They were my family. My love. So when my birth parents found me, I never told them. The world of the ultra-rich was a labyrinth of schemes and false affections. The simple, warm happiness I had with them was too precious to leave behind. But that was before Cathy. I was so wrong. Cathy was the daughter of our old housekeeper, Mrs. Jiang. Her father had died when she was young, and Mrs. Jiang herself had passed away from an illness two years ago. We felt sorry for her, all alone in the world, so we invited her to spend the holidays with us. After that, she just… stuck around. She grew closer and closer to my brother and my fiancé. I finally took her aside and gently reminded her that Elias and I were getting married, hoping she would understand the need for some distance. I never expected her to leave a letter and disappear overseas. The letter was a masterpiece of passive aggression, filled with envy for my life and tearful goodbyes to the boys. Elias’s face had darkened the moment he read it. “Can’t you be a little more tolerant, Laraine?” And Ron, who had always doted on me, looked at me with pure disappointment. “Laraine, you are so incredibly selfish.” They were convinced that Cathy, the poor, tragic girl, needed their love more than I did. So they took all the love they had for me and gave it to her. This wedding was my childhood dream. The dress, the rings, even the floral pattern on the invitations—I had designed every detail myself. I closed my eyes, facing the sea of staring faces alone. The composure I’d maintained until now finally crumbled. “What’s going on? I’ve never seen a wedding cancelled halfway through!” “Did the groom just run out on her?” “Why did the bride’s brother leave too?” “Who knows? If her own family won’t even stand by her, she must have done something terrible!” “Look at her face. She just looks dishonest!” A tidal wave of vicious rumors swept over me. The two men who had sworn to protect me had become the daggers twisting in my heart. 2 After dealing with the mess, I returned to the new home Elias and I were supposed to share. I pushed open the door and froze. Someone was inside. “Laraine, long time no see!” Cathy stood there in a sheer nightgown, her body on full display. She emerged from my bedroom—our bedroom—with a look of cloying, provocative apology on her face. “Ron and Elias were worried about me, so they asked me to stay here.” I looked around the home I had so carefully decorated, now invaded by her. Everything we’d picked out together, all the matching sets, had been tossed carelessly into the study. In their place were her personal belongings. “Elias said this room gets the best light, and the air is fresh. I just had surgery overseas, you see. I need to recover.” A cold fury ignited within me. The room she was staying in was our marital bedroom. The door opened again. Ron and Elias walked in, carrying a cake and a bouquet of flowers. They looked at me, their eyes filled with annoyance. “What are you trying to do now? You’ve already driven Cathy away once,” Elias said, his tone sharp. “Cathy is our family now,” Ron stated coldly. “This is her home.” I stared at the small villa. It had been a gift from Ron. He had told me he would always be my family, that as long as he was here, I would always have a home. But then Cathy had moved in. Out of respect for her late mother, I’d agreed to let her stay temporarily, until she found her own place. But she had pushed every boundary, stealing my things and even ending up in bed with a drunk Elias, wrapped in his arms. That was the last straw. I slapped her. Elias had shoved me to the ground. “Cathy lost her family! She just sees us as brothers! You’ve had us your whole life, Laraine. She’s different. She’s suffered! You’re older than her, can’t you just treat her like a little sister?” I remembered staring at my bleeding palm, at the shards of a broken glass embedded in my skin, and feeling like I was looking at a stranger. And now, she was back, occupying my marital home, acting as if she were the lady of the house. “Laraine, you’ve eaten my food and lived under my roof for years. I raised you. You need to be grateful!” Ron warned. “Cathy is my sister now! You have no right to make her leave! If you hadn’t driven her overseas, her condition wouldn’t have gotten worse.” “You can sleep in the study. We’ll talk after Cathy recovers.” Elias glared at me, his face a mask of suspicion. “Cathy needs to be taken care of right now. We haven’t even signed the marriage license. If you keep acting like this, we can just call the whole thing off!” I looked at them, a bitter, ironic smile touching my lips. The old Laraine might have been heartbroken. But now, all I felt was a vast, empty disappointment. I wasn’t welcome here. It was time to go back to the home that was truly mine. Since my decision was made, I didn’t argue. I turned and walked into the study. My things were scattered everywhere, all the items I had carefully chosen and designed, each one a vessel for my hopes for the future. I silently gathered the broken wedding decorations Cathy had ruined and threw them in the trash. Elias nodded, satisfied. “Those things are cheap. We can just buy new ones for the wedding later.” A shadow crossed my face. It wasn’t just the things that were worthless. There would be no later. This was no longer my home. 3 Before I left, there was only one person I needed to say goodbye to. After that, I would have no attachments left. “Here to see Matron Lynn again, dear?” The cemetery groundskeeper recognized me and smiled. I came here every year, on the same day. I placed a bouquet of white chrysanthemums on her grave. “Matron Lynn, I’m leaving.” A gentle breeze rustled the leaves. Her picture on the headstone still held the same kind, warm smile. I left the cemetery and wandered the streets aimlessly. The sweet scent of buttercream drifted from a bakery, and I suddenly remembered the cheap cakes Ron and Elias used to buy for me. The cream was waxy, but the sweetness was real. My phone buzzed incessantly. “Happy Birthday.” It was a message from the Ashworths, followed by a large bank transfer. Even though I had refused to go back to them, they never missed a holiday or a birthday. Two hours ago, Cathy had updated her Instagram story: a picture of three movie tickets. Without realizing it, I had walked to the site of our old orphanage. It had been torn down and replaced with an amusement park, still bright and noisy even at night. “Laraine!” Cathy spotted me and ran over, a strange glint in her eye. “You’re here too! I was feeling a little down today, so Ron and Elias insisted on taking me out.” Her sudden proximity made me uncomfortable. A bizarre, twisted smile flickered across her face. She grabbed my hand and abruptly threw herself backward. An electric scooter sped towards us, hitting us both. From Ron and Elias’s perspective, it must have looked like I pushed her into its path. In the car, their faces grew darker and darker. Cathy’s forehead and leg were bleeding heavily. They paid no attention to me, my face pale with shock, my right hand crushed by the scooter. The pain was so immense it felt like my hand didn’t belong to me anymore. When we got to the hospital, a nurse informed Ron that there was only one doctor on duty. “Get Cathy into surgery first! A girl can’t have scars!” Elias shouted the moment we arrived. Cathy’s injuries looked dramatic, but anyone with a bit of sense could see they were superficial. A nurse looked at my twisted hand. “Sir, we can handle Miss Jiang’s wounds here. But this young lady’s injury is far more serious. If we don’t treat it immediately, her right hand…” “Arrange the surgery for Cathy now!” Ron and Elias were in perfect, cold agreement. My face was as white as a sheet. If I lost this hand, I would never be able to hold a paintbrush again. “Ron… Elias… please, let me have the surgery… my hand hurts so much!” “Laraine, why do you always have to target Cathy?!” “Don’t you forget you’re just an orphan! If I hadn’t taken you in, you would have starved to death on the streets!” “From this day forward, Cathy is my sister! You will not hurt her again!” “If it weren’t for you, Cathy wouldn’t have gotten hurt at all!” “You don’t even have a scratch on you! Stop pretending!” Ron slapped me, sending me stumbling to the floor. All the color drained from my face. It wasn’t until my hand was dangling at a sickeningly unnatural angle that he seemed to realize something was wrong. “Laraine… are you okay?”
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