Chapter 1
At the wedding rehearsal, Reid’s future sister-in-law suddenly collapsed.
He abandoned me right there in front of everyone, scooped her up, and rushed to the hospital.
A few hours later, he sent me a long voice message:
“Maya has a hereditary heart condition. The doctor said she fainted because of emotional stress.”
“She’s been secretly in love with me for ten years. When she found out about our arranged marriage, she willingly agreed to marry my brother.”
“You always said you wanted a sister, right? After she wraps up this movie, I’m going to adopt her as my sister. From now on, my brother and 1, all four of us can live together.”
When I didn’t reply, he sent another message:
“Let’s postpone the wedding for now. Maya needs to rest and recover.”
Reading his messages, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Did he really think the Winters family heiress would wait around for him to graciously bestow a wedding upon her?
Screw that.
I dialed Ronan’s number directly:
‘Hey, your brother doesn’t want this bride anymore-do you?”
‘Scarlett, are you for real?” After two seconds of silence, a low chuckle came through the phone, tinged with something unreadable.
‘Our families arranged your engagement to Reid when we were kids. You’ve treated it like your life’s mission, completely ignoring me no matter how hard I ried to get your attention.”
‘And now what? My idiot brother runs off with someone else, and suddenly you don’t want to take that lying down?”
tapped my fingers against the steering wheel, watching Reid’s anxious figure disappearing into the hospital. “Take it or leave it. If you’re not at City Hall in ten ninutes, forget I said anything.”
After getting our marriage license, I deleted every trace of Reid from my contacts.
That same night, he realized I’d blocked him and stormed into my house:
‘Scar,” he strode toward me, voice low and urgent, “ignoring my messages is one thing, but blocking me? What the hell?”
I looked up at him. “You seemed busy. Didn’t want to be a bother.”
He frowned and pulled out a chair, sitting down uninvited. “Maya just finished her tests. The doctor says she needs complete rest.”
‘Mm-hmm.” I nodded. “What about the wedding?”
He froze for a moment, then softened his tone:
“Scar, the wedding’s just postponed, not canceled. Once Maya’s condition stabilizes, we’ll reschedule everything.”
“Reid.” I looked him straight in the eye. “We’re done.”
He went rigid, like he hadn’t heard me right. “What did you just say?”
“I said we’re done.” I repeated each word clearly. “No need for a wedding. This is over.”
His face darkened instantly.
“You’re breaking up with me because I took her to the hospital?”
“Scarlett, could you be any more childish?”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Me? Childish?”
“Yes! You!” He lowered his voice, like he was fighting back anger. “Setting aside the fact that Maya’s been in love with me for ten years, she’s still going to be my sister-in-law! She has a heart condition-was I supposed to just stand there and watch her collapse?”
“You could’ve taken her to the hospital,” I said calmly, “but you also could’ve given me a heads up instead of leaving me standing alone at our wedding rehearsa like some kind of joke.”
His breathing hitched, and he ran his hands through his hair in frustration:
“I was panicking! I wasn’t thinking straight!”
“Yeah, that’s the thing about you,” I stood up. “You always have something more important, someone more urgent to worry about. And I’m always dead last on
your list.”
He shot to his feet and grabbed my wrist:
‘Scarlett! What the hell do you want from me?”
I slowly pulled my hand free and looked at him:
‘I don’t want anything. I’m just tired of waiting.”
A flash of panic crossed his eyes, then he sneered:
Fine. You want to break up? Don’t come crawling back to me.”
