Chapter 1

On my wedding day, I stood there in my sharpest suit, my heart overflowing with joy as I waited for Yasmine.

The officiant called out for the third time, "Please welcome the bride!" But the doors remained closed.

The guests began to whisper. Their confused glances soon turned into looks of pity and mockery.

Finally, someone let out a sharp laugh. It felt like a blade cutting through the air, followed by a wave of ridicule that crashed over me.

"The bride ran away? That's brutal."

"Maybe there's a dark secret. Is this a forced marriage or something?"

"I always said Ian couldn't keep a beauty like Yasmine."

"This whole wedding is nothing but a joke!"

Every word hit me like a sledgehammer. Swallowing the humiliation, I dialed my girlfriend's number.

1

The moment she picked up, the roar of music and screams of a crowd blasted through the phone.

"Yasmine, do you have any idea what day it is?" I asked, my voice trembling as I pressed the phone to my ear.

The other end went silent for a beat. My heart tightened in my chest.

"Ian, Caleb just went through a bad breakup. He needs me right now. Let's just push the wedding back for a bit."

She offered the most ridiculous excuse I had ever heard.

She was skipping our wedding―which we spent six months planning―to take care of her first love.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, but my throat felt too tight to speak.

"Yasmine, stop talking and roll the dice already!" a deep male voice shouted.

He called her name with an intimacy that made my skin crawl. He must have been inches away from her.

"I have to go," Yasmine said hurriedly.

The line went dead. I stood there in my tuxedo, staring at the blank screen of my phone.

We had been together for three years. In that time, she had stood me up and lied to me for her first love more times than I could count.

Now, she was even postponing our wedding. She clearly thought I was a pathetic lapdog who would always be there.

I opened a social media app and found her private burner account.

The latest post read: "Congrats to the man I love for being single again."

The photo showed two glasses clinking under dim, neon lights.

Following the logo on the glasses, I found the lounge where she was hiding.

The air inside was thick with expensive perfume and the smell of gin. The DJ's bass rattled my bones.

I pushed through the crowd until I saw her in a VIP booth.

She was locked in a heated kiss with the man sitting next to her.