Chapter 1

On our wedding day, it was time for my fiancé's foster sister to give her toast.

She smiled, stood up, and raised her glass toward me.

"Congratulations, Chloe. By the way, those seven genital pearling beads my brother has down there? I put them in with my own two hands."

"One bead every single year. So, how's it feel? Good, right? Consider that my little wedding gift to you."

The color drained from my face.

All those years we had been together, even during our most intimate moments, he had never let me touch them. And now I found out his foster sister was the one who put them in.

I looked at Ethan, waiting for him to explain.

He simply replied, "Rachel was just curious about body modifications back then and used me for practice."

"They’re just a few tiny beads. Don't be so petty."

The guests' gazes darted back and forth between us, whispering and snickering, casting condescending looks my way.

Looking at his completely indifferent face, I clenched my teeth until they ached.

If that was the case, there was no reason for this marriage to exist.

"Chloe, why aren't you saying anything? Don't you like my gift?"

Rachel wore an innocent expression, tilting her wine glass higher in a deliberate taunt.

Without a word, I slipped off my engagement ring and threw it straight into her glass.

Wine splashed across her face, ruining her meticulously applied makeup.

Rachel’s face instantly twisted. "Chloe, what the hell is your problem?"

I didn't spare her a glance. Instead, I turned to Ethan.

His brow was furrowed deep, looking at me as if I were a spoiled child throwing a pointless tantrum.

"It was just a few beads. Rachel is my sister. Nothing happened between us, so why are you acting so jealous?"

His voice was laced with unmistakable irritation.

"Apologize to her right now! Otherwise, I’m postponing this wedding you begged for over the last seven years."

Postponing the wedding.

Listening to those words roll off his tongue so casually, I realized that over the seven years we’d been together, I had heard that exact threat ninety-nine times.

The first time was at a party with friends. Rachel had wrapped her arms snugly around his, dropping suggestive hints.

"My brother is amazing at everything in bed. Chloe doesn't even know half of it."

When we got home, I couldn't help but mention that Rachel was being way too intimate with him. His face immediately darkened.

"Rachel’s dad died saving my life. I’ve treated her like my own flesh and blood since we were kids."

"She was just joking around, and here you are stirring up drama. Maybe I need to reconsider and push back our wedding."

And so, that postponement stretched into seven years.

And for seven years, I let Rachel walk all over me.

Rachel had been pampered her whole life and acted without consequences.

She would "accidentally" barge into our bedroom when Ethan and I were in the middle of being intimate, "unintentionally" wipe crucial data from my laptop, and deliberately tell the housekeeper to serve eel, knowing full well I was deathly allergic.

Whenever I confronted her, even if I merely asked a question, Ethan always defended her.

"Chloe, Rachel grew up with me. Can't you cut her some slack?"

He’d sneer with impatience. "You're older than her, yet you're throwing a fit over a kid's antics. The wedding is delayed for another three months!"

Until three months ago, when Rachel coated the stairs with clear, odorless engine oil.

I was carrying a bowl of hot soup up the steps when my feet slipped out from under me, and I tumbled down backward.

The porcelain shattered. My lower abdomen slammed hard against the sharp corner of the stairs. Blood rushed down my legs, and I spent an entire week in the ICU.

The doctor said I was lucky to survive, but the baby was completely gone.

I remembered Ethan clutching my ice-cold hand by the hospital bed, swearing he’d teach Rachel a lesson.

Yet the very next morning, he walked into my room smelling of cheap perfume and cigarettes, his throat bobbing nervously.

"Chloe, Rachel was just trying to pull a prank. She had no idea you were pregnant."

"She really regrets it. Can’t you just forgive her? We can always have another baby later."

"Please, don't call the police. Let’s just move past this, and we'll get married right away."

Seeing the desperate plea hidden in his eyes, my heart tore apart with agony.

Yet in the end, I chose to endure it once more.

And now, standing at the wedding reception I had waited seven years for, his foster sister announced to everyone that she had personally inserted seven beads into my fiancé's private parts.

I tilted my head back to force down the tears stinging my eyes.

This time, I was truly exhausted.

My voice came out dry and flat. "Ethan, if that's how it is, let's just postpone this wedding indefinitely."

"Indefinitely?" Ethan fell silent for a few seconds before barking in rage, "Just because Rachel helped me with a few body modifications? Chloe, can you grow up? She’s my sister! What could we possibly have going on?"

I let out a bitter, mocking laugh. "The kind of sister who can freely touch you down there and whom you tuck into bed every single night?"

The entire banquet hall fell dead silent. The guests' eyes shifted excitedly between the three of us, soaking in the drama.

Ethan froze in awkward humiliation for a second, clearly caught off guard that I would expose him in front of so many people.

His chest heaved violently. His expression turned menacing, and he snapped, "Rachel has severe insomnia! What's wrong with me tucking her in?"

"She's an innocent girl! How dare you slander her reputation like this? Apologize to her right now!"