Chapter 1
The night before our engagement party, my fiancé came home not with my gown, but with a plain, simple dress.
“Wear this instead,” he said.
I took it and put it away. A moment later, I was scrolling through his childhood friend’s social media. She had posted a photo of herself in the very gown that had been replaced, along with a caption:
“All I did was look at it once, and he gave it to me. Someone’s a little too in love with me~”
“And tomorrow, he’s insisting on coming to my dog’s birthday party. Said anything unimportant can just be postponed.”
Right on cue, a message from my fiancé popped up on my phone: “Something came up at work. We’ll have to postpone the engagement party.”
I gripped my phone, my voice cold as I typed back a reply.
But it wouldn’t be a postponement. It would be a cancellation.
As Benjamin was about to leave, I was in the middle of packing, carefully ironing each of my clothes before placing them in my suitcase.
He didn’t notice what I was doing, just breezily informed me, “There’s a last–minute meeting at the office today. We’ll have to push the engageme- nt párty back a day. Be reasonable and don’t make this difficult for me.”
I continued packing in silence, not offering a reply.
Benjamin faltered, the rest of his explanation catching in his throat. He expected me to do what I always did: complain that he never considered my feelings when he got wrapped up in work, but then quietly iron his suit and see him to the door.
I used to think that’s how it would always be.
Until I saw that gown on his childhood friend, Maya’s, social media feed.
The gown that was supposed to be my engagement gown.
Yesterday, I had spent hours carefully pressing it, arranging it on a mannequin, my heart filled with dreams of wearing it at our party. But I stepped out for a bit, and when I returned, the gown was gone.
A flicker of hope ignited within me. The gown we had rented wasn’t my absolute favorite, just the most cost–effective. Benjamin knew which one I truly loved. I thought he had impulsively decided to surprise me.
I cooked a feast, even opened a bottle of red wine, and waited for him.
But all he brought back was a plain, simple dress.
“Wear this instead.”
When I asked him why, he just frowned with a hint of impatience. “I like this one better. Besides, that other gown is too flashy. It doesn’t suit your style. You look better in this.”
But now, that gown, the one deemed too flashy for me, was shimmering beautifully on Maya.
And the simple dress in my hands was just like his perception of me.
ཚ ཛ ༤ ༈ རྫ་
Plain. Ordinary. Unremarkable.
No matter how well I presented myself, I could never compete with a diamond–studded, exquisitely tailored masterpiece. So this was our respect- ive value in his heart.
Maya’s post had more: “All I did was look at it once, and he gave it to me. Someone’s a little too in love with me~;)”
“And tomorrow, he’s insisting on coming to my dog’s birthday party. Said anything unimportant can just be postponed.”
A knot of fury and disbelief tightened in my chest. I refused to believe Benjamin could belittle our relationship, belittle me, so completely.
But reality delivered a sharp, stinging slap.
