On the 10th anniversary of our relationship, my boyfriend, Ray, secretly organized a grand wedding for my best friend, Elena, who was battling a serious illness. Her last wish was to marry him, and he agreed without telling me. Ray Hall blocked all news about it, forbidding anyone from informing me. But my best friend live-streamed the entire ceremony so I could watch. That night, I cried until I passed out. After the wedding, Ray stayed with her on the island. One day, when my heart condition worsened, he rushed her to the hospital, leaving me alone and almost costing me my life.

Hurt and broken, I accepted a proposal from Nathan Foster, a prominent figure in Seattle’s elite circle. He kept asking me again and again, “Trina Burton, are you really willing to marry me?” After I said yes, he sent me more than a dozen pictures of diamond rings to choose from, each more stunning than the last. “These are rings I bought at an auction. Do you like any of them? If not, there will be a jewelry auction in the UK soon. I’ll take you so you can pick one yourself.”

After carefully examining the rings, I sent a voice message to Nathan. “The pink diamond from Graff is beautiful. Let’s choose that one for our wedding ring.”

Just then, Ray appeared behind me. He heard the words “wedding ring.” And for once, his normally calm face showed a flash of panic. “Wedding ring? What wedding ring?” he asked, looking at me with an intensity that almost unsettled me.

I looked at him indifferently, ready to make up an excuse, but just then my phone rang. It was my best friend, Elena Turner. I answered and heard her tearful voice. “Trina, is Ray with you? I just had another nosebleed… I’m really scared.”

Before I could reply, Ray grabbed the phone from me. “Elena, don’t worry. I’m coming now,” he assured her urgently. Then, without saying another word to me, he ran out the door. I was left there, forgotten, as he rushed to her side. Only then did I remember he had asked me to go with him on a nighttime cruise, a plan he made to make up for missing our 10th anniversary.

So, this is what it feels like to finally let someone go. To see him run after another woman while my heart remains calm, unmoved, as if nothing could shake it anymore.

My phone rang again. This time it was Nathan. “Trina, are you ready? I’ll pick you up in Boston tomorrow.”

Looking into the distance, I answered softly, “Give me a week to sort everything out. Then I’ll return to Seattle, and we’ll get married.” His voice was warm on the other end. “Alright, I’ll wait for you. If anything comes up that you can’t handle, remember I’m here.”

After hanging up, I called Grandpa Hall to say goodbye. He and my grandfather had been war comrades. When I was eight, doctors diagnosed me with a serious heart condition. Since the Hall family owned a renowned private hospital specializing in cardiology, my grandfather sent me to Boston for treatment. Since then, Ray’s parents had taken care of me as if I were their own.

Ray didn’t come home that night. Instead, a message from Elena appeared on my phone. “Look at you with cake all over your face, so cute.” Attached was a photo of Ray leaning in to take a bite of cake while Elena playfully smeared cream on his cheek. Moments later, she deleted the message. “Sorry Trina, I sent it to the wrong person. Ray thought it was cute and asked me to send it. You’re not upset, are you?”

“No,” I replied. Instead, I went back to my room and began silently packing my things.

The next day at noon, Ray finally came home, carrying a gift as an apology. “Trina, Elena’s condition got worse last night. I took her to the hospital,” he said, watching me closely. I opened the velvet box he offered. Inside was an elegant Van Cleef & Arpels watch, its strap lined with diamonds. Beautiful, extravagant, but I remembered that he had once given Elena a similar gift. Mine was simply the more expensive version.

Noticing my lack of response, Ray asked with a hint of concern, “Trina, are you upset?”

I replied calmly, “No. Elena isn’t well. You should be with her.”

He looked at me curiously, but in the end, he just sighed. “I’m glad you’re not angry. After all, we have a long future ahead of us. But Elena…” his eyes filled with emotion. I didn’t have the patience to listen.

“Then by all means, spend more time with her.” With that, I turned to leave, but he grabbed my wrist. When I looked up, my face was blank. “What is it?”

Before he could say anything, his phone rang again. He looked at me once more. “Trina, I’ll be away on a business trip for a few days.”

“Take care,” I replied indifferently, thinking his absence would make it easier to say my goodbyes.

The next morning, I headed to the Hall family home. When Mrs. Hall heard I was returning to Seattle, her eyes filled with concern. “Trina, what happened? Why leave so suddenly?”

Mr. Hall slammed his hand on the table. “And where’s Ray? Did he treat you badly?”

I hesitated. “No, nothing like that. It’s just… I’ve been away from home for too long.”

Just then, the front door opened, and there stood Ray, with Elena at his side, looking calm and confident. “Trina, what a surprise to see you here,” he said with a smile, as if Elena was already a part of the family.

I looked straight at her and said firmly, “I don’t need to explain to you why I’m here.” With that, I walked past Ray, heading for the door.

He quickly followed, his voice urgent. “Trina, you’ve got it all wrong. I only brought Elena here so my parents could help her find a good doctor. After all, she’s your best friend, isn’t she? You’re not mad, right?”

I stopped. His promise under the cherry tree when I was eighteen, telling me marrying me was his lifelong dream, flashed through my mind. And yet, here he was, introducing another woman to his family while telling me he was away on business. I answered coldly, “And why would I care? People who aren’t worth it don’t deserve my energy.”

He looked confused. It was impossible to satisfy him. He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Be good and wait for me at home,” he whispered. As the elevator doors closed, I wiped my forehead. The gesture made me nauseous.

Later that day, after I had returned home, Elena called, her tone laced with envy. “I know you saw us at the Halls. They’re just so wonderful. They even said they’d do everything they could to help me find the right doctor.” She paused, then lowered her voice. “Trina, why couldn’t it be me marrying into the Hall family?”

“Well, I wish you both a happy marriage in advance,” I replied coldly before hanging up. I was tempted to block her number, but just as I was about to, I accidentally opened her social media and found something outrageous. She had stolen my design draft. The very same draft I had created as a birthday gift for Ray, and submitted it to a contest in her name.

My hands trembled with rage. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my copyright certificate and filed a plagiarism report on the contest website. Afterward, I got a call from my friend Selena, co-owner of our studio. “Trina, what’s going on? Why did you suddenly pull your investment?” I decided to tell her everything, including my plan to get married.

Selena was furious. “That Elena is unbelievable! Using her illness as an excuse to steal someone’s boyfriend. She’s probably faking it all!”

“Forget it,” I sighed. “She’s not worth it. The wedding’s soon, and I just want to move on.”

At that moment, I heard footsteps approaching. Suddenly, Ray’s voice echoed, “Wedding? What wedding?” I didn’t have to turn around to know he was standing right there in the doorway of my studio.

My spine stiffened. He stepped in, his footsteps too firm for someone supposedly away on a business trip. I carefully placed the painting I was wrapping into a box and turned to face him. He looked lost, angry, but there was something else there, too, like the ground had shifted under his feet.

“This is none of your business,” I said, my voice clear and cold.

He looked around, noticing the stacked boxes and wrapped canvases. “You’re packing everything. You’re leaving.” It wasn’t a question. “For good? With Nathan?”

I stayed silent.

“So it’s true,” he said, his voice gaining a sharp edge. “You’re running away to marry him, just like that.”

“I’m not running away,” I murmured. “I’m leaving. There’s a difference.”

He took a step forward. “You don’t understand anything. Elena is…”

“Elena is looking way too healthy for someone who claims to be at death’s door,” I cut him off, staring straight into his eyes. “Healthy enough to steal my project and submit it as her own. Does that sound fragile to you?”

He stopped. “What are you talking about?”

I handed him an envelope. I watched as he opened it and scanned the pages—the plagiarism report. His hands trembled slightly. “She said… she said it was a tribute,” he muttered finally. “That you had approved it.”

“Like she approved her own illness, too?”

Ray blinked, as if I had slapped him. For the first time, he was silent. He had no answer.

“You broke me, Ray,” I whispered. “You broke everything I still wanted to believe in. I really thought you would choose me one day.”

He started pacing nervously. “This can’t be happening,” he kept repeating. “I didn’t know, Trina. I swear, I didn’t know.”

“Well, now you do,” I said, sealing another box. His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist.

“You can’t just leave like this,” he said, and for the first time, his voice cracked. “We need to talk.”

“Ray,” I gently pulled my hand free. “I’m no longer the woman who waited. I’m the woman who’s leaving.”

And I left. But of course, he followed. “Trina,” he called from the hallway. “Please, wait.”

I turned slowly. “You want more truth, Ray? Then listen.” I stepped back into the studio and opened my laptop, turning the screen toward him. It was there, the final artwork of the project, signed by Elena Turner. “This is mine,” I said. “You remember, don’t you? I showed you this project the night I finished it. It was supposed to be your birthday gift.”

His expression was pure disbelief. “Trina, I swear I never saw this. Elena told me you had abandoned the project, that you allowed her to…”

“To what?” I cut him off. “To take something I created from the first sketch to the final detail?”

“She lied to me too!” he exploded finally. “Do you think I would have gone through with that ridiculous wedding if I knew?”

“You kissed her on the live stream. I saw it,” I replied, emotionless. “You blocked me, asked everyone not to tell me. And she… she let me watch the whole thing.”

He looked like he was about to burst. “It’s not fair! You’re treating me like I was complicit!”

“Because you were. Even if you didn’t hold her hand while she lied, you looked the other way while she took what was mine. And that, Ray, is also a choice.”

He lowered his head. “I’m not the man you think I am.”

“I know. That’s why I’m leaving.”

He looked up, and in that second, I saw something that almost broke me. He really did look lost. But the problem was, I had already spent too long losing myself just so he could find himself.

“Trina,” he began, “all of this… the wedding… it was a mistake. A terrible mistake. But Elena told me she was at the end…”

“And you thought she would pass away if you didn’t kiss her at the altar?” I asked.

“I thought I could give her a moment of happiness. Something symbolic. I thought you’d understand later, that you’d forgive me.”

“You hid everything from me. You left me alone when my own health was at risk.”

“I didn’t know!” he repeated. “I didn’t know you were unwell. Elena begged me to stay on the island. She said she just needed one more week.”

“One week, Ray. That’s how long I spent waiting for you to look at me.”

He fell silent. “I married her out of pity. It wasn’t real. There was no love.”

I let out a weak, humorless laugh. “So that’s it? You want me to believe you were forced? That when you smeared cake on her cheek and laughed, you were pretending?”

His expression changed to a deep tiredness. “Maybe I wanted to believe I was doing the right thing,” he whispered. “But all I did was hurt you.”

“Yes. And you succeeded.”

“I’m going with Nathan,” I said, my voice steady. “He chose me with his eyes wide open. He saw me at my lowest and still wanted to stay.”

“Do you still love me?” Ray whispered.

I closed my eyes. “It doesn’t matter,” I whispered back. And then it happened. First came the dizziness, then a high-pitched ringing in my ears. The room started to blur. I stumbled, the box in my hands crashing to the floor.

“Trina!” I heard Ray call out, his voice now panicked. “Trina, what’s happening?” My vision went blurry, and then, darkness.

Someone was shouting my name. I felt Ray’s arms under me, his hands cupping my face. “Trina, no,” he murmured, his voice cracking. “Stay with me. Please don’t go.”

I felt his touch on my forehead, then my hand. He was trembling. “Call an ambulance!” he shouted.

The siren of the ambulance was a constant scream. Through it all, Ray wouldn’t stop talking, as if my consciousness were a thread he was trying to hold on to with words. “Trina, listen to me, we’re almost there. You’re going to be okay. I’m here. Please, just hold on.”

As soon as the hospital doors opened, a nurse pushed him back firmly. “Sir, you have to wait outside.”

“No, I have to stay!”

“Sir, you’re not family.”

He hesitated, and then his voice broke. “She was… she is my fiancée.” He lied, the word coming out like a plea. But the door closed.

Silence was the first sound I heard. Slowly, I tried to move my hand. It was warm. Someone was holding it. I turned my head with effort. He was there. Ray, sleeping in a hospital chair, looking like he hadn’t rested in days.

When he saw me awake, he straightened with a jolt. “Trina, thank God!” he whispered, his voice nearly broken. He leaned in closer, never letting go of my hand. “I thought… I thought I’d lost you.”

I wanted to say he already had, but something on his face stopped me. It wasn’t drama. It was fear, raw and exposed.

“Water,” I managed to whisper. He brought a cup to my mouth with the utmost care.

“Why are you here?” I asked, too weak to hide the pain in my voice.

“Because you’re the only thing I haven’t completely destroyed yet,” he murmured. “And I’m not leaving until I tell you everything.” He confessed it all—how Elena had manipulated him with her “last wish,” how he had acted out of a misguided sense of pity and fear of seeming cruel.

“Ray,” I said calmly, “why do you always think you’re in a position where no one can blame you?”

He lowered his head. “Not anymore. Now I know exactly where I stand. And I know I deserve every word you say.”

“Then bring the truth,” I whispered. “With proof. You said Elena was sick. Then show me. I want the medical reports. Everything.”

He hesitated for a moment, and in that moment, I knew something was wrong. “I’ll get the documents,” he promised. “And Ray,” I called as he reached the door, “only come back if it’s with the truth.”

He left. I stayed there, alone. I hated hospitals. A young nurse came in to check my chart. “This hospital is good,” she said gently, “but you should have come sooner. You’ve had a cardiac history since childhood… just like patient Turner.”

I froze. “What did you say?”

“Elena Turner,” she continued distractedly. “I just found her case odd. She had a few appointments here, but no oncological referrals, just psychological support sessions and routine checkups. Nothing that would confirm a terminal diagnosis.”

Thank you,” I whispered. Elena wasn’t sick. And Ray… maybe he hadn’t been fooled. Maybe he just chose not to look.

When the door opened again, I already knew. Ray walked in with an envelope. I just reached out my hand with the papers the nurse had left me. He stopped, looking at the documents like someone seeing their own sentence.

“The nurse told me,” I said plainly. “Elena never underwent any treatment. No report, nothing to support what you believed.”

He took the papers, his hands trembling. He looked up, tears in his eyes. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t say anything.”

“I was tricked,” he whispered. “She told me she was dying, and I believed her because I didn’t want to accept that someone could lie about something so vile.”

I closed my eyes. “You left me, Trina. And that wasn’t anyone’s fault but mine.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “You left me even when you were still here.”

“I could end things with her,” he began.

“It’s already over,” I corrected him calmly. “It’s not about Elena anymore. It’s about you. You thought you could split your heart. But what you gave her never came back. And what was left for me wasn’t love. It was just habit.”

“You’re going to walk out that door, Ray,” I said finally. “And you’re going to let me rest. No plans, no messages, no apologies. Just silence.”

He stood, stopped beside the bed for a moment, and then simply nodded. Before leaving, he set his envelope on the bedside table. “In case you want to read it.”

The door closed, and with it, something inside me did too. But it wasn’t destruction. It was freedom.

My phone vibrated. Elena Turner. I answered calmly.

“Trina, I heard you were hospitalized. I’m really sorry. How are you feeling?” her voice was sweet, concerned.

“Better,” I replied flatly. “Strong enough to talk.”

“Can we talk? Just the two of us, like before?”

“At the Hall family house,” I suggested. “Today.”

In the lobby, my friend Selena was already waiting for me. “Ready?” she asked. “More than ever.”

The Hall family house had never looked so cold. Everyone sat stiffly, as if waiting for a verdict. Ray was standing by the fireplace. Elena was in an armchair, looking like she owned the place.

“Trina,” she began, “I’m relieved you’re okay.”

“I’m alive, which is more than you probably hoped for,” I replied, handing my purse to Selena. I pulled the envelope from my folder and handed it to Mr. Hall. “Inside are Elena’s medical records. There is no cancer. Just spaced-out psychology sessions.”

The mask began to crack. Mr. Hall opened the documents, his eyes growing wider with each page. Mrs. Hall looked at Elena. “Elena, is this true?”

“And what about the project you stole?” I asked, holding a second folder with my copyright certificate and the plagiarism report.

Selena stepped forward, holding up her phone. “And here’s the conversation where she asked me to lie about the creation date.”

The silence was like a soundless earthquake.

Elena finally stood, her eyes full of panicked tears. “Trina, I just wanted a chance! You always had everything! I just wanted something that was mine!”

“You wanted what was mine,” I interrupted. “You wanted to be me. But you didn’t even have the courage to create your own story.”

She collapsed to her knees, sobbing. “I didn’t want it to come to this! I just wanted to be loved!”

Mrs. Hall took a step forward, her eyes sharp and cold. “Elena, you stayed in my home. You called me ‘Mom.’ You made us believe we were living the final months with someone who was dying.” She turned to Ray. “And you brought this into our family.” Ray lowered his head.

Mr. Hall stood slowly. “Elena Turner, I ask that you leave now. And don’t come back.”

She walked out, carrying what was left of her dignity. Mrs. Hall followed her with her eyes until the door closed, then turned to me. “Trina,” she said in a sad voice, “I’m sorry for not seeing what was right in front of us.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” I shook my head gently. “I was the one who kept my eyes shut the longest.”

Mr. Hall looked at his son. “I hope you learned something from this, son. Because all this silence won’t save you.”

Ray finally called my name, his voice low. “Trina, do you… do you still believe in us?”

“I believe in what we had,” I said, my voice thoughtful. “But I don’t believe in what’s left.”

I left the house with steady, deliberate steps. The afternoon sun hit me hard.

Ray called from behind me, out of breath. “Wait! Just answer me one thing. Are you leaving with Nathan?”

I nodded.

“Does he love you?”

“He chooses me every day. Even on the hard ones.”

Ray swallowed hard, his eyes red. “And you?”

I smiled gently. “I’m learning. But that’s a better start than spending ten more years trying to love myself alone.”

I got into the car. Before I closed the door, my phone vibrated. It was Nathan. “I’m waiting at the airport. Should I bring champagne or coffee?”

I paused for a second, then typed slowly: “Champagne. Today starts my new life.”