“I’m down.”

Three simple words.

I looked at the message and smiled.

The master of ceremonies was still waiting.

“Miss Emma, should we postpone the engagement?”

“No.”

I stood and smoothed my dress.

“We start on time.”

Ethan frowned.

“With whom?”

I looked at him.

“You said there was never an engagement between us.”

His expression changed.

“So it shouldn’t matter to you.”

Ryan laughed.

“Come on, sister-in-law. Stop pretending. Who could you possibly find in twenty minutes?”

Before I could answer, someone knocked.

The hotel manager entered personally.

“Miss Emma, your guest has arrived.”

Behind him stood a man in a dark suit.

The room went silent.

Alexander Grant.

Ethan’s smile disappeared first.

Everyone in our circle knew Alexander.

His family controlled one of the largest investment groups in the city.

But that wasn’t why Ethan looked shocked.

He knew Alexander had pursued me before.

Years ago.

Before Ethan and I became serious.

Alexander had once told me:

“If one day you realize he doesn’t treasure you, call me.”

I thought he had been joking.

Apparently, he hadn’t.

Alexander walked straight toward me.

His eyes briefly moved over my engagement dress.

“You gave me half an hour.”

He checked his watch.

“I arrived in twenty-three minutes.”

I laughed for the first time that day.

Ethan stepped between us.

“What are you doing here?”

Alexander barely looked at him.

“Emma invited me.”

“To my engagement party?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Your engagement party?”

Ethan froze.

“You just spent an hour explaining that there was no engagement.”

Alexander looked at me.

“Is everything prepared?”

“Everything except the fiancé.”

“Convenient.”

He held out his hand.

“I brought one.”

The room went dead silent.

Sofia stared at us.

Ryan stopped smiling.

Ethan grabbed my arm.

“Emma, enough.”

Alexander’s expression immediately cooled.

“Take your hand off her.”

Something in his voice made Ethan release me.

I looked at the master of ceremonies.

“Change the groom’s name on the program.”

The man blinked.

“To Mr. Grant?”

“Yes.”

Ethan finally understood that I wasn’t trying to frighten him.

“You’re actually going downstairs with him?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t even love him!”

I looked directly into Ethan’s eyes.

“And you just taught me that love without respect is something people can turn into a joke.”

He went pale.

I took Alexander’s arm.

Then we walked downstairs.

My family was confused when they saw him.

Whispers spread across the ballroom.

But Alexander stopped before entering.

“Emma.”

I looked at him.

“You don’t owe me an engagement because you’re angry with another man.”

I was surprised.

He continued:

“If you want me beside you tonight, I’ll stand there. But tomorrow, you decide what this means.”

That sentence nearly made me cry.

Not because it was romantic.

Because after years of Ethan deciding what I should tolerate, someone was finally giving the decision back to me.

“Then stand beside me tonight.”

Alexander smiled.

“Gladly.”

The ceremony began.

There was no dramatic proposal.

No fake declarations.

I simply walked onto the stage and thanked everyone for coming.

Then I told them the truth.

“The engagement originally planned tonight has been canceled.”

Murmurs filled the ballroom.

“But the celebration isn’t.”

I looked toward Alexander.

“Tonight I’m celebrating something more important.”

I removed the engagement ring Ethan had given me.

“The day I stopped begging someone to choose me.”

Behind the ballroom doors, Ethan stood completely still.

He had followed us downstairs.

His friends were behind him.

Nobody was laughing anymore.

I placed his ring on the table.

Then Ethan suddenly walked forward.

“Emma.”

Every guest turned.

He looked furious.

“You’re humiliating me publicly.”

I almost couldn’t believe it.

“You invited your friends to watch me discover my engagement was fake.”

“That was different.”

“How?”

He couldn’t answer.

Then Alexander’s phone vibrated.

He glanced at the screen.

His expression changed.

“Emma.”

“What?”

He showed me a message.

A screenshot.

A group chat.

Ethan’s group chat.

Someone had forwarded the entire conversation about the bet.

There were hundreds of messages.

Photos of me preparing invitations.

Photos of the candy boxes I’d folded.

Predictions about whether I would cry.

And then I saw something that made my stomach turn.

The person sending Ethan the most photographs wasn’t Ryan.

It was Sofia.

My best friend.

She hadn’t merely known about the prank.

She had been documenting my preparations for them.

One message from her read:

“She’s completely convinced. Don’t ruin it before the party 😂.”

I slowly raised my eyes.

Sofia was standing near the ballroom entrance.

Her face had gone completely white.

“Emma…”

I turned the phone toward her.

“Was this the message you withdrew upstairs?”

She started crying.

“Please let me explain.”

But before she could continue, Ethan suddenly grabbed the phone.

He scrolled through the conversation.

Then his expression changed too.

Because buried near the bottom was a message Ethan apparently had never seen.

Sent privately by Sofia to Ryan three weeks earlier.

“Once Emma finally leaves Ethan, I’ll have my chance.”

Ethan stared at Sofia.

I stared at her.

And suddenly I understood.

The fake engagement hadn’t been created just to teach me a lesson.

Someone had been waiting for it to destroy us completely.
:::