Lipstick on Your Back

The moment I heard it was about wedding photos, I saw Chloe Adams (hereafter Chloe) curve her lips into a sly smile.

It wasn’t until I saw the photos of me and Ethan Carter (Ethan) that I realized why she was smirking.

The entire selection was perfunctory—either long shots or pictures without my face.

This so-called wedding album was pure trash. Honestly, you could swap out the bride and no one would notice.

I tapped my fingers lightly on the table and lifted my eyes to Ethan.

"These are the photos you’ve spent two months carefully selecting?"

Ethan clearly hadn’t expected Chloe to be so brazen. He could only rub his nose awkwardly.

Chloe, unwilling to let Ethan look bad, rushed to my side.

"Sophia, young people these days like this kind of atmospheric style. Close-up portraits like yours are outdated."

She was mocking my age, but I was only twenty-six. Yes, she was a few years younger than me, but she had no idea that maturity also had its advantages.

I ignored her and slammed the table hard.

"Get your Store Manager out here. Is this how you run a business?"

Hearing that, Chloe panicked. She quickly blinked at Ethan, and he understood, stepping forward to block me.

"Sophia, come on, these aren’t so bad."

I laughed bitterly, pulling free of his grip and pointing at the photos.

"So you think wedding photos without my face are fine? Then maybe a wedding without me would be even better, right?"

My question caught Ethan off guard. At that moment, the Store Manager came over.

After hearing what happened, he apologized sincerely, then turned on Chloe.

"What were you thinking? You insisted on taking this job yourself!"

Chloe’s eyes turned red with tears. She glanced pitifully at Ethan.

"But Mr. Carter asked for it this way. How is this my fault?"

I sneered.

"Store Manager, I paid ten thousand dollars. Either refund me, or—"

I didn’t finish, but my meaning was clear.

The Store Manager promised to redo everything, but Chloe refused. She tossed down her camera and ran out crying.

"Why should I?"

Ethan instinctively tried to chase after her, but after a few steps, he remembered I was still there.

On the way back, Ethan claimed there was an urgent meeting at the corporation and dumped me on the roadside.

I knew exactly where he was going—to find Chloe.

If not for this mess, today would have been the day we got our marriage license at city hall.

But none of that mattered anymore.

I checked the GPS location on his phone: Ethan had gone straight to our new house.

A house I had never even lived in, yet it had already been used by someone else. How ironic.

In the end, I still went along with Ethan’s wishes—we filmed that romantic wedding video montage, with Chloe as the photographer.

Seeing how furious she was, her lips nearly twisting with rage, was the first time I felt my money had been well spent.

On the wedding day, Ethan secretly swapped out the cameraman for Chloe again.

Naturally, she didn’t disappoint. On the big screen, our romantic montage played.

Ethan looked at me with feigned tenderness, his hand trembling uncontrollably.

I wanted to ask him why he hadn’t pursued acting—it would’ve suited him perfectly.

The guests offered their congratulations, but suddenly, the screen flickered to black.

Then, it began playing Ethan’s laptop recordings from graduate school.