On the Wedding Day, I Broke Up Successfully

I helped Alex into the house and settled him on the sofa. As soon as he was comfortable, Emily sent a message confirming she had made it home safely.

I instinctively tried to unlock the phone with my fingerprint but failed three times in a row.

It finally dawned on me that he had deleted my fingerprint information.

While Alex was still unconscious, I used his finger to unlock the screen.

My gaze fell on the screen full of chat bubbles from Alex and my fingers froze.

The screen was filled with endless text and cute emojis he had never sent me.

The intense emotions hidden behind his icy facade were indeed real.

Scrolling up, I saw a message from three days ago.

["Won't you regret it if I get married? Are you really going to watch me spend my life with someone I don’t love?"]

["Why are you silent? Fine, I’ll get married in five days. Don’t say you didn’t know."]

An hour later, Emily had replied, ["Then I'll take a week off." ]

My finger froze on the screen and I abruptly shut off the phone.

My breath quickened uncontrollably, as if no matter how much I gasped, the air couldn’t fill my lungs.

Tears streamed down my face, pouring out with increasing force.

No wonder he had suddenly proposed to me three days ago.

There was no ring, no wedding venue, no dowry.

Just a simple request: Don’t tell anyone in the family.

I thought he had intentionally set the wedding date for the day the new project launched out of guilt for making me wait six years. I believed that even though his career wasn’t successful yet, he had chosen to propose to me.

But I never imagined that the wedding I had been dreaming of for ten years was merely a pawn to make Emily yield.

That single word, "unlove," shattered the last shred of reluctance I had about this relationship.

At that moment, Alex woke up, stumbling into the bathroom to freshen up.

I sat alone on the sofa, lost in thought.

When he emerged, I received a text confirming my flight.

He glanced at it casually and asked, “Is something up?”

“Yeah, I have a project in another city. I need to check it out.”

He didn’t bother to ask any further questions or give any safety advice.

Instead, he turned and went back to the bedroom, grumbling, “Even when drunk, he couldn’t bother to change clothes for me. It’s so unpleasant…”

In the past, when he came home drunk from socializing, he never had to deal with these little things.

But now, I couldn’t be bothered.

And I certainly wouldn’t do it again in the future.

I spent the whole night wide awake.

The next day was supposed to be our wedding dress photo shoot.

When Alex woke up, it was as if nothing had happened. His attitude toward me remained as cold and indifferent as ever.

He didn’t even notice that I was sleeping on the sofa.

But after seeing his phone records, I no longer believed it was just his natural disposition.

He didn’t see the bloodshot eyes beneath my gaze. He walked over to me and said, “Forget about the photography studio. Let’s go to the beach instead; we can take a look around while we're there.”

I froze, my finger hovering over the screen.

On my phone was a post from Emily, showing her at the beach today.

“Sure, whatever you say,” I replied, my voice steady despite the turmoil inside.

I didn’t confront him about his lies or ask any questions.

On our final day together, I wanted to maintain some dignity for both of us.

Anticipating what might happen, I didn’t even bring my wedding dress.

As the photographer guided us to the beach, Alex’s eyes never stopped scanning the area.

After a few moments of searching, he finally spotted a familiar, striking figure.

Without a word, he abandoned me and the photographer and hurried over to Emily.

I turned to the confused photographer and offered an apologetic smile.

“Sorry for the trouble,” I said. “We won’t be taking the wedding photos after all. We’ll still cover the costs.”