Seventeen Runaway Weddings Later,I Found My Real Bride

Today was our eighteenth wedding ceremony this month. My fiancée had ditched me at the altar seventeen times before. Every single time we reached the ring exchange, her first love would show up right on cue. He would gaze at her with longing eyes, and she could never bear to turn him down. Then, looking guilty, she would say to me, "Ethan, I'm so sorry. I'm just not ready yet." And right after that, they would hold hands and walk out together, leaving me behind to face the whispers and ridicule of the crowd. At today's wedding, her first love showed up again, right on schedule. I lowered my head with a self-mocking smirk. Since she treated my love like garbage, I was taking every bit of it back. Beating her to the punch, I spoke up first. "Well then, congratulations to the happy couple!" As soon as the words left my mouth, the guests broke into hushed chatter. They looked Alyssa and her first love, Julian, up and down, dropping snide remarks. Alyssa cared about saving face more than anything else in the world. Furious, she slapped me hard across the face. "Ethan! Are you crazy? What the hell are you saying?" I had spoiled Alyssa rotten. Whenever she was in a bad mood, she took it out on me—anytime, anywhere. In her eyes, only she mattered. She never cared about anyone else's feelings, especially not mine. I lost count of how many times she blew minor things completely out of proportion. She would curse me out and hit me. Then the very next day, she would cry to her mother, whining that I was mistreating her. All I could ever do was apologize over and over. Yet she never let things go easily. Back home, she would demand that I get on my knees and beg for forgiveness, threatening to break up with me if I refused. Desperate not to lose her, I complied every time. Her demands only escalated. Eventually, she made me slap myself while kneeling. Watching me humiliated on the floor, she would pull out her phone and record it, laughing. "Aww, look who it is," she would mock through the camera. "Who's on their knees apologizing to me right now?" The woman I loved most crushed my dignity under her heel with her own hands. Snapping out of the memory, I looked at her haughty face and couldn't help saying, "What? Is it wrong for me to just step aside and let true love win?" Alyssa rushed forward, pointing a finger in my face and screaming. "What do you mean, 'let true love win'?! How many times do I have to tell you that Julian and I are just friends? Why are you always so petty?" "Did you even consider my feelings before opening your mouth? What are the guests going to think of me?" "Men really are fickle. You're so selfish now!" With that, she slammed her bouquet onto the floor. Her words made me chuckle in disbelief. The abuser was playing the victim. Did I really change out of nowhere? Nothing changes overnight. Looking back, countless moments of disappointment and grievance had quietly stacked up until they finally forced me to change. I stared at Alyssa coldly and retorted. "I'm selfish? Did you forget you ran out on me seventeen times? Why didn't you care about what the guests thought of me back then?" Alyssa froze, realizing she had no ground to stand on. She tried to backtrack, stammering, "I just... I wasn't ready yet! Why do you keep pushing me? Does making me look like this make you happy?" It was almost funny. There probably wasn't a more pathetic guy on earth than me. I actually tolerated my fiancée running out on our wedding seventeen times—hand in hand with her ex, no less. Every compromise I made only earned me another stab in the back. At that thought, my heart turned completely cold. "If that's how it is, we're done." "Ethan! Do you have any idea what you're saying?!" She stared at me in shock. "I'm telling you right now, even if you beg me on your knees later, I will never take you back!" "Fine by me. Let's see who breaks first." I turned and walked away from the circus alone.With the wedding called off, our relationship was officially over. Because Alyssa still held a torch for Julian back then, she had suggested holding the ceremony first and signing the marriage certificate later. I had agreed. Looking back, that was the smartest thing that could have happened. There was one other person heartbroken over this breakup: Alyssa's mother. Before the wedding, to convince her mother that her daughter was in good hands, I had prepared an extravagant bridal gift. Fifty thousand dollars in cash, gold bars, and high-end jewelry. Now that the wedding was canceled, the jackpot slipped right through her fingers. The very next day after I walked out of the venue, Alyssa's mother showed up on my doorstep. She held a lavish fruit basket and a bottle of top-shelf bourbon, my dad's favorite. Nothing screams hidden agenda quite like sudden flattery. When I opened the door, I didn't invite her in. "Mrs. Vance, what brings you here?" She gave a polite, eager half-bow. "I just wanted to drop by and apologize." "I saw what happened yesterday. It really was my daughter's fault." "She shouldn't have run out so many times, but she was just overwhelmed! A young woman getting ready to leave home and get married is bound to get nervous, you know?" Seeing right through her, I cut in. "So you still want me to marry Alyssa?" Her mother nodded eagerly. My face went cold. "Where is she, then?" "Uh..." Her mother froze. "She's, um, busy right now, so she asked me to come apologize on her behalf." Hearing that blatant lie, I almost laughed. Oh, she was busy all right. Busy hooking up with her ex. Just a moment ago, my phone had buzzed with a photo from Julian. They were in bed together on crisp white sheets. Julian's neck was dotted with dark red marks, and his chest was covered in scratch marks. And Alyssa, my supposed fiancée, was sound asleep in his arms. Even in her sleep, she clung tightly to Julian. She looked as clingy as a pampered kitten—something she had never once shown me. I had received dozens of photos like this. Every time Alyssa ran out on a wedding and didn't come home that night, Julian would send me a photo. Maybe it was a taunt. Maybe it was a dare. What really cut deep, though, was the pendant around Julian's neck. I still remembered that brutal winter when Alyssa kept getting burning fevers. Each round would drag on for two weeks straight. I drove her to the clinic every single day for IV drips. Watching her pale face and shivering lips made my heart ache. I reached out to an antique dealer I knew and found a beautiful, translucent piece of jade. Then I spent hours hand-carving it into a tiny rabbit. Alyssa was born in the Year of the Rabbit. I slipped the finished pendant around her neck and whispered, "Alyssa, may this keep you safe and free from pain." Tears welled in her eyes, and she threw her arms around me. "Thank you, Ethan. I'll never take it off!" After putting it on, she recovered quickly and stopped getting fevers. Walking out of the clinic, she squeezed my hand, her eyes sparkling. "Then I'll carve a little carrot for you, okay? A bunny can't be without her carrot." "We're going to be safe and sound together, Ethan." I ruffled her hair affectionately. "Sounds good." Alyssa was never one to stick with anything for long. She quickly found carving too tedious and wanted to give up. One day, she leaned in close and looked at me sheepishly. "Ethan, carving is way too hard. How about I just buy you a nice one from a store?" Whenever she wanted her way, she put on that helpless, innocent face that made it impossible to stay mad. Of course, I couldn't bring myself to be harsh with her. I shook my head. "It's fine. If it's too much trouble, don't worry about it. It's the thought that counts. You don't need to buy one either." She breathed a sigh of relief and hugged me. "Babe, you're the best!" Watching how relieved she looked, an ache settled in my chest. People usually care the most about the things they pretend not to care about. And right now, that very same hand-carved carrot pendant was resting against Julian's bare chest. I remembered asking her why she wanted to carve a carrot for me back then. She had said a rabbit couldn't live without its carrot. And a carrot lost all meaning without its rabbit. Love didn't just vanish into thin air. It simply shifted somewhere else.Deep down, I always knew I never held a candle to Julian in Alyssa's heart. Julian, Alyssa, and I had been college classmates. Julian used to be my best friend. When he found out I had a massive crush on Alyssa, he offered to help me woo her, throwing out all kinds of advice. Then I caught them walking across campus, holding hands. When he returned to our dorm, I grabbed him by the collar. "Why the hell did you do this to me?" He just smirked. "You know how it is, man. You can't force feelings." After that, Julian and I were through. I thought he would treat Alyssa well, but he constantly flirted with other girls behind her back. I couldn't help warning Alyssa several times. Instead of listening, she accused me of trying to break them up. Predictably, it didn't take long for Julian to dump her. His excuse? The thrill was gone. Furious, Alyssa turned around and confessed her feelings to me. I knew she was just using me to make Julian jealous. Even so, I said yes, because I was genuinely in love with her. I believed that through my actions, I could win her heart for real. Once we were together, I poured everything into her. Whatever she wanted, it was in her hands by the next morning. I took on side gigs just to save up and take her on dream vacations. Yet the better I treated her, the more entitled she became. She grew glued to her phone, chatting with other people until the early hours, and forbade me from asking about it. One night, after Alyssa fell asleep, I quietly reached for her phone, only to find she had changed the passcode. I lay back down in the dark, stared at her sleeping face, and silently wept. I knew we wouldn't make it to the end. A breakup was inevitable, yet I clung on desperately. I pushed myself to spend more time with her, to talk to her constantly, trying to keep our spark alive. I forgot that my own soft heart was the very source of my misery. I tossed our wedding invitations into a metal bin and set them on fire, watching them burn to ash. Suddenly, my phone rang. I checked the screen. It was Alyssa. After a moment's hesitation, I picked up. Maybe some foolish part of me still held onto a shred of hope. "Hello?" I asked, my voice carrying a faint trace of anticipation. Alyssa's tone was smug and mocking. "Ethan, you're pretty stubborn, aren't you? It's been days, and you still haven't apologized to me." I gave a bitter chuckle at my own foolishness before asking, "Why should I apologize?" Alyssa paused for a second before pressing on. "If you get on your knees and apologize right now, I might let it slide and—" "Forget it," I cut her off. "What do you mean?" Disbelief laced her voice. "Alyssa, I thought that even if you didn't love me, you'd at least have some respect for the years we spent together." "Now I realize you don't have a heart at all." I hung up immediately. I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I often wished I had a terrible memory, but every hurt Alyssa inflicted on me remained painfully sharp. In this relationship, I was the only one who had ever been trapped. I took a deep, steady breath, slowly calming myself down. My life and my career had to move forward. I couldn't let one person ruin everything. I got up and cleaned the apartment, gathering every single item that belonged to Alyssa or reminded me of her. Even the matching promise rings and couple necklaces I had bought. I boxed everything up, taped it shut, and shipped it straight to her. It was time to close this chapter for good. "Ding." A notification popped up on my phone. It was an alert for transactions on my credit card. I scrolled through the statement. The charges seemed endless. Because Alyssa's family struggled financially, she carried a massive chip on her shoulder and an obsession with vanity. She used to whine until I bought her designer bags, luxury clothes, and expensive shoes. Eventually, I gave her an authorized user card on my account. Her appetite only grew. A single card wasn't enough to satisfy her. She went behind my back and linked my bank card to her Apple Pay and PayPal. When I confronted her, she showed zero remorse. Instead, she lashed out: "So what if I spend a little of your money? If you're counting pennies already, how am I supposed to trust you as a husband?" I let it drop, simply because I loved her. Snapping back to reality, I laughed at myself. "A simp for so many years, and I didn't even get a participation trophy." Without hesitation, I removed her from my PayPal and canceled the card I had given her. A toxic mess like this wasn't worth keeping. I was done humiliating myself for love.