My Fiancée Chose Her Wounded First Love on Our Wedding Photoshoot Day—Then Begged Me Not to Leave

“Gavin Blake, I’m not marrying you anymore. Find time to cancel the wedding banquet, and move out of my house immediately.” On the day we were taking our wedding photos, Evelyn received a phone call and suddenly changed completely. She wanted to cancel the wedding and break up with me. “Ethan was in a car accident and needs me to take care of him. Move out of my house today. I have to stay with him.” I looked at the wedding dress she still hadn’t taken off. The love we had shared only a moment ago now felt like a cruel joke. Ever since Ethan Carter divorced his wife, Evelyn had spent less and less time with me. She had even forgotten the anniversaries that belonged to the two of us. I thought I wasn’t showing her enough care, so I quit my job and moved in with her specifically to be by her side. To take care of her stomach, I even learned how to cook. But every time, she only forced down a few bites before complaining that my food tasted awful. I smiled bitterly. I should have known this day would come. I just hadn’t expected it to come so soon. The photo shoot wasn’t even over, yet she couldn’t wait to ask me to call off our engagement. I grabbed her arm as she turned to leave, the corners of my eyes red. “Evelyn, can you please not abandon me?” The system had told me from the beginning that if I failed to win Evelyn over, she would be erased. I didn’t want that to happen. After spending five years trying to win her over, I had already fallen in love with her. The moment I said it, Evelyn looked at me with disdain and shook me off as if I were something dirty. “Gavin Blake, have some self-respect. I don’t love you.” “Do you know how disgusting it is to spend five years with someone you don’t love? These five years with you were nothing but a waste of time. They’ve exhausted me, body and soul.” Five years. She actually said she had never fallen in love with me. I didn’t believe her. I looked at her with a bitter, self-mocking smile. “If you don’t love me, then why did you stay with me for five years and accept my proposal?” Evelyn frowned, a trace of denial flashing through her eyes. As she struggled to answer, her phone rang again. It was Ethan calling. Her expression immediately softened, and she began soothing him in a gentle voice before changing out of her wedding dress and heading to the hospital. In all five years, Evelyn had never looked at me that way. “Evelyn, we’re getting married the day after tomorrow. You can’t just leave without explaining anything to our parents. Can’t you stay and be with me?” I begged her not to go, trying to hold her back by bringing up both our families. But she was determined to leave. She looked at me with icy eyes, as though I were her enemy, and shoved me away without a word. “Gavin Blake, the way you’re trying to threaten me is disgusting!” She gritted her teeth. “Gavin Blake, I don’t love you. If you keep stopping me from pursuing my happiness, I’ll hate you for the rest of my life!” Evelyn’s words stabbed through me like a knife, leaving me covered in wounds and filled with helplessness. In the end, I couldn’t bear to see her upset, so I still let her go to the hospital.After Evelyn left, I cleaned up the mess in a daze. I still held on to a sliver of hope, so I didn’t cancel the wedding banquet. The system’s notification sounded at the worst possible time. “Host, if you still fail to win Evelyn over within the remaining ten days, she will be erased. Would you like to choose a new target?” I stood frozen in place for a long time before asking, “If I choose a new target, will Evelyn survive?” “Yes. However, in exchange, you will forget everything about Evelyn and start over.” Start over? I stood there in a daze and didn’t answer because I still couldn’t let Evelyn go. Not long after, my phone rang. It was a video call from my best friend, Josh Miller. “Gavin, guess who I just saw?” Josh excitedly held up his phone. “It’s your fiancée, trying on wedding dresses with another man!” “Didn’t you say today was the day you and your fiancée were trying on wedding dresses?” I was speechless for a moment. Worried about Evelyn’s reputation, I stammered, “I... I was busy today, so I asked someone else to accompany her.” The scene in the video stabbed my eyes red. Evelyn was wearing a wedding dress and smiling blissfully at Ethan, who sat in a wheelchair. She looked as if she were eagerly anticipating the life they would have together. Anyone would have thought they were a perfect match. But I was supposed to be the groom. The moment Evelyn looked up and saw Josh, her expression instantly darkened. She snatched the phone away and scolded me furiously. “Gavin Blake, how pathetic can you be? You even found someone to spy on me!” Ethan comforted her gently from the video. “Evelyn, don’t be angry. I didn’t know you were about to marry Gavin. Gavin is already upset. Maybe... I should leave.” “Don’t go. You’ve forgotten everyone except me. Who will take care of you if you leave?” Evelyn deliberately kept the video call on. She looked at me with a cold smile and said mockingly, “If your mother hadn’t exposed us back then, why would you have divorced someone else?” “Now that you’re divorced, it’s lucky that I’m still unmarried too.” Evelyn clasped his hand with a loving gaze. “I’ve been waiting for you all this time.” Her words made my heart twist with pain. I was so miserable that I could barely breathe. So that was all I was to Evelyn: someone she couldn’t proudly claim, someone she had never loved, merely a tool to pacify her family. Evelyn couldn’t even be bothered to lie to me. A trace of smugness appeared in Ethan’s eyes, but he still pretended to hesitate. “Evelyn, when you say things like that... you’re going to make me misunderstand.” “Misunderstand what?” Evelyn’s expression was firm as she made her promise tenderly. “Ethan, my heart has always belonged to you.” My eyes turned red when I heard that. Bitterness filled my heart. Afraid I would lose control and lash out at Evelyn, I ended the call and fled home in humiliation. I tried to find a trace of the warmth I had once shared with Evelyn in the home I had personally decorated for us.The phone kept ringing. It was Josh calling, but in the end, I didn’t have the courage to answer and explain what had happened between Evelyn and me. “Move in today. I can take better care of you here.” Evelyn’s saccharine voice came from outside the door. The next second, I found myself standing face-to-face with Ethan, and Evelyn’s expression instantly turned dark. “Gavin, didn’t I tell you to move out today?” Evelyn questioned me with undisguised disgust. “Why are you still shamelessly staying in my house? Pack your things and get out!” I clenched my hands in unwillingness and forced a smile. “Evelyn, are you really that desperate for me to leave?” “Did you ever love me at all? Or was I always just Ethan’s replacement?” Maybe I hadn’t even qualified as a replacement. Every dish, curtain, and piece of furniture in this home had been arranged by me. It was filled with countless memories shared by Evelyn and me, and now a third person had barged into it. The sudden change left me bitter and breathless. Evelyn hesitated for a moment after my question, but she remained silent for a long time. Seeing her like that, Ethan immediately clutched his head in agony. His face turned pale as he wailed, “Evelyn, all this red in the house scares me. It’s just like... like the scene of my car accident...” “Evelyn, did I do something wrong and make you two fight? But... can you please not abandon me?” It was obviously deliberate. Evelyn immediately pulled Ethan into her arms and comforted him softly, promising to clear out the entire wedding setup at once. Then she turned around and screamed at me, “Gavin Blake, I never loved you. Pack your things and get out right now!” “Ethan has only me, and he’s the only one I love. The wedding will go on as planned, but Ethan will be the groom. Leave our home immediately.” Evelyn practically roared those words at me. The belief I had held in my heart collapsed with a thunderous crash. Those cruel words cut into me again and again, and I staggered back several steps. I had once looked forward to marrying Evelyn with all my heart and carefully prepared everything for our future, yet a single word from Ethan mattered more than all of it. “Does he really love you that much?” I asked with a suffocating smile, the pain overwhelming me. Evelyn’s expression was certain. “Of course. Just look at yourself. How could you possibly compare to Ethan? He lost every memory in that car accident, but he never forgot me. That’s proof enough that he loves me!” “Host, the countdown to the mission’s deadline has begun. The target has transferred her feelings. Evelyn is about to be erased. Would you like to choose a new target?” The system’s notification rang out again, reminding me that there was no way back for Evelyn and me. After hearing that, my face went blank. I turned and returned to the bedroom, destroying with my own hands the wedding room I had painstakingly decorated, then quickly packed up everything that belonged to me. Evelyn had always been extremely protective of her personal space and hated unexpected intrusions. To fit into her life, I had brought only a few personal belongings each year. After five years, the ridiculous truth was that my things didn’t even fill two suitcases, while Evelyn had accepted Ethan’s intrusion with ease. “I agree to call off the wedding.” “I’ll explain things to our parents too. I’ll cancel the banquet myself when the time comes.” With that, I wheeled my suitcase away from the little home Evelyn and I had once shared without looking back. Perhaps I had changed my attitude too quickly, because a trace of hesitation and confusion flashed through Evelyn’s eyes. But I didn’t care anymore.On the way home, grief surged up and swallowed my entire heart. It spread through every inch of my body, leaving me so breathless I could hardly breathe. I didn’t understand how Evelyn had suddenly become like this. She had clearly loved me once. Actually, when I began trying to win Evelyn over, she and Ethan had already been together for four years and were preparing to get married. They had been high school sweethearts who continued dating into college, but then Ethan turned around and married someone else. Evelyn had attempted suicide several times. The system told me that Evelyn was a designated target who needed to be saved, so saving her naturally became my mission. Evelyn had been hurt deeply. I did everything I could to enter her heart and gradually take Ethan’s place. As I spent more time with her, I discovered that Evelyn was adorable and incredibly charming. Her life should have been filled with flowers at every turn. When Evelyn and I introduced each other to our parents and began discussing marriage, the system told me that the mission was about to end and that I could leave this world. I hesitated. Because somewhere along the way, I had fallen in love with Evelyn. When I saw the anticipation on her face as she looked forward to building a future with me, I couldn’t bear to let her suffer again. I gave up my chance to leave this small world and chose to continue walking forward with her. I begged the system to extend the mission, confident that Evelyn loved me deeply. During those few months when we were discussing marriage, I thought everything would continue smoothly. I thought Evelyn and I would love each other for the rest of our lives, until death separated us. But just as I was meeting Evelyn’s parents, Ethan suddenly divorced his wife and walked away from the marriage with nothing. After that, everything changed. The love between Evelyn and me became a complete joke. Now she was even calling off our engagement for Ethan. I finally understood. All those years I had spent painstakingly pulling her out of the abyss meant that she had only ever treated me as Ethan’s replacement. Evelyn had never loved me.Evelyn was astonishingly quick to decide that she wanted to call off our engagement. Soon, both families gathered again to discuss the cancellation. I went door to door collecting the invitations and informing everyone that the wedding had been canceled. The news that Evelyn and I had broken up caused a huge commotion. My mother sighed and comforted me, telling me not to be sad and that I wasn’t the one at fault. “There’s no need to cancel the banquet. Ethan and I can use it for our wedding.” Evelyn spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I’ll reimburse you in cash.” My mother frowned when she heard that, finally seeing how shameless Evelyn was. She snapped, “Absolutely not! Evelyn, don’t push us too far! This wedding banquet must be canceled.” “My son is not someone you can humiliate.” I could tell that Ethan wanted to use this situation to show off how completely Evelyn obeyed him. Evelyn glared at me coldly without giving an inch. “Gavin Blake, why are you being so petty? When did Ethan ever try to humiliate you?” “Do you think I want to use this banquet? Ethan said it would save you some money! You should learn from his generosity instead of using your filthy mind to make assumptions about him!” My mother’s face flushed with anger at Evelyn’s twisted reasoning. “Evelyn... you...” “That’s enough!” Evelyn’s father, who had been silent until then, roared at her. He cut off her tirade and apologized to my mother. “Gavin is a good kid. Evelyn simply isn’t lucky enough to marry into your family.” “I apologize to Gavin on Evelyn’s behalf.” “Apologize for what?” Evelyn protested. Her eyes reddened as she pointed at me, her gaze filled with hatred. “If you hadn’t broken Ethan and me up back then and interfered in our relationship, I wouldn’t have been separated from Ethan for so many years!” “I hate you. All I want is to make it up to Ethan!” Her words left my heart in agony. The pain made my breathing turn frantic, as if I had fallen into a bottomless abyss. When Ethan abandoned Evelyn, our families had already been close for generations. Her father had exhausted himself worrying about her and arranged for Evelyn and me to meet. That was how I managed to take advantage of her vulnerability and enter her life. I had never told Evelyn the truth because I wanted to protect her feelings. I never expected that, in Evelyn’s eyes, I had become an accomplice in her father’s attempt to separate her from Ethan. “I agree.” I looked quietly at Evelyn and spoke without any emotion. What she didn’t know was that my heart had already gone numb from the pain. Those three words had taken every ounce of strength in my body to force out, and I collapsed onto the sofa with a deathly pale face, gasping for breath. Evelyn froze for a moment. Then, wild delight flashed through her eyes. She clearly hadn’t expected me to give up so quickly. With happiness written all over her face, she walked out to share the good news with Ethan. The sight pierced my eyes. At that moment, it felt as if an invisible hand had clenched around my heart, stopping it from beating. I no longer even had the strength to stand and leave. Evelyn’s father stormed out, leaving his unreasonable daughter behind. “Gavin, are you all right?” My mother supported me as we walked out of the hotel, her voice full of concern. At that moment, Evelyn was gently pushing Ethan’s wheelchair and scolding him fondly. “You’ve only just started recovering. How could you come out here? What if something happened?” Ethan, sitting in the wheelchair, was already too lazy to keep pretending. He gave me the smile of a victor. “I wanted to discuss the wedding with you and meet your father while I was at it.” The two of them happily discussed their future, while I felt like a passerby who had brushed shoulders with Evelyn. Even so, I couldn’t stop myself from turning around to look at her. Soon, the system appeared again. After detecting that Evelyn’s favorability toward me had dropped to its lowest point, it said, “Host, the memory erasure is about to begin. Are you certain you want to exchange all your memories for Evelyn’s life?” This was the deal I had made with the system a long time ago. Back then, I had been afraid Evelyn might do something irreversible, so I had made the trade to save her. As the system began carrying out the punishment, it reminded me again, “Host, the terms of the deal can still be changed.” “No.” I smiled bitterly. Let this grand gift serve as my wedding present to Evelyn. At that moment, my entire body felt strangely light. The system’s cold, mechanical voice rang out. “Host, the deal is confirmed. Prepare yourself.” “All right.” I had endured countless forms of punishment, but I never expected this one to become something I would remember for the rest of my life.