Chapter 5

Seraphina POV

After hanging up with Mrs. Harrison, I thought of the wedding dress.

It was my main gown, the one I'd personally helped design, making over a dozen trips to the studio. Now that I'd decided to break things off, I needed to deal with it-at least pay the final balance or see if it could be returned.

I took a cab to the haute couture bridal shop.

As I approached the VIP fitting room, before I even pushed the door open, I heard a familiar laugh from inside.

"Wow, Blake, does it look good?"

My hand froze on the doorknob. It was Willow's voice.

Then came Blake's voice, full of doting affection. "Gorgeous! It looks custom-made for you, Willow. You're beautiful in a wedding dress."

I shoved the door open.

In front of the full-length mirror, Willow was twirling around, wearing my fishtail white gown. The layers of lace, the intricate details-I'd stayed up late sketching and refining those.

Now, they were on another woman. And my fiancé, Blake, was holding his phone, finding angles to photograph her.

Hearing the door, they both turned. Seeing me, a flicker of awkwardness crossed Blake's face.

"Seraphina? What are you doing here?"

Willow, holding up her skirt, approached me with a sickeningly innocent smile. "Seraphina, don't get the wrong idea! I just saw this dress. It was too beautiful not to try. You know I'm against marriage. I'll never have a real wedding. So I thought, why not have a little pretend moment before yours?"

She twirled, her skirt brushing my feet. "Seraphina, you don't mind, do you? I'll only wear it for ten minutes."

I looked at her, then at Blake. "Take it off."

Blake frowned. "Seraphina, what's with the temper tantrum again? Willow was just curious; it's not like she'll ruin it."

"This is my wedding dress," I stared at Blake. "It was custom-made for me. I was going to wear it on my wedding day. Blake, do you have any sense of decency at all?"

"Are you done yet?" Blake impatiently put down his phone. "Willow is my best friend. It's just a dress. Is it really worth getting so angry over? Fine, maybe I'll just give her this dress for her to take pictures in later."

Give it to her? I laughed, a bitter, hollow sound. My custom-made wedding dress, in his mouth, had become an item to appease another woman.

"Oh no, Blake, don't yell at Seraphina, it's all my fault." Willow put on a tearful act, trying to grab my hand in feigned panic.

Just then, the glass of bright red strawberry fruit tea in her hand slipped. The red tea splashed out, most of it spilling onto the pristine white skirt of the wedding dress. Large, dark red stains rapidly bloomed across the snow-white lace.

"Ah!" Willow shrieked, covering her mouth. "I'm so, so sorry, I didn't mean to!"

Blake's first reaction wasn't even to look at the dress. He immediately pulled Willow closer, anxiously checking her hands and clothes. "Are you okay? Not burned, are you? Did you get your clothes dirty?"

After confirming Willow was fine, he finally turned to the ruined dress and frowned at me. "See what you did? You had to come over and yell at her, scaring Willow so much she couldn't even hold her cup steady. It's fine. It's just a little fruit tea stain, the staff can just send it for dry cleaning. Don't make such a fuss."

I looked at the destroyed dress, my heart sinking further. "No need to clean it."

I looked up. "I find things that have been dirtied disgusting."

Blake froze. "What do you mean?"

I turned, walked directly to the counter, and slapped the unpaid balance receipt onto the table. "Manager, I'm not returning this wedding dress. I'm paying the full balance now."

"Since Miss Willow likes it so much and also stained it, then Mr. Harrison can pay for it in full. Blake, didn't you just say you wanted to give it to her for photos? Pay up."

Blake's eyes widened. "Seraphina, are you insane? That's hundreds of thousands of dollars!"

"What? You don't want to spend money on your dear 'sister'?" I said. "Weren't you so generous just now?"

The surrounding staff and customers all stared, whispering and pointing.

Blake gritted his teeth, pulled out his credit card, and slammed it onto the table. "Swipe it! It's just a damn dress! Only you would treat it like a treasure! I'm buying it for Willow, so you can stop being sarcastic."

The card went through.

Willow was still feigning reluctance. "Blake, it's too expensive, I can't take it..."

"Take it!" Blake, scrambling to salvage the situation, barked the order. "Wear the damn thing whenever you like!"

I met his gaze and gave a single, slow nod. "Remember you said that. The dress is yours now."

Then I turned and walked out of the bridal salon

His frustrated shout chased after me. "Seraphina! Get back here! What is this now? You're being impossible!"

I didn't stop. Tears fell, but I quickly wiped them away.