On the day of our engagement, my fiancé, Callum Roskell, turned his place card face down on the table and rushed off to stop his ex-girlfriend from attending a blind date. He claimed that Nyra Caldris hated him so much that she had deliberately chosen this very day to find a man and get married, all to make sure he would never have a moment of peace. During our three years together, I heard them hurl insults at each other over the phone countless times. Yet whenever she complained of a stomachache, he could drive for two hours in the middle of the night just to bring her medicine. When she posted on social media that she no longer wanted to live, he would leave me alone with a fever and rush straight to her. I used to think it was nothing more than a man's desire to win. Until, at our engagement party, she called him on video in front of both our families and waved a ring on her finger. "Callum, if you don't come today, don't ever expect me to call anyone else, my husband." He pushed his chair back and stood up on the spot. I caught his sleeve. "If you leave, what am I supposed to tell everyone?" He frowned. "You're my fiancée. She's deliberately trying to provoke me like this, and you still want to take her side?" In the past, whenever someone joked about our engagement, he would turn cold with anger. Now that he was the one humiliating me, all he cared about was how little understanding I showed him. Every guest at the table was watching me. He turned his place card face up again and set it beside me. "Stay here, sweetheart. I'll teach her a lesson and come right back." On the phone, Nyra burst out laughing. So even when it came to hatred, they had to compete to see who could win. My engagement party was nothing more than a place for them to settle their score. The place card bearing his name swayed gently in the air from the air conditioner. Suddenly, I felt that leaving the seat empty was just fine. From now on, I, Avenelle Vexley, promised to myself that the man sitting beside me would no longer have to be him.