"Nicole, you're welcome to hate me, but don’t resort to these underhanded tricks to frame me,” I said with a steady and resolute voice. I was not someone who tolerated mistreatment endlessly, nor I was naive enough to back down anymore.
“Enough! That's outrageous,” Sonny’s cold voice cut my word. There was not a trace of warmth in his eyes when he looked at me.
“Nicole came here today on her initiative to apologize and make peace and this is how you treat her?” he accused me. “It’s just a cake. Nicole, I’ll buy you another one,” he added to appease Nicole. He took his sweater, that had been hanging on the coat rack and draped it over her shoulders. He said gently, "You can wear this. You'll get cold if you wear so little."
My eyes flickered and I felt like my heart was being squeezed and twisted. The armor I had been carefully built around myself shattered in an instant.
Sonny had always refused to lent me his clothes or accessories. He had claimed he disliked the smell of perfume on his belongings. Even though we were about to get marriage, he had never made an exception for me.
I often joked about his preference even laughed about it but I respected his boundaries and never touched his things again.
Yet now, even from a distance, I could clearly smell the perfume radiating from Nicole. So, it wasn’t that he disliked the smell of perfume, he actually did not like mine.
Sonny turned around and guided Nicole back to the living room. He left me alone to deal with the mess on the floor.
Even now, when I recall the incident, I still feel the same pain tear apart my heart.
Nicole had been living with the Simmons Family since childhood. She had become the family's foster daughter ever since her parents died. Though there was no blood relation, twenty years of shared life wasn’t nothing and the Simmons had always treated her as their own.
I often heard Sonny talk about his sweet innocent sister, the Simmons Family's princess.
Back then, I was so in love with Sonny, I had bought many presents and gift for Nicole to win her approval. I wanted to be accepted by the sister he cherished so dearly.
However, the first time Nicole saw me, she was very hostile toward me. At that time, I dismissed it as a young girl's natural attachment to her brother.
As soon as I learned that there was not any blood relation between them, my woman's intuition told me there was more to it.
When I tried to tell Sonny, he frowned and got angry at me, "Don't think that way about Nicole, okay? She’s always been innocent and pure. She’s just used to being cared for and it’s normal for her to fear losing her brother’s love."
Since then, Sonny's stern face attached to my mind. I finally realized that Nicole was his bottom line, his precious treasure.
Between Nicole and me, Sonny would always, without any hesitation, choose the former. He would indulge her as if it was his second nature. I would always be the one he left behind.
He always prioritized his sister’s feelings, then comforted me afterward with empty reassurances. He insisted that he was being fair to both of us. However, the scales had long since tipped unfairly, the balance of love was always in Nicole's favor.
If it was the case, it was time for me to let go.
My heart had already numbed by the pain. So, when I had made up my mind, I did not feel any struggle I had imagined. Instead, I felt liberated, like a weight had been lifted from my soul.
“Sorry, but I won’t be needing the wedding dress,” I told the attendant with a smile still lingering on my lips. “I’m not getting married.”
I stepped out of the dress and apologized to the staff. Then I walked out the door with firm and unwavering steps as I was running toward freedom and a new beginning.
After I left the bridal shop, I went straight to the apartment that I and Sonny had prepared for the marital house. Without any hesitation, I called all my friends and family when I entered the building.
