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Chapter 1: Will You Marry Me?

Julia’s POV:

“Will you marry me?”

These were the only words that I had been yearning to hear from my long-time boyfriend Marco when I came to Hawaii with him for our blissful vacation. Marco and I have been dating for over 5 years, and I have always cherished every moment we have spent together. In fact, when he suddenly asked me to take a vacation with him a month ago, the first thought that came to my mind was what if he was planning to propose to me?

I was overjoyed for the past month, and I had secretly started looking for beautiful wedding venues. Over a month ago, I had applied for leave for this vacation from my work, only hoping that I would return this time with a big diamond ring shining on my finger.

But, the first heartache that awaited me on this vacation was when I saw my half-sister Melanie was also halted at the same hotel that we had booked for us in Hawaii.

After my mother passed away when I was only 5, it didn’t take much time for my Dad to bring home his mistress who was already pregnant with Melanie. Before my dad, both the mother-daughter duo had masked the perfect art of showing affection for me, but deep inside I knew…both of them hated me, especially, Melanie who was always jealous of everything I had achieved.

Amidst all the chaos, I had Marco as the strongest support of my life. But on this vacation when I saw Melanie greeting us at the hotel lobby, it indeed gave me an intuition of a bad omen. But I tried assuring myself not to overthink about it anymore.

But I should’ve realized my intuitions were never wrong.

Right in front of me now, inside the huge hall room of the hotel which was ethereally decorated with red floral arches, and balloons to match the theme of the proposal, holding a diamond ring in his hand, my boyfriend said those exact words, but not to me. Instead, he was on his knees in front of Melanie who stood next to me, and holding a shameless audacious smile on his face, he asked her again, “Melanie, will you marry me, please?”

“Oh my God! Marco! I can’t believe it…of course, yes! I would love to marry you!” In response to his question, Melanie burst into a chuckle of surprised laughter before she handed her hand to Marco to put that ring on her.

Right in front of me as I watched my boyfriend putting that engagement ring on my half-sister’s finger, my heartache rose to the point of forming a knot inside my chest, making me struggle to breathe at ease. I gritted my jaws to suppress the tears forming in my throat, swearing to myself I wouldn’t shed a tear in front of Melanie tonight, no matter what it takes for me…

“What…the fuck is happening here?” I squeezed those husky words out of my mouth when the hotel staff gathered around us finished congratulating Marco and Melanie together for their engagement.

Flinched at my voice as if Marco finally realized I was here too all this time, he let go of Melanie’s hand tangled around his arm and walked close to me, “Julia…I had been meaning to talk to you about this…”

“Talk about what? Did you want to make me watch my boyfriend getting engaged to my sister?” When I rumbled aloud at him this time, the enthusiasm of the crowd around us quickly faded as they realized the twisted situation that had formed. While Melanie was busy adoring the diamond ring on her finger, I lashed out at Marco, “Are you fuckin’ kidding me? You better tell me now if this is some kind of prank you have been planning—”

“I wanted to tell you that I have fallen out of love with you, Julia. And…I am sorry for that.” Without any hint of remorse in his voice, Marco answered in a somber voice while meeting my tearful eyes. “You were always ambitious about your career, Julia…to the extent of never paying any proper attention to your boyfriend’s wishes and needs. You didn’t even agree to move in with me because you wanted to be focused on work.

“That’s when I found Melanie…and after spending time with her, it made me realize she was the one who could understand me and my feelings…which you didn’t in all these years we were together…”

“Needs? Feelings?” I snorted, unable to hide the bitterness from my face as I growled at him, pointing my finger towards Melanie whose attention was catered towards us now. “So…you went on cheating with her on me for your fuckin’ needs? You could have gone to satisfy your needs with a prostitute as well, why it had to be my sister!?”

“Because after staying with you Marco realized that he always wanted someone like me…so he chose me over you, sis.” Melanie intervened between our conversation this time, walking close to Marco as she draped her hand around his arm.

She rather sounded proud from her boisterous tone, “I know it must have hurt your pride badly to watch your man propose to me but to be honest, I was also initially guilty of making our engagement official in front of you, but after a year of planning, Marco realized this was the only way to end his relationship with you. I am feeling sorry for you sis, but now…Marco is mine, and I am his present and future as well.”

With those words, Melanie gently placed a soft kiss on Marco’s lips, to which he reciprocated passionately right in front of me. While I was stunned to realize Marco was cheating on me for over a year, he was deeply immersed in his kiss with Melanie, without paying any attention to the shreds of my broken heart.

I couldn’t bear the strength to watch those shameless cheaters anymore. I knew Melanie would always go after everything I deserved, but I hadn’t hoped she would be so wicked to the extreme level of even stealing my man from me!

Suppressing the heartwrenching agony inside me, I packed my belongings and immediately took the flight to return home. When I reached my town, it was already past evening.

But for the first time in my life, I had the desperate thought of doing something extreme tonight to drown away the miserable agony burning inside me. I walked inside the first bar right that came in my way right after I left my luggage at my apartment.

I chose a skinny tight short dress, with putting a sexy heavy makeup on my my face. It was the first time I attempted to try something completely different than my usual nature, but after being brutally shattered by the person I wanted to live a happy future with… at least for tonight, I wanted to be a different woman as well!

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