The Abandoned Bride

I couldn’t stop smiling at the engagement ring while heading to the restroom. My smile faded when I overheard some noises from a supposedtobe empty room. Curios, I leaned my ear to the door and was shocked when I recognized the voice of the man on the other side.

A loud slapping sound of skins, followed by neverending moans and groans could be heard and I already guessed what was going on inside the room.

“Tyler, are you really going to marry that woman?” Amber asked then moaned.

“Ah! Not really. You’re way better than her, Amber,” Tyler replied and continued what they were doing.

My mind went blank. I couldn’t understand… Just why did he do this?

An hour ago, Tyler came to attend my birthday with Amber. He made everyone believe, including me, that Amber was just like his younger sister. He even proposed to marry me which I accepted. Everyone was shocked when I said ‘yes’, but they couldn’t do anything about my decision to be Tyler’s fiance.

Amber seemed to look pissed that time but I didn’t think much about it. We have never gotten along since when it comes to Tyler. The two have been close since childhood and it didn’t bother me, to believe that Tyler only sees Amber as his younger sister was a huge mistake. It was clear that Amber had feelings for Tyler and he usually hung out with her when I wasn’t around.

I didn’t know what went wrong between us. Tyler was a caring boyfriend until recently when Amber started hanging out with him often. I didn’t mind it at first since Tyler would always tell me that Amber only wanted to be with her older brother.

My friends never liked Tyler. They thought he was only after my money and I remember defending him whenever they convinced me to dump Tyler. As for me, it didn’t matter even if he came from a poor family.

Tyler and I have been dating for five years, and getting married to him was one of my dreams. I’ve been waiting for this day to come but all of the excitement was gone when I knew what he was up to behind my back. For five years, I tried to do my best to keep my relationship with Tyler. I always tried to understand him, even though some things were already too much.

Last summer, I went overseas to study there for a semester. My father got me a condo close to the university where Tyler attended so I gave him a spare key to my place. However, I finished my course earlier than anticipated so I got to go back soon.

To my surprise, Tyler was living in my condo—everything was a mess. My bags and clothes were everywhere, even my shoes. I wondered who would use them but when I heard their voices as I walked inside, my doubts started to grow. Back then, I realized that Tyler’s relationship with Amber was unusual. It was as if they were playing house at my place, with Amber using all my stuff thinking I wasn’t around.

I loved Tyler despite all that. I tried to get along with Amber even if she kept messing up my relationship with Tyler. All along, I thought everything would be fine. But why would he say those things? He was even fooling around with his socalled younger sister!

My head became more fuzzy as I listened to their filthy noises. Amber’s heavy breathing while moaning filled my ears as I slumped on the floor.

I couldn’t help but remember everything since Tyler confessed his feelings to me. My friends were expecting me to reject him. After all, I was born into a wealthy family—a princess, and Tyler was an ordinary man who struggled to live day by day.

My friends firmly disagreed, thinking they lost my mind. As someone from a prestigious family, dating a poor man was a huge embarrassment. But they didn’t know why I fell for Tyler. He saved my life once when I was 7 and drowning. Since then, I started having feelings for him. It was love at first sight and I was grateful when he cherished me back.

At the beginning of our relationship, Tyler was very sweet and caring. That was why I couldn’t understand how he could bear to do this to me. He wasn’t the type who would cheat—but that wasn’t the case now that he was doing it with someone else.

Back then, I had no idea why he slowly changed, giving me a cold shoulder. But I knew now. It was all because of Amber.

Amber’s hostility towards me had no end. It started when Tyler introduced me to Amber and his mother who was sick then.

“She’s the one? There’s nothing special about her at all. Just average,” Amber commented as soon as she laid her eyes on me.

I was wellknown among the sons of wealthy businessmen and famous people in the country. Bachelors were lining up to get a date from me which I rejected after dating Tyler, yet she thought I’m just pretty average?

“Ah! SSorry. Tyler, your girlfriend won’t be mad because of what I said, right? I’m just telling the truth,” Amber continued. She covered her face with her hands as if I was about to hit her when I hadn’t moved an inch at all.

Tyler turned to me with a disappointed look in his eyes. “Amber is still young, Sab. She’s just speaking her mind. Don’t take her words to heart,” he told me.

I didn’t say anything in response and just nodded my head. First impressions last so I wanted to avoid any drama, especially in front of his mother. However, Amber was not done yet. She kept acting coy, hiding behind Tyler while holding tightly in his arms.

“She’s looking at me fiercely, Ty. I’m scared,” Amber stuttered and even bit her lower lip to bleed.

I looked at Tyler, expecting him to take my side. He should know me better and I wouldn’t do petty things like what Amber was trying to imply. To my dismay, he defended Amber and scolded me instead.

“We’re in front of my mom, Sab. You should behave. Stop scaring Amber, she’s still young,” he said, pulling Amber closer to him and patting her head.

I should have known then that he was a walking red flag.

“Ah! Ty… You’re so good. I will miss this if you marry Sabrina. Will you still marry her though?” Amber’s voice and annoying moans pulled me back to reality.

“Don’t worry. Our relationship won’t be affected even if I marry her. You know that I can’t resist you, sweetie,” Tyler replied and groaned, followed by Amber’s giggles and purrs.

“Besides, I’m only marrying her for money. Sabrina’s family is loaded and it’s rare to find someone like her who’s easy to handle. And if we’re married and she’s gone, who do you think would benefit her shares? It’s going to be me,” Tyler continued.

My froze froze at a realization after hearing everything. My chest hurt and I couldn’t almost breathe. I struggled to get up on my feet in shock.

Tyler was indeed marrying me for money but most importantly… He wanted me dead!

“Sab? Are you alright?”

I looked up to see my best friend, Cassy. She looked worried after seeing me on the floor. I shook my head, biting my lower lip to suppress my sobs. She walked toward me and pulled me up.

“Cath,” I mumbled, tears forming again in my eyes.

“What’s wrong, Sab? Why are you here?” Cassy paused when she heard the noises coming from inside the room. She raised her eyebrow and cursed under her breath when she realized what was happening. “Is that Tyler?” she asked in disbelief.

I nodded my head and let my tears fall.

“Damn it! I’m going to kill him,” Cassy grumbled and was about to barge in when I stopped her.

“Don’t do this, Cassy. I don’t want other people to know about this matter,” I whispered, tightly grabbing on Cassy’s arm.

She looked at me with pity in her eyes. Cassy was one of the people who was against my decision to date and marry Tyler after all.

“Sabrina is the only heiress of the Wilson family. She no longer has a mother and her father is sick. If we get married, almost half of her family property will be mine,” Tyler added, explaining his plan to Amber. “But if Sabrina ‘accidentally’ dies after marrying me, everything will be mine. We’ll be legally bound after marriage so it’s natural I get everything she had when she’s dead. Isn’t it nice and easy?” He continued and laughed along with his other woman.

I pressed my lips and clenched my jaws before dragging Cassy away from that place. He headed to the garden where I poured all the tears that had been forming in my eyes. It took me a few minutes to calm down and think of a way to destroy Tyler’s plan.

“Why don’t we hire some men to beat the shit out of him?” Cassy suggested, calling up her fists.

It was a good idea but I had to refuse. “I have another idea,” I told Cassy and gestured for her to come closer. I whispered to her the details, making her smirk.

“I want that jerk to think that everything’s going as he planned before destroying it. I will make sure that his dream will turn into a nightmare,” I stated in a low voice.

“Finally! All these years you were like under a spell, blindly following that man. I’m glad that you finally see his true motive!” Cassy exclaimed and hugged me.

After discussing our plan, Cassy and I returned to the banquet hall. My expression turned dark when I caught a glimpse of Tyler and Amber in the corner. They looked like nothing happened and just enjoying the party even though they were fooling around behind closed doors.

“Shameless,” I mumbled while glaring at them.

I wanted to knock their heads together, but I held back to avoid causing a scene. I had to pretend like everything was alright to fool the people who betrayed me.

Taking two glasses of wine from the passing waiter, I sauntered toward my fiance who enjoying his time with another woman. “For you,” I said, giving him a glass of wine while keeping the other for myself.

“Let’s cheers,” I added before raising my glass in front of Tyler, ignoring Amber whose face turned sour when I came.

“By the way, I want to introduce you to my friends. Let’s go?” I faked a smile as I clung to Tyler’s arm. I felt disgusted but I had to do this much so he wouldn’t notice I knew something.

“Sure!” Tyler beamed in excitement. “Come on, Amber. Sabrina’s going to introduce us to her friends,” he told Amber who was quick to reply with a nod and an annoying smile.

“Yes, Amber can come too. Let’s go. I can’t wait to introduce you to others,” I giggled before wrapping my arm around Tylers’.

Tyler was taken aback. He surely didn’t expected me to act like that. He looked confused for a moment before shaking his head.

“What’s wrong? This is unbelievable,” Tyler mumbled, looking at me with his eyes widened. “You weren’t friendly with Amber before but now you’re smiling at her,” he continued.

I jokingly slapped his arm. “Oh! My apologies. That’s because I thought the two of you had an affair. I doubted your relationship, but now I’m fine. You proposed to me instead of Amber so I’m relieved. There’s nothing to be afraid of anymore,” I explained.

Tyler turned pale for a second before agreeing with me. “Is that so? I’m glad you no longer doubt me,” he said.

The three of us headed to my friends and I introduced Tyler to everyone. I also mentioned Amber and made it clear that she’s just like a sister to Tyler. The way Amber’s expression became uncomfortable made me smile in secret.

After a brief yet warm introduction, I urged Tyler to join my father’s business partners so he could be familiar with them. Tyler didn’t hesitate and brought drinks to the group of men talking about business, leaving Amber and I with my friends.

“Let’s go, Amber. I’ll introduce you to other guests,” I said, holding her hand.

Amber tried to pull away but I tightened my grip while smiling. She was about to retort when she noticed Tyler was looking at us. Amber wanted to impress Tyler so as long as he was around and there were other people watching, she couldn’t do anything but to pretend to be kind. She wanted people to praise and saw her in a good light.

Meanwhile, Cassy came and excused me from the group. Amber wanted to come along but before she could say anything, Cassy already dragged me away from the table.

“How are you? I cannot believe you managed to pretend like nothing happened! That’s brilliant though,” Cassy said, impressed.

“I have to. I don’t want them to win this,” I said while looking at the other girls who started talking and laughing, excluding Amber from the group after I left.

The girls continued talking loudly, making sure Amber could hear them.

“Lucky, isn’t she? If not for Sabrina, I wouldn’t even associate myself with the likes of her.”

“Right. I heard she’s an amateur actress. Well, maybe she could be an extra with the face she have.”

“I still think it’s shameless to cling onto someone who’s in relationship. Ugh! I hate people like her.”

“Me too. I hope she realized how kind Sabrina is to let her tag along on this highclass event.”

The laughter continued, completely making Amber an outcast. Julia was leading the other girls after I told her what happened. She was also wellknown in highsociety’s circle so it wasn’t a problem for her to influence others. Julia agreed to my plan when shew knew about Tyler and Amber’s affair.

“They’re all expert at this. Let’s keep this up,” Cassy cheered and handed me a glass of wine.

I found myself enjoying the rich wine flavor when all of a sudden, someone screamed. Turning my head to where the voice came from, my suspicion was confirmed.

Amber glared at Eve, one of my friends, who kept apologizing to her.

Eve was the quiet type. She wasn’t the kind who would start making a scene either. But looking at them, it seemed that Eve was holding a wine when she bumped into Amber, resulting to the latter’s dress to get red stain.

“Amber will kill Eve,” I mumbled, knowing that Amber paid an expensive fee to rent the dress she was wearing.

“I’m sorry for what happened to your dress. I didn’t mean to bump into you and splash my wine,” Eve said quietly. She looked worried when everybody started to look at their direction to check what happened.

“Sorry? Will your sorry bring back this expensive dress? You should have watched where you’re going!” Amber shrieked. Her eyeballs almost jumped off their sockets. She could no longer control her irritation when Eve remained quiet despite everything she told her.

The whispers continued around them and Amber noticed that she was put in a bad light for yelling at Eve.

Tyler who saw what was happening tried to rush to Amber’s side when Eve’s boyfriend stopped him.