Vows of Deception Chapter 2

Under everyone's spectating gazes, the ceremony eventually ended hastily.

My mother chased after me wanting to say something, I shook off her hand and walked straight to the lounge on the second floor of the hotel.

The door wasn't locked.

Ethan was standing by the window. Hearing the noise, he turned around.

He spoke first, his voice low and hoarse: "Sarah, about today... I'm sorry."

"Since when?"

Ethan's Adam's apple bobbed, he didn't deny it.

He called my name again: "Sarah, we've known each other for ten years."

"So?"

"So..."

He looked up, his eyes showing a weariness of someone giving up.

"So I can't lie to you anymore, and I can't lie to myself either."

The AC in the room was turned up too high, I felt cold.

"Explain clearly."

Ethan took a deep breath: "My feelings for you have always been gratitude. During the hardest times of the company, you were the one who stayed with me. Those proposals, those clients... without you, there would be no Ethan Sterling today."

His fingers unconsciously rubbed the ring on his ring finger.

"But gratitude is not love."

I heard my own voice, remarkably calm:

"Is this your reason for cheating on me? Love is love, not love is not love, but what was the meaning of pulling this stunt at the wedding? Do you enjoy seeing me make a fool of myself?"

He didn't answer immediately.

But sometimes, silence itself is an answer.

He finally said it: "All these years, the person I really wanted to marry has always been Chloe."

"When did it start?"

Ethan looked away: "Three years ago. That time you went on a business trip to Seattle to follow up on a project, I drank too much, and she came to take care of me... we haven't stopped since then."

Three years ago.

I calculated the time.

That was when I landed his first ten-million-dollar order for him.

I stayed up for four days and three nights in Seattle. On the phone, he said "You've worked hard, honey," and then turned around and got into my sister's bed.

How ridiculous.

"Did you know she was going to confess her love to you at the wedding?"

"It was Chloe's idea."

Ethan's voice grew lower and lower.

"She said... this would force you to let go, that you wouldn't be able to stand the public opinion and would take the initiative to cancel the wedding."

"If you wanted to marry her, why didn't you just tell me directly?"

He smiled bitterly: "I didn't dare. Sarah, you are too dominant. Half of the company's shares are in your name, and the core team only listens to you. If I took the initiative to break up, I would have nothing."

I nodded.

So that's how it is.

Not love, but calculation.

Not impulse, but weighing the options.

Ethan stood up: "I can compensate you. I can give up the shares, and the company too..."

"Ethan."

I interrupted, reaching out my hand to him: "Give me back the wedding ring."

He subconsciously protected his finger: "Sarah, we can still..."

"Give it back."

After a few seconds of standoff, he slowly took off the ring and placed it in my palm.

After getting the ring, I flushed it down the toilet without hesitation.

As I left, I heard Ethan's voice.

"I don't love you anymore, I love Chloe."

He seemed to be convincing himself.

I didn't look back.

The moment I opened the door, I saw Chloe leaning against the wall in the hallway.

She was holding up her phone, the screen facing me.

It wasn't a photo or a chat record on the screen.

It was an editing interface of a forum backend.

The title bar of the post read: [Spilling the tea on my sister's "debt-repayment" wedding]

Poster ID: Rippling_Chloe.

She looked up, waved the phone at me, and a sickly sweet smile curled at the corners of her mouth.