Chapter 3My Father Picked Me a Fiancée

"Caleb! Didn't I tell you not to touch Ethan's things? You—"

Caleb gasped for air, and then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.

Aria caught him, her face pale with panic. She had the housekeeper change his clothes while she made a frantic series of calls, urging a doctor to come immediately.

"Ethan," she whispered, her voice pleading. "Please... don't provoke him."

She still wanted me to be the one to yield.

I numbly picked up the tattered remains of my suit from the corner where it had been tossed. A profound sense of powerlessness washed over me.

When Aria came into my room later, she saw me packing a bag and her face fell.

"Ethan, I'll have it restored."

"It's my fault, I should have been clearer with him," she said hastily. "I'll make him apologize to you right now."

She pulled me into Caleb's room. He was clutching the corner of her shirt, looking lost and confused. "Aria, don't be mad at me."

"You said... you said this was my home. Why should I listen to... to him?" He looked at me, and his expression suddenly twisted into a mask of pure desperation. He scrambled off the bed and started banging his head on the floor.

"Please, I'm begging you, just leave!" he sobbed. "You can have all my toys! I just want Aria!"

I saw shock and conflict flicker in Aria's eyes. She didn't immediately pull him up. When she finally moved to comfort me, Caleb let out a wild scream and pulled out a knife he’d hidden, holding it to his own wrist.

"Aria is all I have! Make him get out!"

The psychologist later told her Caleb had a "physiological aversion" to me.

Watching him sob until he could barely breathe, Aria wrapped her arms around him, shielding his eyes from the sight of me.

"His emotional state is too unstable," she said, her voice strained. "Ethan, you need to leave. For now."

Two nurses she had called for backup escorted me firmly out the door.

It was pouring rain outside. I knocked, but no one answered. My vision blurred, and a deep chill settled into my bones. I didn't have my phone, and I was still in my pajamas. My only option was to walk out of the gated community to find a place where I could call for a ride.

...

I ended up in the hospital with a fever from the cold. As I was waiting, I saw Aria rushing down a hallway and instinctively followed her.

"It's been six months. Why hasn't his condition improved?"

It was the psychologist's voice.

"Aria, his obsession is you. That's why you're the only person he remembers." The doctor sighed. "You're the one who deliberately sent him the engagement announcement that triggered his accident in the first place..."

"The reason he hasn't gotten better is because you used to only visit him once a month. Of course he's terrified you'll abandon him again. It's perfectly normal for him to be hostile toward your fiancé. If you don't want Caleb to have another breakdown, you need to remove the source of his insecurity."

Aria's voice was sharp with warning. "That's enough. Don't talk nonsense."

So. They had been in contact for a year. No wonder she was so practiced at handling him. The irony was suffocating. All those "monthly business trips" she'd told me about... My complete and total trust in her was now a cruel joke.

Because of today's incident, she had even hired bodyguards for Caleb.

That evening, Aria picked me up so I could pack some of my things. She stared at my red-rimmed eyes, her voice soft and cautious. "Ethan... would you be willing to move out for a little while?"

She showed me her phone. She had already booked our appointment to register the marriage.

I nodded, turned off my screen, and closed my burning eyes.

When we got back to the house, there was a puppy in the backyard. The engagement ring Aria had worn was now hanging from its collar. The reason? Caleb was afraid the puppy would get lost, and the unique ring would make a perfect dog tag.

I calmly slipped my matching ring from my finger and dropped it into my pocket.

Then, I opened my phone and accepted a friend request I had been ignoring. A message came through immediately.

[Don't worry. All the years of support Mr. Kensington has given the Monroe family will not be in vain.]

Attached was a wedding plan, updated annually to reflect my changing tastes. In the past, my father had always declined it on my behalf.

This time, I replied with a single word.

[Approved.]

...

Two days later, a message from Aria popped up.

[I thought we agreed to get our marriage license today? Ethan, why didn't you show up?]

I was busy with work transitions and ignored her calls. A few hours later, she sent me the address of a remote, no-name hotel.

[Is this about the wedding? Fine. I'll give you a wedding.]

[Stop throwing a tantrum. We've been together for nearly ten years. Don't let a small thing like this...]

Someone leaked a screenshot of the cheap, thrown-together venue to our friends' group chat, along with the fact that Aria had only invited a handful of people and begged them to keep it a secret. The same friends who had once envied our love story were now openly and privately mocking me.

Our ten years, it seemed, couldn't compete with Caleb's ten-year-old mind.

The messages in the group chat kept coming. I paused, typed out a short reply, and hit send.

[Wedding's off. We broke up.]