Chapter 1

My fiancée's childhood friend, Derek Hayes, loved playing pranks.

The first time, he dyed my custom-tailored suit fluorescent green.

He blinked innocently.

"I just thought white was boring. Wanted to add some color for you."

The second time, he tampered with my wedding invitations, changing the venue from a five-star hotel to a cemetery in the suburbs.

When I caught him, he said:

"This is way more interesting! You should thank me for planning such a unique wedding!"

The third time, he put industrial-strength hair removal cream in my facial cleanser.

A week before the wedding, I lost almost all my hair and eyebrows.

Every time, my fiancée Summer Whitmore would tell me:

"Derek just likes joking around. He doesn't mean any harm."

Because I loved her, I endured it all.

Until our wedding night, when Derek's gift was a blood-stained bedsheet.

The moment I saw Summer shielding Derek,

I knew it was time to end this relationship.

The blood on the sheet was still fresh.

I had just tossed it aside when Summer came through the door in her wrinkled wedding dress, surrounded by a crowd of people.

The one with his arm around her was Derek.

I stepped forward quickly, about to take Summer from him, but she instinctively pulled away.

Summer realized her rejection was too obvious and awkwardly explained.

"You reek of alcohol. Just let Derek take care of me."

Hearing this, I laughed in disbelief.

After the wedding reception, I'd been forced to drink by Derek's group of friends.

As my wife, she hadn't even been there, and now she had the nerve to complain about me?

I lowered my gaze and noticed Summer's weak legs, her body limp, her eyes unfocused.

Combined with that still-damp blood-stained sheet, I suddenly understood where Summer had disappeared to for those hours—she had slept with Derek right before the wedding!

"Where were you just now?" I asked, suppressing my rage, wanting to give Summer one more chance.

She pressed her lips together, about to speak, when Derek cut in.

"We just got married and you're already this controlling with Summer?"

Summer had always hated being interrupted.

Once when I went to her office without knocking, she lectured me for a full thirty minutes.

She even gave me the cold shoulder for half a month after that.

But after Derek spoke, not only did she not get angry, she affectionately pinched his nose.

"You're always defending me. Be careful, or Logan might hold a grudge against you."

After hearing this, Derek shot me a provocative look.

"You two are just a business marriage. Even if you're married, she can only love me!"

As he spoke, he pulled a lace thong from his pocket:

"Summer, don't forget your stuff. Otherwise he'll just use it to start drama with you again."

Summer blushed and threw the underwear onto the bed, pouting coyly: "Derek, if you keep saying things like that, I'm going to get mad."

Her light fist landed on his chest.

This wasn't punishment. It was flirting.

Derek grabbed her hand and planted a playful kiss on her fingertips.

"Summer, you're the best. You felt sorry that I'd never had a girlfriend, so tonight you finally showed me what a woman feels like."

Summer didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with fooling around with another man on her wedding night.

She looked up at me. "Stop with the cold face. It's supposed to be a happy day. I don't want to fight with you."

"Fight?"

I stared at the hickeys on her neck, my eyes turning red with fury.

"Am I the one who wants to fight? Today is our wedding day, and you ran off to another man's bed. Have you ever treated me like your husband?"