Introduction

For five blissful years, I poured my heart and soul into saving Ethan Lester, the tragic hero from a TV show, now the man I loved.

Our wedding was just seven days away, my mission 99% complete, a lifetime of happiness within reach.

Then, his voice, thick with emotion, echoed from the guesthouse.

"Annie, I never stopped loving you."

He declared I was just "static," background noise to his enduring love for Annabel, his wealthy ex-fiancée.

The woman whose family destroyed him.

The woman for whom he promised to still take a bullet.

That promise felt like a bullet through my own heart, erasing my entire existence, my sacrifice of literally taking a bullet for him.

How could he betray me so completely, after all we had built, after the life I gave him back?

I yanked out my phone, contact the program, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands: "I want to pull the plug. I' m going home."