Part 2The Illusion of Vows

"Vivienne, come here. Let your big brother see how beautiful his little sister is."

Vivienne lifted the hem of her wedding dress and jogged over. Caleb followed closely behind her, guarding her carefully.

"Sebastian, is it pretty? Caleb spent months picking it out."

There were tiny rhinestones near the corners of Vivienne's eyes. As she moved, they caught the light beautifully, matching the diamonds on her dress.

It was indeed beautiful.

Sebastian reverted to his usual nonchalant demeanor.

"Of course my sister is beautiful. Even if you weren't wearing the dress that brat Caleb picked out, you'd still be gorgeous."

His tone was incredibly familiar. After speaking, he looked at Vivienne and Caleb with a gentle smile.

Caleb wore a faint, confident smile on his face—a look I had never seen on him before.

"Sebastian, we still have to go toast the guests. Vivienne and I are going to find Mom and Dad first. We'll catch up later."

Throughout the entire exchange, I didn't get the chance to say a single word. In fact, no one even spared me a glance.

The disdain was blatantly obvious.

It was exactly like the day I first stepped into the Thorne estate. My mother was kneeling on the floor, begging: "She's your daughter, you can't just abandon her..."

Their entire family had sat on the sofa, doing their own things, even discussing an interesting news article, as if they didn't even see us standing in the doorway.

The simplest form of being ignored was enough to shatter us completely.

It was the same now. I suddenly lost all desire to argue. I didn't even want to know how Caleb ended up becoming my sister's husband.

I just wanted to get as far away from the Thorne family as possible, go back to my tiny, rundown apartment, and cry my eyes out.

When I woke up tomorrow, I would still be Hazel—a girl who had absolutely nothing to do with the Thorne family.