She Left Me at the Altar for Her Student,Now She's Begging Me Back

On the day of my wedding, my fiance was taken away for allegedly assaulting her male student.

I chased after her in my wedding suit, desperate to clear her name.

Only to learn she had turned herself in.

She looked at me apologetically and said:

Eustace's family found out that he was forced into it. They think he's a disgrace and are threatening to pull him out of school and marry him off to some widow back home.

"I couldn't bear to watch him end up like that, so I stepped forward and took the blame."

"Don't worry, it's all just an act for his parents. The charges will be dropped soon. Oh, and the university inquiry, the rumorshandle all of that for me, will you?"

"Eustace and I have an agreement. A fake marriage, three years. After three years, I'll marry you. Just wait for me, okay?"

I calmly pulled the veil from her headthe one I had placed there with my own hands just moments ago, the symbol of a lifetime of devotion

and draped it over a stray dog on the side of the road.

Sabina Delgado. What made you think I would wait?

Sabina ordered me to go back to the venue immediately, smooth things over with the university officials, and squash the rumors.

I did two things instead.

First, I called her university and informed them I was pulling my investment from her project and shutting down her lab.

Second, I left the wedding venue and went straight back to our apartment.

One by one, I erased every trace of Sabina Delgado from that home.

The matching mugs we'd shaped together on that pottery trip. The couple's pajamas we wore every night.

The wedding portrait we'd just picked up yesterday, freshly and lovingly framed.

I threw it all into the bathtub, flicked open a lighter, and set it ablaze until nothing was recognizable.

Watching the flames climb, I called the hotel that was hosting the reception.

"The wedding's off. Send the remaining bill to the bride. And have my belongings delivered to my home."

The hotel manager's voice came back stunned.

"But the bride just told us the wedding is still onjust pushed back a day. She also said we printed the wrong name on the photos and banners and asked us to replace the groom's name with Eustace Simmons."

A thorn drove itself deep into my chest.

That wedding was something I had spent ten years building for Sabina, piece by piece, detail by detail.

Every flower, every decorationI had spent six months crafting them by hand.

Sabina knew full well that it was our dream wedding.

And she was handing it to her student?

I drew a long breath, forcing down the pain.

"Fine. Whatever. Just send my things back. Especially the bracelet in the safe."

The manager sounded even more bewildered.

"But the bride already took the bracelet from the safe. She said it was her dowrya gift for the groom."

My skull rang like a bell had been struck inside it.

I hung up immediately and called Sabina. Over and over.

Every call was rejected. It wasn't until the eighteenth attempt that she finally picked up.

Her voice carried a weary, irritated edge.

"Didn't I already tell you? Don't contact me right now. I need to focus on playing the part with Eustace. I was just chatting with his parents and you nearly blew my cover."

My throat locked shut. I managed to force the words out.

"Sabinadid you take my bracelet?"

She paused for a second, then laughed.

"Oh, that. Eustace's mother said it's their family traditionthe dowry has to include a bracelet. Yours was heavy enough and pretty, so I grabbed it to present as part of the dowry to their family."

The pain tore through me as if my heart were being ripped apart.

"Sabina!!"

My voice cracked into a raw, shattered scream.

"That was a keepsake from my mother! What gives you the right to hand it over to your boy toy as a dowry!"

"Give it back! Right now! Bring it back to me this instant! Or I'm calling the police! I'll make sure you two hold your wedding behind bars!"

I was shaking with rage, every word barbed.

Sabina flinched, then fired right back:

"Watch your mouth! I already told you it's all an act! I'm just borrowing it! It's not like I'm keeping it! Besides, didn't you say it yourself? That you were giving it to me? Well, if it's mine, I can do whatever I want with it. You don't get a say!"

My voice went cold.

"That was my mother's heirloom bracelet, meant for her future daughter-in-law. You married someone else. You have no right to take it."

"Come on, I already told you it's a fake marriage..."

I couldn't stand to hear her voice for another second.

I hung up, walked out the door, hailed a cab, and gave the driver Eustace's address.

I grabbed Sabina's luggage on my way out.

On the ride over, my phone buzzed nonstop. Texts from Sabina.

"I got a little worked up just now. I said some things I shouldn't have. Stephen, I'm sorry."

"How about thisI'll return the bracelet tomorrow, but you have to come to the wedding and be Eustace's best man."

"Think about it. We were supposed to get married, and then I suddenly got my marriage license with Eustace instead. That's not a good look for him."

"If you show up as the best man tomorrow, nobody will think Eustace came between us. And if anyone asks about us, just cover for me... Tell them you cheated, that you fell for someone else, that you'd been wanting to break up with me for a while. Just don't drag Eustace into it."

I stared at her messages and started laughing. The sheer absurdity of it pulled the laughter right out of me.

But somewhere in the middle of laughing, tears had soaked the hem of my coat.

The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror and silently held out a tissue.

I thanked him quietly, opened the car door, grabbed the suitcase, and stormed upstairs.

I went straight to Eustace's front door and hammered on it with everything I had.

The pounding echoed through the hallway like thunder.

Hurried footsteps scrambled inside, and the door swung open.

"Who the hellit's the middle of the night!"

Sabina stood there in a pink apron, flour dusted across her forehead.

My eyes burned red in an instant.

Sabina and I had been together for ten years.

I'd watched her climb from a dirt-poor student to a respected professor.

The deepest scar she carried came from college, when she'd been working part-time in the campus dining hall to pay her tuition. A rich girl who was jealous of her had shown up with a posse, pinned her to the ground, and dumped leftover food all over her head.

"A kitchen rat like you thinks she can steal someone's boyfriend?"

After that, she despised cooking. Loathed it.

Even when we got engaged and I brought her home to meet my bedridden mother, all I asked was for her to help me carry the dishes out of the kitchen. She went stone-faced and slammed the door on her way out.

My dying mother was left sitting there, heartbroken on my behalf.

Even then, I forced a smile and made excuses for Sabina.

After that, I walked on eggshells around her even more carefully. I'd never cooked a day in my life, but I burned and blistered my hands until I learned, all so she'd never have to step foot in a kitchen.

And now it turned out her scar had already been healed by another man.

The moment Sabina saw me, she froze. Then, instinctively, guilt made her tug at the apron she was wearing.

"Stephen, what are you doing here..."

Eustace's face appeared behind her, eyes darting nervously toward me.

"...Stephen, man, what brings you here?"

He stepped in front of Sabina, jaw set, staring me down with a look of stubborn defiance.

"Mr. Fox, if you need to take your anger out on someone, just beat me to death. Professor Delgado only did this to help me..."

Sabina looked at him with aching tenderness, then turned on me with fury:

"Stephen, how can you be so heartless? Eustace was assaulted. His own family turned their backs on him. They were going to force him to drop out and go back to his village to marry some widow with kids. I was just shielding him from that. Can't you show a little compassion?"

"No!"

My voice trembled with rage:

"If he's pitiful, that's between his parents and the people who hurt him! He could've said no! He could've gone to the police! Why does MY marriage and MY happiness have to be the sacrifice?"

"Or maybe..."

My voice cracked, thick with tears:

"Maybe nothing ever happened to him at all. Maybe you two were just"

The slap landed before I could finish the sentence.

Sabina stood with her hand still raised, her face twisted with anger:

"Don't you DARE talk about him like that! I already told you, Eustace and I only got married on paper! Why do you insist on assuming the worst about people?"

Our shouting drew neighbors from the floors above and below, crowding the hallway to watch.

Someone called out to Eustace and Sabina:

"Eustace, who is this guy? What's his deal with your wife?"

Eustace stammered, eyes darting:

"He's... he..."

The wounded, suggestive look on his face said everything his mouth didn't.

The neighbors' expressions shifted instantly. Disgust settled over their faces as they turned on me. One of them shoved me hard in the chest:

"They're about to get married and you're still harassing the man's wife? You look decent enough on the outside. Have some shame!"

"Yeah! Someone get a picture of him! Post it online!"

I laughed in disbelief. I grabbed my suitcase and slammed it down in front of them:

"Sabina, why don't you tell them who's REALLY chasing someone else's spouse!"

The suitcase bounced open on impact. Eustace let out a shriek and crouched down.

Sabina looked at his leg, at a red welt no bigger than a fingernail.

Her expression darkened in an instant:

"Stephen! Are you DONE? Eustace and I are legally married! So tell me, who's the one harassing someone else's spouse?"

I stared at her, stunned. A bitter laugh escaped my throat:

"Sabina. This is what you call a fake marriage? You got a marriage certificate and you're still calling it fake?"

She realized her slip the moment the words left her mouth. Guilt flickered across her face before she deflected:

"All this over a stupid bracelet? You came here to assault people over a bracelet?"

"Stephen, I never knew you were this cold. This selfish. This inhuman!"

My eyes went wide as Sabina stormed back into the apartment.

She came out holding the bracelet I treasured more than anything in this world.

And she hurled it at the ground.

"You want your bracelet so badly? Take your piece of junk and GET OUT!"

"No!" I lunged forward, hands outstretched, but I wasn't fast enough.

I watched the bracelet shatter against the floor.

My head snapped up. I looked at Sabina with something she had never seen in my eyes before.

Not love. Not patience. Not forgiveness.

Hatred.

Even through her rage, it shook her. For one brief moment, panic crossed her face.

But the next second, Eustace whimpered through his tears:

"Professor Delgado, my leg really hurts. Do you think it could be fractured?"

Sabina snapped back to attention immediately. She wrapped her arm around him and swept past me toward the stairs.

"Don't worry. I'm taking you to the hospital."

She moved fast, ruthless in her urgency, and slammed straight into me where I crouched on the floor.

I tumbled down the steep staircase and hit the landing hard.

Gasps erupted from the onlookers. My voice came out weak, calling after her.

Sabina never turned around.

Before my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was

Only Eustace leaned against Sabina's shoulder, flashing me a smug grin.

In that moment, the sound of my heart shattering was as crisp as porcelain breaking against stone.

...

There was a time when Sabina had protected me the same way she now protected Eustace.

Back when those untouchable socialite princesses had cornered me, trying to force me to accept their confessions.

She hadn't hesitated. She'd charged out and planted herself in front of me, her thin frame squared against all of them, telling them to get lost.

She'd grabbed my wrist and pulled me through their circle, breaking us free.

Later, I found out those girls had held a grudge against her for it. They'd made her life miserable.

I tracked her down with red-rimmed eyes to apologize. She wiped her tears, then smiled.

"It's fine. I just couldn't stand watching my prince charming get pushed around like that."

The girl who once called me her prince charming. The girl who worried about me at every turn.

Now she could ignore my pain entirely for the sake of another man.

When exactly had Eustace wedged himself between us?

Maybe it started the day he became Sabina's graduate student.

She'd mention him in conversation, saying he reminded her of her younger self.

But the look in her eyes was pure adoration.

Or maybe it was that night he called Sabina, claiming some rich girl on campus had cornered him and was forcing him to date her.

Sabina, always so composed and rational, had lost her mind. She'd gone after the girl with her fists.

When I went to bail her out, I saw the bruises swelling across her cheek, and for the first time, I tasted bitterness.

She explained it to me:

"Stephen, when I heard what happened to him, I thought of how those girls used to corner you, and I just... snapped."

But...

When I'd been the one trapped in that exact situation, all she'd done was take my hand and walk me away.

...

By the time I woke up, I was already in the hospital.

The doctor told me with visible concern that it was a good thing I'd been brought in quickly. I'd hit the back of my head in the fall. There was bleeding in my brain. A little longer, and I might never have woken up.

I thanked him quietly, had my wounds treated, and left.

The moment I reached the ground floor of my building, several people with ugly expressions surrounded me.

"You're that scumbag from the internet, aren't you?"

"Looks decent enough on the outside, but rotten to the core. Heard you got jealous because a student was better than you, so you hired thugs to rough up a kid. Absolutely disgusting! You nearly ruined his entire life!"

They rushed me. Fists and feet came from every direction.

"You like hiring people to mess with others? Today we'll give you a taste of your own medicine! Strip him and dump him on the street so he knows what humiliation feels like!"

I screamed in desperation, stumbling backward, but they tore my clothes apart and left bruises twisted across my skin.

It wasn't until the building's security guard arrived and called the police that they scattered.

I knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

The guard stood over me, looking down with contempt.

"You had it coming. Who told you to be cruel enough to bully an innocent kid?"

My head snapped up, my voice shaking.

"What did you just say?"

The guard scoffed and walked away.

My head exploded with a deafening ring.

I scrambled for my phone and started scrolling.

Sure enough, I found a public statement Sabina had posted.

"I'm sorry to take up everyone's attention with this, but regarding the accusations that I coerced a male student, it was all a misunderstanding. My ex, Stephen Fox, hired thugs to attack my student out of jealousy, destroying his reputation so badly that his family is forcing him to drop out and go back to his hometown to marry a widow!"

"I took the blame and stepped forward to shield my ex because I was too soft-hearted, trying to protect both him and my student. But I never expected his attitude to be so vile. Not only did he refuse to show remorse, he escalated things further. So I've decided to reveal the truth."

"And I will take responsibility for my student. I will marry him and care for him for the rest of his life!"

Eustace left a comment beneath her post:

"With you by my side, I'm not afraid of anything."

Blood rushed to my head. My entire body felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer.

Below that exchange, the comments section was flooded with congratulations and well-wishes, interspersed with horrifying abuse directed at me.

My photos had been photoshopped into degrading images. People were threatening to dox my home address and "teach me a lesson."

My phone was drowning in a torrent of filth and curses.

I tried to explain, over and over. I hadn't done any of it. Sabina was lying.

No one believed me.

"Your own girlfriend came out and exposed you! You obviously did it!"

"You got any proof you're innocent? No? Then drop dead, you piece of trash!"

With trembling hands, I forwarded Sabina's post to her directly.

"Why would you slander me like this?"

Sabina replied almost instantly:

"Didn't I tell you yesterday to smooth things over with the university administrators for me? You walked out without a care in the world. I've already been held accountable, and this was the only way I could think of to clear things up."

"Besides, everyone was mocking Eustace, calling him a disgrace. He cried so hard yesterday he nearly passed out. This protects his reputation too."

"What about me?! I deserve to be dragged through the mud?"

"Stephen, it's just a few nasty comments from strangers online. Just don't look at them. Give it some time and people will forget. It'll blow over."

"Oh, and the wedding starts in an hour. Eustace's and mine. Hurry up and come be the best man. Apologize to Eustace in front of everyone. If we're going to put on a show, we need to commit to it."

Then, in a tone that was neither gentle nor harsh, she added:

"Be good. If you keep throwing tantrums, I can't guarantee I'll still marry you in three years like we planned. Remember, your mother is gone. I'm the only family you have left in this world."

I shook with rage.

Once, she had stood at my mother's bedside, held my hand, and sworn she would be my last family, that she would take care of me for the rest of my life.

And now this was how she treated me.

Tears were already falling when my phone buzzed with a new message.

"Mr. Fox, there's something I'm not sure I should tell you."

"I have surveillance footage from the day of the incident with Eustace Simmons. I think you need to see what actually happened that day."

I watched the video as it loaded onto my phone, and my body went rigid.

The graduation ceremony, one month ago.

Eustace, who was supposed to be onstage for the tassel-turning, had vanished. So had Sabina.

As the lab's sponsor, I joined several others from the university to search backstage.

We ran straight into Sabina, rushing out with an unconscious Eustace in her arms.

We followed them to the hospital. The doctor gave us a strange look and said, "Young people chasing thrills still need to be careful about safety."

That was how we found out. Eustace had been with someone in a storage room full of high-powered stage lights, looking for a thrill. They'd gotten locked inside and baked under the heat for a full three hours, leaving him severely dehydrated.

The university erupted. The administration immediately ordered Eustace's expulsion.

When Eustace came to, he sobbed and screamed that someone had knocked him out and dragged him in there to hurt him. That his attacker had already fled.

The university pulled the surveillance footage, but the recordings had been deleted.

When they pressed him for details, he refused to say a word. He threw himself into hysterics, threatening to jump off the building.

Sabina also stepped in, threatening to pull her research funding unless the university dropped the investigation and buried the whole thing.

I didn't understand. Time and again, I tried to get justice for Eustace.

But every single time, Sabina had shut me down with that sharp, authoritative tone of hers.

"Stop making a scene! Digging into this isn't helping her. You're only going to cause secondary trauma!"

Now, staring at the surveillance footage on my screen, watching Sabina tangled up with Eustace, the two of them bursting through the supply room door in a frenzy, my chest seized with a pain I couldn't control.

So it was true. Exactly what I'd suspected all along.

Eustace had never been assaulted. He'd been having an affair with her.

I dragged the video timeline forward, and something unbelievable flashed across the screen.

My pupils blew wide.

After a long silence, a bitter laugh tore out of me before I could stop it.

Sabina.

Did you have any idea that your self-righteous "protection" had made you someone else's fall guy?

My phone chimed relentlessly with Sabina's messages urging me to hurry. I buried the storm inside me and typed back a calm reply.

"Fine. I'll be there."

I wasn't going to clear their names. I was going to deliver the hardest blow of their lives.

When I arrived at the wedding venue, every pair of eyes that landed on me dripped with mockery and contempt.

The moment Mrs. Simmons spotted me, she marched straight over and spat at my feet. "You disgusting piece of trash! You're the one who ruined my son! Why don't you just drop dead!"

She and a handful of other loud, vicious relatives grabbed at my clothes, tearing at the fabric, each one calling me trash, worthless, garbage, until security finally pried them off me.

I ignored every word. I straightened my clothes and walked inside.

The ceremony was about to begin. The hall was packed with guests, and media crews lined the walls with their cameras.

I knew exactly what Sabina had planned. She wanted to use this occasion to cement the narrative she'd spun online, to prove her and Eustace's innocence in front of everyone.

The moment Sabina saw me walk in, a look of smug relief settled across her face, as if everything was going exactly according to plan.

She strolled over with practiced ease and took my hand.

"See? Would it have killed you to just cooperate from the start? Why did you have to push things to where they went last night?"

"I already sent the bracelet out for restoration. I promise it'll come back looking exactly like it did before."

She pulled out a folded sheet of paper and pressed it into my hand.

"Just read this when you get up there. It'll be over before you know it. After the wedding, I'll come home and spend time with you, okay? And later, I'll buy you a plane ticket. You can go abroad for a few years, lie low. Three years. Then I'll come find you, and we'll get married."

I glanced down at the paper. Every line was a confession, detailing how I'd been consumed by unrequited love and jealousy, how I'd orchestrated the harassment of Eustace Simmons out of spite.

If I read this aloud, I'd be finished. My reputation would be obliterated. I'd become a pariah no one would touch.

I ripped the paper to shreds and flung the pieces in her face.

White scraps fluttered through the air, framing the ugly shock twisting her expression.

I strode up the steps to the stage and signaled the technician I'd already paid off to play the backstage surveillance footage from that day.

I faced the crowd and raised my voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I am indeed here to set the record straight!"

"But what I'm about to clarify is this: who is the REAL person responsible for what happened to Eustace Simmons!"