Betrayed, Broken, Married Up

I spent five years pursuing Derick Tucker before we finally set a wedding date.

But in the 100 days leading up to it, he was off partying all over the place, barely showing his face. The night before the wedding, he said he was going to a bachelor party and never came home.

Instead, I got a message from a girl he knew from college. It was a photo of them in bed together.

[Sorry. He went a little too hard last night. Don't expect much from him on your wedding night.

[Oh, wait, I forgot. He doesn't even love you. Who knows if he'll even be able to perform? Looks like you can't even settle for my leftovers.]

I held up the message and confronted Derick. He didn't even flinch.

"She's not wrong. I'm not married until tomorrow. What's the problem with having some fun before that?

"You're used goods yourself, and you expect me to stay pure for you?

"If you can't handle it, then don't marry me. But can you really walk away?"

After humiliating me, he stormed off, convinced I would swallow it like I always did.

But this time, I was done.

I picked up my phone.

"What you said before, about taking responsibility. Does that still stand?"

"Have you made up your mind? If I take responsibility, you can't see anyone else. That accident wasn't entirely my fault."

His voice came through the phone, calm and distant, yet strangely steadying.

"I've thought it through. I won't regret it."

Until today, I had never imagined I would end up asking a man I had never even met face-to-face, the one who took my first time, to marry me.

And just like that, the memories came flooding back.

Derick Tucker and I had grown up together. That day was supposed to be our engagement.

Instead, Teresa Marshall got me drunk, and I ended up sleeping with someone else.

The alcohol blurred parts of my memory, but I clearly remembered Teresa being the one who walked me back to the room.

I rushed to confront her, only to find out she had fallen off an overpass in a reckless moment and ended up in a vegetative state. I couldn't help but think she got what she deserved.

But when with Derick, I still feel like I let him down.

I told him everything and said I would call off the wedding.

He refused.

"I still love you," he said.

At that moment, I was overwhelmed.

"But I do care that you're not a virgin anymore, so here's the deal. You spend five years pursuing me, and we'll call it even."

Even with such a harsh condition, I agreed without hesitation. I treated those five years like a sentence I had to serve. I told myself that once it was over, we could start fresh.

But just when we finally made it to the point of discussing a wedding date, something in him changed.

At first, it was