Heartstrings and Heartbreaks

Maya Beckham was Oscar Francis's first love.

After four long years abroad, she had assumed any feelings he once held for her had turned to dust.

Yet when she returned to Elminas, he proposed.

Everyone swore Maya was the love of his life—his one true love, his everything.

Touched beyond words, she finally gathered the courage to say yes.

…Until the day she discovered Oscar secretly marrying her half-sister, Diana Beckham.

She stormed toward him like a woman possessed, her voice trembling with rage. "Explain."

Oscar met her fury with infuriating calm. "You vanished without a word four years ago. Diana stayed. Now she's dying—this is her last wish. How could I refuse?"

Maya's lips curled into a faint, unreadable smile.

What Oscar didn't know? She was the one diagnosed with a difficult illness back then.

Later, Maya got into an accident and forgot Oscar entirely.

Oscar broke down. Day after day, he pounded on her door like a madman, begging her to remember.

The moment Maya Beckham saw Oscar Francis at the wedding—dressed to perfection, standing beside her half-sister—her mind went blank.

Just thirty minutes earlier, Diana had called, sweetly inviting Maya to come attend her wedding with Oscar.

Maya had felt an inexplicable tightness in her chest and rushed over without a second thought.

She was led into a private dressing room, and what she saw nearly knocked the breath from her.

Oscar—her fiancé—was crouched beside Diana Beckham, meticulously smoothing the hem of her wedding gown with the kind of care and devotion that should have belonged to a groom.

They looked every bit the picture-perfect couple about to walk down the aisle. The room was filled with wedding portraits—dozens of professionally lit photographs featuring Oscar and Diana in white lace, staged embraces, and manufactured bliss.

Something inside Maya cracked.

Her eyes welled with heat as she demanded, her voice trembling, "Oscar, didn't you say you were going back to your hometown this week? What are you doing here?!"

At the sound of her voice, Oscar froze. The easy smile on his face vanished.

"Maya… why are you here?" he asked, his voice cautious.

Even as he spoke, he instinctively stepped in front of Diana, shielding her from view as though Maya were some kind of threat.

That look—sharp, guarded—struck Maya like a slap.

"My fiancé is marrying another woman, and I'm not supposed to be here?" she said, her voice breaking, her body swaying from the emotional blow.

Oscar pulled Diana even closer behind him. The look in his eyes now was cold, detached—he was the calm, rational man, and she, the emotional woman making a scene.

Outside, the emcee's voice could be heard urging the couple to come forward. The wedding was about to begin.

With barely a pause, Oscar grasped Diana's wrist and turned to her with a soft murmur. "You left without a word four years ago. It was Diana who stayed by my side. Now she's terminally ill. All she wants is to