Fiancée. The word landed like a bomb, sending my heart racing.
“Ray? Oh my God, you’re back!” Suzie blurted as I helped her up. “When did you get here? How long have you been back?”
Ray patiently answered, “About an hour ago. As for why I’m here…” His gaze softened, landing on me, his smile warm. “I missed
my beloved fiancée.”
“Fiancée?” Suzie’s jaw dropped before whipping to me with wide eyes. “Daphne, does this mean you said yes?!”
Ray grinned, clearly soaking up the moment. “Why don’t you tell her, Daphne?”
I shot him a mock glare but didn’t argue. Might as well get it out there. “Yeah. I’m marrying Ray.”
Suzie let out a loud cheer. “Ray, congrats! Took you long enough, huh? All that pining finally paid off!”
I blinked. “Wait–you knew he liked me?”
She smirked and shrugged. “Duh. Everyone did. You were the only one who didn’t see it. I even tried pushing you two together a couple of times, but you were too busy obsessing over that loser Henry to notice.”
***
After we left the bar, my phone buzzed with a call from one of Henry’s friends.
“Daphne, Henry’s been drinking nonstop–he’s already downed five or six bottles, and he’s not stopping.
“We’ve tried to get him to quit, but he won’t listen. You’re the only one he’ll hear out.
“You know how hard you worked to fix his stomach problems. If this keeps up, it’ll ruin everything.”
1/2
Chapter 7
+15 BONUS
I said flatly, “We’ve broken up. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to go.
He chuckled awkwardly, clearly scrambling. “Hey, that whole thing with your foster sister? Just a joke! Henry only loves you.”
“Whether he does or not doesn’t matter to me anymore.”
Suddenly, Henry’s voice cut through the line, sharp and bitter. “Daphne, you think you’re so special? Fine, we’re broken up. But
you’ll regret it–you’ll come crawling back.”
I stayed silent, ready to hang up.
But then his tone flipped, all soft and desperate. “How can you be so heartless? Leaving me, breaking up so easily…”
Once, those words would’ve shaken me. No matter how awful he’d been, I’d always let it go without a fight.
Not anymore. That privilege was gone.
Unbothered, I ended the call and calmly deleted every one of his friends‘ contacts from my phone.
From this moment on, our lives were officially separate.
Forever.
